Bastila Shan - TVC - Basic (VC69) [ToyFare Fans’ Choice]

Added: October 14th 2011
Category: Vintage Collection, The
Reviewer: Paul Harrison
Score:

Name: Bastila Shan [ToyFare Fans' Choice]
Collection: The Vintage Collection
Number: VC69
Source: Expanded Universe (Knights Of The Old Republic)
Availability: October 2011
License: Hasbro

Review_BastilaShanTVC001 Review_BastilaShanTVC002 Review_BastilaShanTVC003 Review_BastilaShanTVC004
Review_BastilaShanTVC005 Review_BastilaShanTVC006 Review_BastilaShanTVC007 Review_BastilaShanTVC008
Review_BastilaShanTVC009 Review_BastilaShanTVC010 Review_BastilaShanTVC011 Review_BastilaShanTVC012
Review_BastilaShanTVC013 Review_BastilaShanTVC014 Review_BastilaShanTVC015 Review_BastilaShanTVC016
Review_BastilaShanTVC017 Review_BastilaShanTVC018 Review_BastilaShanTVC019 Review_BastilaShanTVC020

Celebrate the legendary Star Wars saga that changed the universe forever! This collection brings to life the incredible story of good versus evil that captured our imagination and took us to a galaxy far, far away. Iconic Star Wars heroes and villains are captured with incredible detail and premium features to commemorate each epic tale in the Star Wars saga. May the Force be with you!

We hope that all of you out there in cyberspace who voted for Bastila Shan way back in 2009 are happy. How Expanded Universe characters rank so high in various Fans’ Choice polls is really beyond our own comprehension. We’re not being sore losers nor are we giving a dig to those who voted for her, but The Vintage Collection should first and foremost be about the Original Trilogy, then the Prequel Trilogy and lastly the Expanded Universe. Thankfully Hasbro has kept the Expanded Universe at bay in The Vintage Collection, but in a line that will ultimately not last forever we would like to see any open slots go to characters from the original three Star Wars films before anything else. That being said, Bastila Shan is a very well made action figure. As with many human characters (especially female), the likeness is not dead to rights. Hasbro also employs some inferior approaches with portrait decoration as the flesh color is painted on instead of cast in flesh colored plastic. (For the record, toy makers will never be able to achieve the realism and detail if they pain the faces on their action figures. We really wish Hasbro would abandon this process.) To be fair, for what it is they did manage to paint a good face on her, but it could have been better.

The action figure is very well designed. She comes with the now standard 14 points of articulation including tons of ball-joints and the obligatory swivel joints. She is quite mobile and thanks to a well engineered body sculpt can achieve poses we didn’t expect. She’s quite limber for an action figure and we bet you’ll be impressed with her range of motion as well. She comes with two accessories. The first is a double bladed lightsaber with yellowish-green blades and the second is the lightsaber hilt. The lightsaber hilt nicely plugs into a hole on her belt and stays firmly in place. Her hands are nicely painted (armor is painted on the back of her hands) and excellently sculpted to hold the included lightsaber and hilt. She comes with a thinly pliable skirt (that cannot be removed) and it’s been designed well as not to inhibit her movement that much. Overall, we really can’t complain about the design of this action figure. Hasbro absolutely did it justice. It’s so rare to get action figures from Knights Of The Old Republic, so the figure’s rarity in conjunction with its good design make this figure a winner…. for the second time around.

As winner of Hasbro’s 2009 Fans’ Choice action figure poll, Bastila apparently has quite an underground movement supporting her. We actually completely forgot about her until she was announced at Toy Fair in 2011 so she isn’t as memorable to us as she was to the voting population. Hasbro seemed to have forgotten about her win too. No where on the packaging is she denoted as the 2009 winner. Maybe Hasbro intended not to use this designation since 2009 unnecessarily could age the action figure since it came out after two years after its win, but who really knows? It does however come with a sticker that advertises “Character Debut! Never Before Offered As A Figure!”. This is very odd because many of Hasbro’s figures have never been offered previously. In an interesting move, it looks like Hasbro developed their own card back artwork for Bastila Shan and her likeness is unique to what is seen in the Knights Of The Old Republic video. In actuality, the action figure likeness looks a lot more like the character in the game than the character in the card back artwork. Bastila Shan is going to be appreciated by many and it’s great to have another KOTOR figure, but she would have been best served in a different basic figure collection. That’s our two cents.

Collector Notes

Bastila Shan

Status: Bastila Shan is an all-new figure.

Articulation Count: 22 points (14 areas of articulation)

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

Accessory Count: 2

Accessory Details: double-bladed lightsaber, lightsaber hilt

Date Stamp: 2011

Assortment Number: 32240/97568

UPC: 653569610182

Retail: $8.99 USD

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

Bastila Shan

The Vintage Collection Wave 9
Rebel Soldier (Echo Base Battle Gear) (VC68)
Bastila Shan (VC69)
Ponda Baba (Walrus Man) (VC70)



This review comes from Jedi Temple Archives
www.JediTempleArchives.com

The URL for this review is:
http://www.jeditemplearchives.com/content/modules.php?name=JReviews&rop=showcontent&id=874