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Pit of Carkoon Boba Fett

Amazingly enough, I found new figures this last week!  I have a review of this exact same figure up over at Yakface.com - compare my review with Sean's and see where we differ!  Take it away, Sean...

Ever since Hasbro released the first shots of this figure to the public, every collector has been salivating over the latest version of everybody’s favorite Sarlaac snack. So the big question, is Boba Fett, Pit of Carkoon as good as he looks?

Packaging - ***
The packaging is the same blue-backed blister card, blah, blah, blah . . . I’ve pretty much covered this section in previous reviews of Hasbro’s line.

Sculpting - ***1/2
Wow! That’s all I have to say. This figure looks almost perfect. The dent in his helmet, the wrinkles in his suit, the tubing, armor, and braided Wookie pelts are all highly detailed and look great. Hasbro has come a long way from the more muscle-bound version first produced in the second Power of the Force line. This is Boba Fett. There is only one flaw, and unfortunately it’s big enough to knock off half a star from the final score. The missile in Fett’s jetpack has been reduced to a stubby, featureless, phallic-looking, blue nub because of the action feature. The in-house shot originally had a missile sculpt. Hasbro must have been worried about the pointy tip hurting kids as the pushed down on it, but that still doesn’t excuse the complete lack of sculpt for the missile. A less pointy version of Fett’s missile could have easily been produced.
Another minor problem are the hands. They look over-sized and the left one’s grip looks a little odd.




After all that, take a closer look at this figure. Does he look familiar? This Fett has almost the same sculpt as the Power of the Jedi 300th special Boba Fett figure –however this version has been over-hauled with different articulation and arm position because of the action feature. It’s not exactly a repaint, but close enough. In the end, it’s a great-looking figure with enough new features to warrant a new title, and that’s all I care about here.

Paint - ***½
This is almost a four star figure in this department. Most of the paint ops are nice and clean and there’s some heavy detailing, especially with the little silver damage flecks on the armor and the white fingers on the glove. There is some bleeding with the cuffs and the line detailing with the jetpack, but the main body looks nice. The colors are also more vibrant than the movie version, or the 300th figure version of this figure. Check out the maroon gauntlets and visor! He looks excellent, but comes off a little too bright in some spots. Interestingly, some of his color scheme seems to pay homage to the original Kenner figure. The same maroon is present on both visors, as well as on one of the gauntlets. 

Articulation - ***
The package says 12 pints, but I counted 13 total. They are: 1 left ankle ball-joint, 1 right swivel knee, 1 limited right knee ball-joint, 2 hip cuts, 1 waist cut, 2 shoulder cuts, 2 bicep cuts, 1 neck cut, the antenna, and 2 swiveling rocket boosters on the jet pack.

The legs are great for posing, but the left one comes off much stiffer than the right: it only has articulation at the top and bottom; the whole knee area is stiff. The right side as double articulation, which is nice, but surely one of those joints could have been bumped over to the left? If both legs had the same knee and ankle joints, I could have easily bumped the score up. The right knee ball-joint hides really well within Fett’s sculpt. You can’t even tell it’s there from the front. The swivel knee does get loose really quickly though. The waist, antenna, and rocket boosters work nicely as well.

The arms are another story. “Action feature” –the phrase makes my skin crawl. . .
Once again a potentially great figure is ruined by Hasbro’s increasingly ridiculous, blind love for action features. Don’t they trust kids to have a sense of imagination these days? The toys don’t need to play with themselves. Secret Ceremony Anakin Skywalker was a step in the right direction; this is a step back.

The bicep cuts are nice, but the arms have a very limited range of motion, stopping at shoulder height. They also can’t stay raised by themselves; the action feature needs to be activated. The only way to lock them upwards is to change Fett’s grip in the gun. By hooking the back of his rifle’s loop around the left hand, the gun will stay in a raised position. 

The “quick-draw” feature itself is one of the less intrusive ones from Hasbro: press the fake rocket and the arms snap upwards. It works alright, but it kills all real arm poseability which is never a good thing. I’m still holding out for a Boba with ball-jointed shoulders. Wrist joints would have also been nice. 

Accessories - ***1/2
What can I say? They might be simple, but they look good. Fett comes with his blaster rifle, a blast effect, his cape, and a flame base. Judging by the spot of glue on the cape’s peg, I don’t think it’s really supposed to come off. A cloth one would have been nice, but it works. The blaster rifle is molded in solid black. There’s some nice sculpt detail, and it looks close to its movie counterpart, but could have used some paint ops. The blast effect is okay, but this is really an accessory I could do without.

The real highlight of this group is the display base. Not only is it a good looking sculpt, but the colors are also vibrant. You can either pose the base at an angle or straight up and down. The translucent quality is also fun to play with –shine a light through the flames to make them glow.

Value - ***
I haven’t seen a single Boba Fett in physical stores, and I doubt if I’m going to see one anytime soon. Depending on the store, Saga figures tend to go for $4.50 to $5.99. If you can get him for under $5, feel free to tack on an extra star. I paid $6.50 on eBay, and still felt I got a decent figure. Anything above that is a judgment call. Online, he’s pretty high. It’s a double-edged sword: not only is he hard to find, but he’s also one of the most popular figures of all time. If you want to open him for display, Kebco Toys has a non-mint sale going on, at $5.99 a pop. This is probably the cheapest price online, outside of the auction sites. Better get him fast; they’re selling out quickly at this price!

Brian's Toys has him for $16.99 mint on mint card; $9.99 loose.
Star Wars Figures will have them in stock soon for $7.00 a pop.

Of course, there’s always my favorite place in the world: Ebay. He isn’t really in wide release right now, and this always creates artificial price inflation in the Star Wars community. Wait for the store price, he isn’t worth paying anything more.

Overall - ***1/2
This figure looks excellent on display on or off his base. His natural pose mimics the same stance he takes in Jabba’s palace in Return of the Jedi. He looses a little on the action feature, but still looks great. Hasbro has been doing some very nice things with their figures’ sculpts lately and the future looks bright. Now if they could only ditch the dreaded action features and work more on articulation and poseability, I think their consumers would be much happier: kids and collectors alike. I grew up with Kenner’s Star Wars figures, which never had more than the basic 5 points of articulation (or even less). Imagination goes a long way, and I don’t think I could have had more fun if they’d had magnets or buttons sticking out of their back. 


Figure from the collection of Sean Teeter.

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