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Hot Toys Star Wars Chubby series 2

   Star Wars Chubby by Hot Toys

"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."

Jeff Parker is looking at some more Hot Toys tonight...but these are different than the usual Hot Toys offerings.  Tell us all about them, Jeff!

Hi all, ‘Captain Toys’ occasional UK correspondent reporting for duty again.

Just over a year ago I reviewed my first Chubby for Captain Toy (I did the jokes last time), like the Hot Toys (HT) Cosbaby series they’re something of an antidote to the sometimes overtly serious world (at least amongst collectors) of 1/6 figures, the area HT have become so famous for of late. Don’t get me wrong, as a product these are to be taken just as seriously as any other. When a manufacturer decides they are going to invest in a licence, then goes to the lengths of researching and developing said product it demands to taken seriously, however, these are intentionally ‘meant, to make you smile!

So, all I’m saying is it makes a change sometimes, and it’s cool and increasingly unusual that I get something that my kids want to play with… I mean they are TOYS after all!
Star Wars Chubby by Hot Toys

Star Wars Chubby by Hot Toys
Star Wars Chubby by Hot Toys
Star Wars Chubby by Hot Toys
Star Wars Chubby by Hot Toys
Star Wars Chubby by Hot Toys
Star Wars Chubby by Hot Toys
Star Wars Chubby by Hot Toys
Star Wars Chubby by Hot Toys
Star Wars Chubby by Hot Toys
Star Wars Chubby by Hot Toys
Star Wars Chubby by Hot Toys
Star Wars Chubby by Hot Toys
Star Wars Chubby by Hot Toys
Star Wars Chubby by Hot Toys
Star Wars Chubby by Hot Toys
Star Wars Chubby by Hot Toys

Packaging: ***
The boxes here are basically the same as the last series listed in the review above, and again we get six versions to choose from, each one representing the evolution of a character or depicting a number of similar themed characters. So we have a basic rectangular box with the top left and bottom right corners sliced off at a 45% angle. 


The graphics on the last set bared the 30th anniversary logo, this being 2008, that is now gone, but we do have a new graphic, letting us know the new set have ‘MAGNETIC FEET’, no, this doesn’t mean you can stick them on your refrigerator, what it means is the small plastic feet supplied for each ‘Chubby’ now have a small magnet to stop them falling off, which is actually a slightly better feature than it sounds… if you have the first set you’ll know what I mean.

The back shows you the others available in the series, they are:

Stormtrooper/Clone Troopers
Jango/Boba Fett
Rebel Fighter Pilots
Luke Skywalker
Princess Leia
Ewoks

I was originally just going to get the first three listed, but my eldest daughter wanted Leia, my youngest wanted the Ewoks and my wife decided she couldn’t be left out so she’d have Luke, though subsequently has decided she wants Leia instead… but they’d arrived by then it’s too late! I’m not getting a double when that would leave one missing from the set! I’ll stop there before we get into a domestic.

So, you open the side of the box and slide out the plastic tray, containing the three ‘figures’ alongside their accessory, should they have one. So if handled with care everything can be put back again good as new.

Sculpt: ***1/2
As I mentioned in my first Chubby review, these take their lead from traditional Ukrainian Matryoshka dolls that come in every design imaginable from the classic sublime to the more contemporary ridiculous so what you get is a large outer figure with sculpted elements on the head and two smaller figures inside. The inner ‘nesting’ Chubby has no sculpted detail, it’s all applied as stylised illustrated graphics, in much the same manner as many designer vinyl figures (Mighty Muggs being the most mainstream version I can think of).

Unless you are in this for the complete set, most people will probably just dip in and out picking up their favourite characters, for me the best ones are those with the most complex ’outer’ sculpt meaning here it was the Stormtrooper (a must have for me) and the Rebel Pilots that caught my eye the most, but figures like Jango Fett and Boushh also have some nice work on their respective backpacks, Jango’s comes pre-fixed to the chest rig that has his front armour sculpted as well, where as Boushh’s has to be slotted into a hole on her back, there’s also a small feather top knot that you slot onto the top of Logray’s head-dress but that’s it, apart from these few adornments they’re good to go straight out of the box!

The character breakdown for each set is as follows starting with the smallest working up, NB- I’m pretty sure the middle pilot is a Y-wing, but there’s no actual description on any of the boxes!

Imperial Troops-
Clone MK 1, Clone MK 2 and Stormtrooper

Fetts-
Young Boba, Boba and Jango

Rebel Pilots-
A-Wing, Y-wing and X-Wing

Luke-
Tatooine, Bespin and Jedi

Leia-
Slave. Endor and Boushh

Ewoks-
Wicket, Chief Chirpa and Logray

All have that cute ‘Chubby’ look, but it has to be said that when you see Leia in her slave outfit. It may be the first time those original adolescent urges are completely missing… unless you have a thing for pear shaped women in bikinis.

Paint: ****
As mentioned above, most of the details here consist of ‘printed’ graphic illustrations, directly applied to, and indeed covering the whole doll. Like most designer vinyl figs these graphics are mechanically applied in a super slick, no slop, no over-painting ultra crisp manner, all represent their characters very well whilst simplifying them down to simple graphic shapes. But though simplified there is still a ton of detail in here, with Boba Fett and Boushe standing out as the two most complex in terms of their outfits, but all show a great attention to detail. I’ll let my photo’s do the talking as there are in effect 18 figures to cover here, but I can say none of mine had any issues at all with quality of application.

Articulation: N/A
They’re basically like ‘Weebles’, but they don’t wobble… or fall down!

Well, I say that, both Jango’s and Boba’s sighting scopes can be swivelled into the up or down position… but I didn’t think that really counted as articulation as such!

Accessories: **
The only one that ‘truly’ has an accessory is Luke with his green Lightsabre, but if you were to include (which I don’t) all of the sculpted head-ware then they all have something. Each one also has a small pair of feet that act as a stand, but again they’re not so much accessories as an intrinsic part of their design. These feet now have a small magnet concealed within them so that they can stick to the base of your Chubby. This obviously means that when you pick them up, the feet go with them, this was not the case with series one, and this small mod makes them a lot more user friendly!

Luke’s sabre is good little representation of his weapon, but the helmets are comparable to some of the best small-scale replicas out there. Perfect geek desk decorations! I’ll be interested to see if any other of Hot Toys licences will make it into the world of the Chubby, TDK might be pretty cool!

Fun factor: ***
Although my kids had fun with them, they’re not exactly ‘designed’ to be played with, but they’re still great little collectables and are priced at just the right level to be ‘pocket money’ friendly. And though I don’t know what distribution is like in the US, here in the UK you can pick them up in larger Tesco’s, one of our main high street super markets, as well as in plenty of online stores.  My youngest daughter does actually play with her Ewok set, but there again she can play with a plastic fork for hours, so don’t let that influence you too much.  

These actually do look pretty cute perched on you desk at work, meaning your colleagues will think you’re weird but with an irreverent side, where as if you have Hasbro 3 ¾ figures arranged in scene specific vignettes from the movies your colleagues will just think you’re sad… I should know, I’m there… ‘ahem’ I mean I’ve been there!

Value: ****
You can pick these up for between $10 to $12 in the US and here in the UK the RRP is £9.99 but you can find them for between £7.99 to  £8.99, there’s also a larger scale version of Jango available for £34.99 at Forbidden Planet. Another online store in the UK, play.com has large scale versions of Boba and a Sormtrooper. I haven’t found these anywhere else so these might be exclusives to them.

So considering these are an import item and retail for about the same price as a Hasbro 3 ¾ inch figure they seem like a cool deal to me.

Things to watch out for:
Nothing at all, my Vader had a small paint lift last time, but these are all well packed with sheets of cellophane between the component parts, and all arrived minty mint!

Overall: ***
For those people addicted to ANYTHING with a Star Wars logo on it, this is just another way to let you line Uncle George’s pockets yet again, as you will HAVE to have the set. 

For others I see it as cute gimmicky line there to be dipped in and out of. As I said above, but for family pressure I would have probably only picked up the Stormtroopers, Pilots and Fett’s, but all lined up together as the whole set they do look pretty cool.

I’m probably gonna have to go back and try to get the rest of the first set now!

Score Recap:
Packaging - ***
Sculpting - ***1/2
Paint - ****
Articulation - N/A
Accessories - **
Fun Factor - ***
Value - ****
Overall - ***

Where to Buy -
You can try some of Michael’s sponsors below, links are on the home page-

Urban collector- $10.19

Andrews Toyz- $11.99

CornerStoreComics - $11.99 (I could only find set 1)

Entertainment  Earth- they don’t seem to have the regular sets, but are advertising a special Blackhole Stormtooper version.

If in the UK Forbiddenplanet.co.uk has them for £7.99

KEEP SCROLLING DOWN FOR LOTS MORE PHOTOS!
Star Wars Chubby by Hot Toys
Star Wars Chubby by Hot Toys
Star Wars Chubby by Hot Toys
Star Wars Chubby by Hot Toys
Star Wars Chubby by Hot Toys

Star Wars Chubby by Hot Toys


Figure from the collection of Jeff Parker.

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