Watto - EI - Action Collection

Watto barters with Qui-Gon outside his junk shop.

No matter your feelings on Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace, no Star Wars fans could claim there wasn’t a diverse array of aliens represented in the film. And although CGI took over the organic props we saw in the Original Trilogy films, George Lucas had his team at Industrial Light And Magic craft interesting aliens that would interact with the human actors in many of Episode I’s scenes. Watto, a Toydarian junk dealer, was humanoid, but sized much smaller than an average human male and possessed the ability to fly. All of these traits are most easily reflected through a computer-generated character. And the method to do this, while time-consuming, produces a realistic and believable character. When characters are digital, it makes things interesting for Hasbro to produce toys on them. But the Watto Action Collection figure turned out incredibly well, with detail and screen-accuracy that so many of their human characters lack. This figure turned out as one of their best. That’s not hyperbole. Any Star Wars collector should appreciate what was done for this figure.

Watto is a beautiful 12 Inch Figure no matter what you think about him. Hasbro tooled a figure that fits into the standard Action Collection packaging, despite Watto’s smaller stature. Sadly, Hasbro didn’t include any “extra” accessories with Watto to help make up for his size difference. But we believe that the lack of accessories here is because of the tooling costs associated with an all-new sculpt required to produce this character in the Action Collection line. Despite Watto’s lack of accessories, you probably won’t care. Hasbro designed an astounding likeness of the onscreen character. And then Hasbro also stepped up to plate when it came to the figure’s deco. We would have changed some of the decisions they made with Watto, but overall we’re very, very pleased with how he turned out. Again, this figure is a highlight of the Action Collection line. From the figure’s dynamic sculpt to the gorgeous paint operation applied to give him like, Watto will stand the test of time as one of Hasbro’s achievements in this scale. Again, that’s not an exaggeration. This figure turned out wonderfully.

Watto comes with a swivel head, two swivel shoulders, and two swivel hips. He is not much different than a bigger version of the 3.75” CommTech Watto figure. He comes with a datapad that is also nicely designed, but we’ve had great difficulty getting it to stay in his left hand, the only hand that will accept it. His right hand is opened up too wide to provide any support. He also comes with a welding tool attached to his side, but it’s disappointing that it's not removable. What makes this especially frustrating is that Hasbro added a realistic spiral “telephone” cord that springs open and closed like a Slinky toy. Why add this realistic detail, only to have the function of it non-removable and only as a permanent fixture on the figure’s sculpt? We’re not sure, but that’s a major setback. Perhaps the best part of Watto is his paint job. With blue and cream skin accented with creases, wrinkles and other washes to make it look real-life, Hasbro did a stunning job with Watto’s deco. They also added hairs on his chin area too. This is a great figure, and you should consider it for addition to your collection.