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Review |
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| Sculpt: |
| The Death Star Gunners, members of the highly-specialized Imperial Gunner Corps, as seen in RETURN OF THE JEDI (as well as in A NEW HOPE). Operating the immense weaponry of the Imperial starfleet, these skilled gunners dressed in specialized uniforms. The gunner's features are entirely obscured by a large, sweeping helmet with a single wrap-around visor. The dark helmet helps suppress some of the dangerous flashback from such massive cannons as the turbolasers and superlaser found aboard the original Death Star and the second Death Star. This figure is an all-new sculpt, and has really captured the minute details of this character's costuming. As an added bonus, the removable helmet reveals the instantly recognizable features of Clone Trooper template Jango Fett. Whether or not the age-accelerated Fett clones would still be operative some 30+ years after their births on Kamino (making them in their mid-sixties) is questionable, but it's a nice detail. While not the best likeness of Jango Fett/Clone Trooper actor Temuera Morrison (what happened to his eyebrows?), it rates a 9 out of 10. |
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| Paint: |
| The figure is molded in black. Everything! Head, arms, legs, torso, pelvis, helmet, chest armor, and blaster are molded in black. The has a tan-colored paint application for the clone's skin tones, with the weird red eyes that Hasbro likes to give them. There is a silver paint deco on the belt buckle, and the Imperial logo is front and center on the helmet. There are additional silver, blue, and red paint decos to the antenna of the helmet. 9/10. |
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| Articulation: |
| Ball-jointed neck, shoulders, and knees. Planer-cut hips, wrists, and waist, with angle-cut elbows. Twelve total points of articulation, making it not quite up to "super articulated" standards (14 points or greater), but still most impressive: 9/10. |
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| Accessories: |
| Character-specific figure stand, removable Imperial gunner helmet, removable torso armor, and standard Imperial-issue blaster pistol: 8.5/10. |
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| Packaging: |
| The same The Saga Collection card as the rest of the series, with a character-specific background image--in this case, the interior of the Death Star II turbolaser station. The insert image is a nice close-up shot of a Gunner, and has The Saga Collection logo to the right of the character image. The figure's name is just below TSC logo, with its collection number (Death Star Gunner is Saga #041) just to the right. To the left are the five white-orange triangles, indicating the position of the enclosed mini-figure. The cardback features the same image of a Gunner from the insert, with text that explains his role in ROTJ, along with the diecut display area for the Exclusive Hologram Figure: 8.5/10. |
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| Availability: |
| As of this writing, the figure has been appearing at retail for roughly two months and it sells out often; it is also available from most online sources: 7.5/10. |
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| Conclusion: |
| Another iconic background character that's been neglected since the days of POTF2 finally gets a revamp by Hasbro. While this would have been perfect as a Deluxe figure that could have included a scaled-down Death Star turbolaser, it's still a decent updating that has army-builders and collectors alike grabbing these off the pegs. It gets a final score of 8.6/10. |
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