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Medicom Boba Fett

"The following is a guest review.  The review and photos do not necessarily reflect the opinions of Michael Crawford or Michael's Review of the Week, and are the opinion and work of the guest author."

Mike Chan checks in tonight with a review of the latest Medicom Star Wars figure: Boba Fett!

Hello everyone. This is Michael Chan and I’d like to thank Mike for giving me this opportunity to review the RAH 1/6 scale Boba Fett. It doesn’t specifically note on the package, but this should be “The Empire Strikes Back” Boba Fett version as the gauntlets are green and his backpack is the “clean” green version, not green/red/yellow of “Jedi.” Not sure why his gauntlets went from red (Star Wars Special Edition) to green (Empire) then back to red (Jedi), but I guess Boba just like’s to change things up. 

Anyway, to my review:










Packaging - ***
Boba comes in the same plain black Star Wars boxing as any of the other Star Wars Medicom figures (Luke, Vader, etc.) except that it has “30th Anniversary” label on the box. I personally like the packaging, I don’t need fancy cover art to increase the price (not that this figure is cheap for having a plain box) any more than it has to. I like the figure to speak for itself and this figure does. The figure, along with the accessories, sits in a molded two-part plastic inner package. You can see the figure once you open the outer “book cover” of the package, which is held closed by a small Velcro tab.

Sculpting - ****
This is my only 1/6 scale Boba Fett, but looking at reviews and pictures of the prior versions (Hasbro, Marmit, etc., not including statues) the sculpting on this is excellent and probably up there, if not better, than the Marmit Boba Fett. He doesn’t have an oversized helmeted head and the helmet is removable, but there is no Tenuera Morrison head underneath, just a plan Caucasian head sculpt without even facial features. The gauntlets, shoulder plates, knee plates, belt, everything is sculpted accurately (if not one movie specific) and in proportion to everything. Again, with RAH figures, the only complaint and area of possible concern is the hand size. They could be seen as on the “small” side as they are gloved and a man’s hand would probably look bigger with gloves on, but then again I don’t remembering seeing Jeremy Bulloch in any of the Star Wars films with giant paws.

Paint - ***1/2
The colors of the figure are near perfect. To me, the yellow on the shoulder plate and knee plates are a better match to the movies than the Marmit version, which in pictures are too yellow. There is just the right green and brown here and there. The right chest plate has the round “leaf” emblem with drop and inverted “f”. The left shoulder plate has the correct Mandalorian skull emblem. I can’t give it a perfect score, only because I think there are a few faults, and one of them not really being “paint” but more coloring. The cloth cape he has is only a single brown color, but I’m sure in the films they were either of a brown/black, large striped, variety, like on the Marmit figure, or pure green actually, but then again, this might be a case of mixing between films again. The other is that although the little parts of the gauntlet are painted well, they’re painted well because they are actually separate pieces that were probably painted, then assembled. The “jockstrap” plate, which has a belt on it of a single mold with the plate, has paint bleed along the top edge, which makes it not look separated properly. I felt there should have been a black-wash effect on the figure for the wear. The wear and tear effect is all just silver and black paint streaks here and there. I would have liked to have seen a more black-wash on the gauntlet, rocket pack, knee plates, etc. On the plus side, the black-wash is not a break point, there is wear effect and it’s pretty good.

Articulation - ****
I didn’t strip down Boba like I did my RAH Jedi Luke, because I figured I might not be able to get everything back in the right “look” as what happened to my Luke. I have put Boba through several poses and I believe it’s the same RAH301 male “short” body as Luke. They stand to about the same height, so next to a tall Darth Vader (not RAH Darth Vader) this Boba should be the perfect size. The gauntlet is a full over the forearm piece, so you can push it back, adjust the hand/wrist to position, and then slide the gauntlet back down. I haven’t found any poses where the shoulder pads, gauntlets, knee plates, etc. have obstructed a stance. This is a very very articulated figure and quite poseable.

Outfit - ***1/2
I’m not really sure why I’m not giving this a perfect four, but it could be just little things here and there that are troublesome. The hose that runs from Boba’s right gauntlet to his armor is transparent and sort of thin (barely visible), which is counter to any other Boba that I’ve seen or had. This hose was always portrayed as green and fairly thick. Not sure really which is right, but if you like a very visible and big hose, this may be a negative. Then again, the thin hose doesn’t restrict movement, which is good for posing. As mentioned really under sculpting, the plates, armor, gauntlets, etc. are all in perfect look and proportions. The clothe parts are stitched right, chest plates look like they’re armor, all the little cargo pants pockets open and close by little Velcro. The pockets on the belt do not however, but that would be too much in my opinion. Boba comes with three strands of hair, two blonde and one brown, French braided and tied off with black rubber bands. I think in Empire he did have a few strands of hair, so this seems to be another good catch by RAH. The brown I could see as being Wookie hair, but could the blonde hair be Jedi padawan hair?

Accessories - ***1/2
Again, I could give this part a perfect 4 stars because he really does come with everything that he should come with, but I guess for the price point, I wanted and thought he should have come with just something “extra” that we never saw before, perhaps a hand grenade or the “fork” weapon that he had from the Star Wars Christmas special (stinker movie). The figure comes with some main and some “detail” accessories:

Main accessories:
4 hands : right relaxed, right holding pistol, left relaxed, and left gripping.
1 EE-3 Carbine Blaster rifle
1 Westar-34 pistol (looks like Daddy’s pistol) 
1 Rocket pack with removable rocket (does not shoot)

Detail accessories:
2 Pens (the two “metal” outside pieces that are under the knee plates in the shin pockets.
1 Knife (under right side knee plate)
1 Spatula (under the left side knee plate). I call this a spatula because when you remove it, that’s what it looks like, I expected another knife, but it wasn’t.

Value -  ***
Here is where I couldn’t quite figure was he really worth it. I did not make the Sideshow pre-order, so I had to purchase from oversees and actually got it before Sideshow purchasers. The price actually was not more than Sideshow, I only had to pay more due to shipping ($175). When I first got RAH Luke and RAH Vader, I thought at the time that both were definitely worth the price, because up to then, the only really good figure I could remember was the Marmit Boba Fett. Now with Sideshow producing their own 1/6 scale Star Wars, and at a price point of about $60, a $150+ figure now doesn’t seem as “worth it” any more. Is this Boba Fett good? Oh yeah, it’s excellent or I would not have put up the money for it, but with Sideshow possibly making a Boba Fett in the future for $60, I don’t think this figure is going to be twice as good as what they will make. I bought it because I really wanted Boba Fett (without paying ultra premium for Marmit) and didn’t want to wait for Sideshow to perhaps one day make their Boba Fett. Also, if Sideshow made it, I’m sure they’d do the Return of the Jedi version with red gauntlet, so I might get it then again.

Fun Factor - ****
There is no question here that this figure is a four star in fun factor. I had been posing and putting this dude through some bad arse poses all night and finally had to put it down because it was dinner time. Of course after dinner I went back to playing with it. Who didn’t want to be either Han Solo or Boba Fett from Star Wars? Boba Fett would kick Dog’s butt to and from Kessel, he was that bad (not considering his supposed cheap ending in Jedi). 

Things to Watch Out For -
Can’t really think of anything. All the parts were good and tight and nothing was falling apart. Plus, it isn’t like the figure is available through Target and you have a big selection to choose from. Pretty much what Sideshow ships you is what you get.

Overall - ***1/2
Oh, so close to perfect, but I just couldn't give it a perfect score of four, just based on the value aspect. Had this been $60, instead of $150, then four stars for sure. If you're Bill Gates and money is not an issue, then this is four stars for you baby. I have it displayed now in my dedicated Fett cabinet (waiting for daddy to arrive) and it looks like a minature bounty hunter standing there guarding my room.

Score Recap:
Packaging – ***
Sculpt – ****
Paint – ***1/2
Articulation – ****
Accessories – ***1/2
Outfit - ***1/2
Fun Factor - ****
Value – ***
Overall – ***1/2


Figure from the collection of Mike Chan.

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