Chewbacca - TCW [SOTDS] - Basic (CW63)

Chewbacca is captured by Trandoshan hunters, who kidnap victims and hunt them as part of a deadly game. The Wookiee comes across a group of Padawans who have been kidnapped, including Ahsoka, Anakin's Padawan. Chewbacca joins them to find a way to escape from the planet. His immense strength and his technological skills give the group much-needed support.

Ah, the animated version of everyone’s favorite Wookiee! And it’s quite possibly the most difficult figure to review from The Clone Wars line because it’s hard to determine if our criticisms are validated since we have a “biased” opinion of how Chewbacca should be looking based on his appearances in the Star Wars films. The Clone Wars interpretation of Chewbacca at first glance is awesome, but as you “play” with the action figure, you’ll soon realize that Hasbro should have changed some things before finalizing it and sending the figure into production, so he truly is a mixed bag of feelings. "He's excellent! He's terrible! He's awfully dark in the face!" These are all things you'll likely hear yourself say to yourself in your head about this figure. This action figure is its own yin and yang. Chewbacca’s paint job is very simple, almost to the point that you wish you were seeing more layers and textures in the way the paint is applied. Thankfully the sculptors put a ton of texture in the loom of his fur, but a great sculpt with an average paint job really doesn’t do that much good for the action figure. In a very bizarre move, Hasbro painted this action figure so that he is very light starting at his legs and gets gradually darker to his face (his darkest spot). But it’s to the point that his face is much too dark. In short, Chewbacca has a pretty decent sculpt that is sadly encumbered by an inferior paint job. And it really doesn’t end there. The paint job also fails because his toenails and fingernails are unpainted (or just gray like the rest of area covering his palms and the bottoms of his feet. This definitely stands out and it’s an unfortunate setback.

Chewbacca comes with premium articulation including lots of ball-joints. He even has a ball-jointed torso. The sculptors imitated the look of the multi-layered torso joints (as seen on previously established figures like 2004’s VOTC Chewbacca figure), but in actuality only one is functional on this sculpt. So don’t be fooled because there aren’t two ball-jointed torso points here. From head to toe, Chewbacca is full of rich color and texture and he should have turned out a little better than he did. For example, we have a bone of contention with his legs. Chewbacca is absolutely an action figure that needs to be saved by having ball-jointed ankles, but sadly he doesn't have them. We fought and fought with this figure to make him stand up for the photo shoot. As any collector knows, nothing is more maddening that having an action figure that you cannot stand up (without a stand). His right foot is maddening! No matter how you twist or turn that foot, you cannot get it flush against the ground. The ball-jointed knees are limited due to the design and not many options are left for the collector to correct the problem the foot causes. It definitely seems that Chewbacca was a little bit rushed and aesthetics were sacrificed to meet production deadlines. We could be way off with this assessment, but there is no doubting further tweaks were needed. Again, it’s a shame because Chewbacca had the potential to be a really great action figure. But that also doesn’t mean he’s a piece of junk either. He isn’t at all. And all you need to do is look at him to figure that out. Chewbacca may have his own set of issues, but overall we’re happy to have him and we believe he will be popular despite his small issues.

Chewbacca is loaded with accessories. For the first time ever in the basic figure line, Chewbacca comes with a completely removable bandolier (with attached pouch). We hope that Hasbro can apply this feature to the next realistically styled version they release. (It’s honestly a bit alarming to see Chewbacca “naked” now. And it’s comical how in our minds we rest easy seeing a bandolier on him that seemingly serves as his wardrobe. For goodness sakes, how much does a bandolier really cover?) Hasbro once again gives the kid and collector something to smile about with the inclusion of an “action feature” bowcaster and a “normal” one. The bowcaster with the action feature comes with a bright green projectile and a removable scope. And it’s quite a bit larger than the more “realistic” version. Chewbacca also comes with an interesting blaster that looks like a combination of a grease gun and a blaster with an elongated blaster. There are two handles on it which Chewbacca can hold with both hands. (It’s actually our favorite accessory in the whole lot.) Overall, Chewbacca and all of his accessories are lots of fun. It seems Hasbro is ensuring that play value rises to the forefront of their action figures. The Galactic Battle Game was cool, but we believe Hasbro is seeing the need for better sculpts and a great deal of play value with the figures’ accessories. Chewbacca is testament to this renewed vision. And Chewbacca is proof that Hasbro can still knock our killer action figures, even if they need a bit more finalization before going into mass production.