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The Episode 1 Phantom Menace toys have been flooding the shelves for
months and months. But all that product means big clearance sales on
just about everything they've produced. Word is that Hasbro is
filling landfills with excess stock. Some of the better figures have
been in the 12" line. One of those is TC-14, the female-voiced
droid from early in the movie. She's pretty much a silver C3-PO, but
what the heck. This electronic version, which says 5 sayings and has
light up eyes, was exclusive to Kaybee Toys. It's on clearance right
now at stores, $14.99, or on-line at www.kbkids.com
for $4.99. Packaging - **
Eh. It's serviceable, it stands up to shelf wear fairly well, but
it's not particularly attractive or inventive. This is the big
reason Hasbro and Star Wars won the Worst Packaging of 2000 Poll that I
ran over at Comic Book Galaxy. Articulation - **
Neck, shoulder (cut joints), waist, hips (cut joints again) knees and
ankles are the points of articulation. Ten points, which isn't
terrible considering the figure is not much more than a hunk of light
weight plastic. But there are no elbows, and no wrists, which
severely limit the poses you can put her in. With arms that can only
do the Monster Pose (arms out straight, palms down), there is very little
good you can do with the other points.
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Sculpting - ***
It's TC-14, and the sculpting on the body, face and accessories is very
nice. Actually, it's C3-PO, but what the heck. The plastic
they've used seems a bit too light and cheap however.Accessories -
***
TC-14 comes with the silver serving tray and cups/dispenser set that I
believe she picked up on sale at the Sharper Image. Although she is
poorly articulated, the handles on the tray do allow her to hold them,
although only very low. Wrist articulation would have made this
figure so much better, and allowed you to do so much more with the
tray. As it is, the accessories look great, but you can't do too
much with them. Value - ****
At the original price of $29.99, this figure was a rip off. But at
the clearance price of $14.99, it was a pretty good deal - and now at
$4.99 it's a steal.
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Overall - **1/2
This isn't a particularly exciting figure, at least not in the box. But
once you get it out, it really is pretty sharp. The silver color
really brightens up the shelf, and TC-14 would have scored much higher if
they'd given her a little more articulation in the arms.
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