Bossk - OTC - Basic (OTC #28)

Bossk is a fearsome and heavily armed bounty hunter who tracks his quarry throughout the galaxy. He is hired by the evil Imperial Lord Darth Vader to capture the heroic Rebels who escape in the Millennium Falcon. Even though he is notorious in the galaxy for being a skilled hunter, he does not succeed in capturing Han Solo and the other Rebels.

Hasbro had to cut the final phase of the Star Wars “Saga” line a little bit short to make way for the upcoming The Original Trilogy Collection. Often having to work within Lucasfilm Ltd.’s timeframe, Hasbro sometimes has to work double time to stay on target with Lucasfilm’s demands. While all of could have expected 2004’s SW Bossk (Executor Meeting) (‘04 #18) figure to be a little more plentiful than it was had the line continued, Hasbro found it best to carry him forward without any intentional changes in a gorgeous new line look known as The Original Trilogy Collection. As an original vintage Kenner release in 1980, a figure like Bossk has more impact in a classic-looking line look than say characters that were not released way back in the day. So Bossk holds special meaning here and we have to admit that he’s never looked better. Let us reiterate. Bossk is intended to be a straight repack, but sometimes slight variances occur when the factories have to reset the paint colors for figures that had been issued at a previous/earlier time.

Bounty hunters are key characters in any Star Wars collection, but due to space limitations, Hasbro could only included the most popular (or best-selling – we’re not too sure here honestly) for The Original Trilogy Collection. As a result, only Bossk and IG-88 were chosen from The Empire Strikes Back. It is definitely a bit odd that we get the same version of Bossk in two completely different collections only months apart from each other, but he is a great update from 1997’s POTF2 version, although not close enough to perfect as we would like to see. Hasbro worked in an impressive 12 points of articulation into this sculpt, but you’ll find that they’re not all useful for attaining dynamic poses and display options. Most of the points are swivel articulation and as you know that only creates one plane of 180 degrees that at face value may seem versatile, but it’s actually anything but that. Besides, Bossk has a very oddly positioned left leg that is more of an annoyance than anything else as it encumbers additional poses you may wish to achieve with him.

As with most of The Original Trilogy Collection figures, Bossk is made to look better than he is thanks to the gorgeous packaging. Because Hasbro decided to market all of the OTC figures in the original “Star Wars” packaging, Bossk looks slightly odd because you won’t find The Empire Strikes Back logo anywhere on this release. We suppose you could say this is the first and “only” time you’ll be able to purchase Bossk on a vintage-styled Star Wars card back. Still, the name plate transcends your mind back to 1980 when we first saw this awesome action figure hanging from the pegs at stores like Two-Guys, Bradlees, Lionel Kiddie City, Toys R Us and Funtown back in the 80s. (If you’re a youngling, you probably have only heard of Toys R Us.) Bossk is a fantastic character choice for a commemorative action figure line like The Original Trilogy Collection intends to be. But he is far from perfect and not definitive in any way. He does have accurate proportions and a decent paint job, but his articulation is severely lacking. If you’re considering this version or the Star Wars “Saga” version, definitely go for this one.