Chewbacca - TSC - The Episode III Heroes & Villains Collection (7 of 12)

Added: March 17th 2017
Category: Saga Collection, The
Reviewer: Paul Harrison
Score:

Name: Chewbacca
Collection: The Saga Collection
Number: 7 of 12
Source: Revenge Of The Sith
Availability: April 2006
License: Hasbro

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The Wookiee warrior Chewbacca battles beside fellow warrior Tarfful to save their home planet from the invading Separatist forces. Yoda leads the courageous fight to save Kashyyyk from domination.

Helping to connect the dots between the Original Trilogy and the Prequel Trilogy, George Lucas ensured that everyone’s favorite Wookiee made in into Episode III. A little blonder than before, Chewbacca was a heartwarming addition to Episode III, even if he didn’t fight aggressively like we hoped he would. It was refreshing to see he had a prior relationship with Yoda (in retrospect of course) and wasn’t it interesting to see that Yoda was the linking factor that helped tie together some Original Trilogy storylines? When it comes to basic figures, Hasbro has to keep core characters in the basic figure line at all times. Every time there is a new line look launching, Hasbro realizes the importance of getting those past figures out to retail again, and they need to find innovative ways to do this. Keeping within the framework of The Saga Collection line look, Hasbro released over two dozen action figures from the Revenge Of The Sith line into two special sub-collections including The Episode III Heroes & Villains Collection and The Episode III Greatest Battles Collection. The packaging looks exactly the same as the main basic figure line, but they're all Episode III specific. These lines are just a vehicle to get out recent ROTS action figures quickly to the market.

It apears as if Hasbro split characters based on their previous Collection 1 or Collection 2 status, but there are some inconsistencies so we're not sure how accurate that assessment is. Either way, Chewbacca gets another chance at retail and as a main character there's likely no doubt he'll be a strong seller.Chewbacca isn’t the best action figure ever made so let’s dispel that myth right away. We don’t care if action features are for the kids or not, but we despise seeing them worked into action figures unless there exceptionally well-hidden, like on the Neimoidian Warrior for example. Chewbacca’s action features are unfortunately not bashful and sort of take over the sculpt. To activate what the Revenge Of The Sith line referred to as his “Wookiee Rage!” all you do is squeeze his legs together to flail his arms. It’s silly and borderline dumb. We are slightly annoyed that Hasbro did this to Chewbacca. He seems to come with a nice amount of articulation, but a significant portion of it is basically useless. Despite this, the sculpt isn’t half bad at all. Besides giving him the wrong bowcaster (they gave him his Original Trilogy one instead of the more “primitive” style seen in Episode III), Hasbro did a pretty great job is making this version Episode III specific.

You still have to accept that he doesn't need the gimmicky features however. So it sort of feels like we still need a great Episode III interpretation of Chewbacca for the basic figure line. We’ll just have to wait for a definitive update because this one won’t fly over time. As with all The Saga Collection basic figures and sub-line figures, Chewbacca comes with a miniature blue hologram. Our sample came with Obi-Wan Kenobi, but this is just a random insertion. Chewbacca comes with a slightly limited 13 points of articulation because most are swivel points. He has an odd sliding head jointed (hinge-jointed). Then his arms come with ball-jointed shoulders (always nice) with ball-socket elbows (that function more like swivel joints due to their limited movement) and swivel wrists. Chewbacca comes with no waist joint and then the only remaining articulation is his swivel hips (and one of those hips houses the action feature mechanism) and useless swivel knees. Chewbacca has a very awkward lean. In fact, you’d think he was ready to fall right over as that is how much he leans. Interesting how some things can get obfuscated in the Star Wars toy line sometimes, isn’t it? You’ll probably won't need another copy of this figure at this point, but we're glad other new collectors have a chance to enjoy him for the first time.

Collector Notes

Chewbacca

Status: Chewbacca is a straight repack of 2005's ROTS Chewbacca (III 5) figure.

Articulation Count: 13 points (11 areas of articulation)

Articulation Details: hinge-jointed head (1), ball-jointed left shoulder (2), ball-jointed right shoulder (2), swivel left elbow (1), swivel right elbow (1), swivel left wrist (1), swivel right wrist (1), swivel left hip (1), swivel right hip (1), swivel left knee (1), swivel right knee (1)

Accessory Count: 1

Accessory Details: bowcaster

Date Stamp: 2004

Assortment Number: 87188/87181

UPC: 653569181286

Retail: $6.99 USD

Market Value: Click here to check the latest prices based on Click here to check the market value on eBay! listings.

The Episode III Heroes & Villains Collection (The Saga Collection)

Darth Vader (1 of 12)

Anakin Skywalker (2 of 12)

Yoda (3 of 12)

Commander Bacara (4 of 12)

Clone Trooper (5 of 12)

Clone Pilot (6 of 12)

Chewbacca (7 of 12)

Obi-Wan Kenobi (8 of 12)

General Grievous [Version 1] (9 of 12)

General Grievous [Version 2] (9 of 12)

Mace Windu (10 of 12)

R2-D2 (11 of 12)

Destroyer Droid (12 of 12)



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