Naboo Soldier - TSC - Basic (SAGA 050)

There are quite a few misnomers in the hybrid Return Of The Jedi/The Phantom Meance wave (or more simply wave 7) of The Saga Collection. Hasbro clearly opted for the easiest designation for the characters contained in this wave, but while doing so a few have been named incorrectly and Naboo Soldier is one of them. The yellow (and red) technicians seen running in the hangar of the Naboo starfighters are actually engineers. Hasbro decided to include the yellow version in The Saga Collection and they did a pretty good job on the action figure. He comes with 12 points of articulation and this is obviously nothing to sneeze at, but his elbows have swivel joints and really hinder the way he is able to hold his included blaster. Despite this set back, he comes with an awesome removable helmet with Naboo Futhork characters displaying the nonsensical word “H-M-O-F-Q-A-B-M”. Many mistake this writing for Aurebesh, but it isn’t. Perhaps an Easter egg written in that language would have worked a little bit better. But we credit Hasbro with keeping this figure authentic to its roots.

There is a great deal of positivity with this action figure. Hasbro doesn’t often release character from the Naboo army, but when they do they usually deliver a stellar product for collectors. Naboo Soldier is excellent and Hasbro did a great job designing the costume (the underlying costume that is). The figure’s uniform is cast in a bright yellow color from head to toe. As you can imagine, this figure truly stands out as the most visible in a group of figures. While we genuinely like this action figure and its design, we feel it is missing a very, very important part of its costume. And that is the yellow outerwear that was clearly present on the characters in The Phantom Menace. Obviously cut from production due to costing issues, it’s an essential part of the costume and we wish Hasbro would have found other ways to make this accessory affordable. And we would have loved to see a soft-goods interpretation of it too. Having this outerwear would have brought this figure to unprecedented new levels for a character based from Naboo. And we hope to one day see this realized in the basic figure line. We honestly feel that this figure is still incomplete without it.

As soon as this figure was released, collectors started clamoring for the red guard and Hasbro said it would be a strong possibility to see it released one day. (Editor's Note: This figure was released in the red version as 2007’s TAC Naboo Soldier (No. 52) and other than the color of the uniform and the Naboo Futhork writing on the helmet changing, the figures are unfortunately identical. We really wish Hasbro would have given the second version a new head sculpt.) And if Hasbro can start switching the heads out, they could really start bringing collectors a grand army of these engineers (all without coats of course). The Naboo Soldier is a very nice addition to The Saga Collection. It seems that Hasbro has an infinite selection of characters to still make as action figures. We think that is pretty cool. And Hasbro has the uncanny ability to make The Phantom Menace interesting again despite the glut of product the Episode I line produced between 1999 and 2000. We still need a ton of updates to the main characters, so this should keep Hasbro very busy. But in the meantime, enjoy great background characters like the Naboo Soldier. He’s a well-made action figure and you’ll likely enjoy him in your collection.