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Lt. Danni Faytonni

Sean Teeter is back with another great Star Wars review!  Take it away...

Some of Hasbro’s recent Star Wars releases cater more to the collector crowd in choice of figure. No kid is going to actively seek out Lt. Danni Faytonni, Achk Med-Beq, Wat Tambor, or WA-7. These are not characters a kid would necessarily be looking for in his Star Wars toy assortment. Two of these are actually based on actors who play other characters in the Star Wars universe. Achk Med-Beq was a cameo appearance in the Coruscant nightclub, by Ahmed Best –who does Jar Jar Binks. 

Up for tonight’s review is Lt. Danni Faytonni, which was a cameo appearance by Anthony Daniels, a.k.a. C-3PO.



Packaging - ***1/2
It’s gold-striped; it’s good. I’ve covered it before.

Sculpting - *** 1/2
I actually like the sculpt a lot more than I though I would. The face bears a passing resemblance to a younger Anthony Daniels. The uniform is nicely done with wrinkles and creases in all the right places. I really like the way the back is curved. He looks great standing or leaning against the table because of it. Between the slumping back and facial expression, the good Lieutenant looks like he’s been enjoying his intergalactic booze. The holster works well, but the gun sight is a little too long for it. The hands are done Bespin Luke style and can hold accessories in each. The bottom of his jacket is done in a separate, vacu-formed piece of soft plastic and gets in the way of his leg articulation. 

While this is a pretty solid-looking figure, there’s something else that should be noted. I haven’t found Achk Med-Beq yet, so I can only compare from the photo art I’ve seen, but they appear to share the same exact body. The only differences are the heads and the color of the hands. Basically Hasbro is marketing almost the same exact figure twice. While it’s cost effective for them, I feel that a slightly different sculpt between the two would have been better. It’s still a nice though, at that.

Paint - ***
He’s almost all blue, so there are very few paint ops to play with. The yellow stripes on his sleeves are nice, but bleed a little. The belt, holster, and shoulder strap are clean. His face is also pretty clean, with a just the slightest bleeding around the hairline. The hair is a much darker gray than Anthony Daniels’ real hair, but it’s not a big deal. 

Accessories - ***
Hasbro’s slipped recently with some of their figures, but the Lieutenant comes with a nice selection. Danni has a glass of red hooch, a blaster pistol, and a two-part stand and table base. The paint ops on the base do bleed a little, but looks pretty good. The glass is also nicely done and fits well into either hand. The blaster’s long sight will get bent over time from the holster though. It’s flexible but should have been shortened. 

This same exact set of accessories is also reused for Achk Med-Beq, except his glass is blue. Except for the reuse, this is a pretty decent set of accessories.

Articulation - ***1/2
There’s fourteen points of articulation, for a character with five seconds of screen time. Danni comes with cuts at the neck, shoulders, biceps, wrists, waist, hips, boot tops, and has swivel jointed knees. The only thing that could have helped are ball-jointed shoulders and a smaller, stretchier sculpted shirt bottom to keep from messing with the hip joints. Other than that, there’s a surprising amount of poseability to be found in a figure that looks great leaning against a table with a drink in his hand. And best of all, there’s no super-tequila-sunrise-slamming, push-button action feature to screw this guy up. 

Quality/Durability - ***
He’s pretty solid all around. His gun sight will probably become permanently bent over time, and the table’s struts are kind of thin, but nothing all that bad is to be found.

Value - ***
That’s assuming you pay around $5 for him. While not the most exciting figure, he’s pretty versatile for posing and looks pretty good. His accessories are also nice for dioramas. If you can find him for under $5, grab him. Target should star carrying him soon for under that. 
I couldn’t really find him online other than at http://planetactionfigure.com, which has him in a pre-sell deal with WA-7 and the Emperor for $25.50. However, $7 might be enough to snag him off of http://www.ebay.com

Overall - ***1/2
I went in with low expectations on this one and came out with a surprisingly good figure. Danni has the same articulation as the Bespin Duel Luke Skywalker figure, which was always one of my favorites. While the amount of reuse between him and Achk Med-Beq looks like an extreme case of overkill, I still think he’s worth picking up, especially with a slew of more nightclub figures on the way. He’s also got that everyman quality about him, and seems to fit into almost any vehicle if you want to give him something more important to do than drink. Of course, it’s your call as to whether or not there is anything more important than that to begin with . . .


Figures from the collection of Sean Teeter.

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