You know, even though Hoth was an ice planet that never really got out of sub-freezing temperatures, I am willing to bet that wampas still managed to stink to high heaven. I mean, we know that tauntauns smelled bad (especially on the inside), but I imagine that wampas packed an olfactory punch as devastating as their normal one, which were known to knock Jedi flat on their Force-wielding asses.
Where is this going? Probably nowhere, but I am surprised at the length I could spend discussing the aromas of various Star Wars creatures, and this is something that ran through my discombobulated brainpan while checking out this brand new Black Series wampa from the latest deluxe assortment. The figure manages to capture quite a lot of the physical traits of the most famous of all wampas – the one from The Empire Strikes Back — but it isn’t one of those scent-infused figures like, say, Moss Man or Strawberry Shortcake, so you won’t get a chance to smell what Luke’s ill-fated tauntaun caught a wiff of before promptly being dispatched. Other than that, though, this wampa is a pretty successful SWB offering. Don’t worry, I haven’t forgotten about Luke; I will get to him in a minute.
Hold on, though — that is not to say that I think this figure is perfect, because it is not, but it is pretty close to being right in line with most of the more recent Black Series offerings. Now, that could have positive or negative connotations depending on your opinions and/or personal experiences, but that makes this figure a pretty pointed summation about SWB as a whole – it is just a mixed bag overall, and while some things are executed really well, other things leave you scratching your head a bit.
Don’t get me wrong, I am still a big fan of the line, but this wampa, like several other previous figures, is just a few improvements away from being great, instead of pretty good. Well, pretty good might be a little harsh here – I would say that this wampa is a good figure overall and while the improvements that could be made are small and thus SEEM trivial, that is what makes them all the more frustrating. You were so close to knocking this one out, Hasbro, but the things that have hindered figures that have come before are back again for this big hairy goon.
But let’s start with the good parts first, and I am glad to say that I find most of this figure really successful. This is the deluxe series we are talking about here and within that limited pantheon, I find this figure to be more successful than the previously released Jabba the Hut, but not quite as cool as the speederbike (I don’t have the Han and Tauntaun set yet). The figure is big and heavy, just as it should be, and overall the sculpt is really nice. I find that the creature’s likeness is captured well enough, and he looks big and imposing, especially when placed alongside other figures from this line. His facial likeness might not be spot-on perfect, and I don’t think this is a Gentle Giant figure, but it works for me.
There is a lot of sculpted detail to love here, and for being a giant blob of dirty white fur that often gets you compared to the Bumble from the old Rankin/Bass Rudolph movie, the figure is pretty dynamic. The fur is sculpted more in “clumps” than at the individual hair level, and that works well because there is a lot to this guy. Because of the articulation, the fur sculpt around the joints resembles that of the series five Chewbacca figure, so it makes the transitions between cuts flow a bit better than breaking the sculpt entirely.
The overall dirty yellow coloring is convincing for a nasty creature like this, and there is a nice change between a dirty white to light yellow to dark, but I would have liked to have seen a bit more pure white here and there; that would have diversified the palette even more and would have been just a bit closer to accuracy to the actual movie, where you can certainly pick out some bright white spots. The paint on face details is pretty good, but nothing fancy, and while it gets the point across, we could have used a few more applications here and there to show more detailing in the eyes, teeth, and horns. Now, this is the wampa post-snacking, so there is some blood detail around the mouth and chin, but this is the spot where the paint looks rather cheap. I mean, we have some pretty random lines that follow a basic pattern, but it does not look like a movie still and certainly does not look natural. This would have been an easy extra mile to travel to drive up the detail a notch, but alas, I will have to take matters into my own hands.
As for movement, from an overall standpoint, the articulation is good on this guy as well and he has almost all of the joints and points that you have come to expect in this line. Most of them are really useful too, so you can get him in a variety of attacking and tauntaun-eating positions. His head movement is pretty limited, but that should not be any real surprise considering the sculpt, but otherwise, he moves well and can hold his poses, even with the heavy weight of his limbs. The one spot where he gets a big failing grade for articulation is in his right shoulder. You know the one, right? This is the arm that Luke lops off in order to make his escape from that smelly tunnel of frozen death. See, Hasbro gets points for making it so you can take that arm off, but it was done at the expense of the ball-jointed shoulder. We are left with a simple cut and while I get the fact that makes sense from the way his arm would be cut off, I don’t think it is worth the sacrifice of the extra movement, especially with that giant peg sticking out there. The arm could have still be removable with ball joint, so there is not really any reason NOT to do it, especially since, as I said, the aesthetic portion is ruined by the peg anyhow.
I don’t think it is a secret that paint and articulation have been the two most frequent offenders in this line since the beginning. The first series was pretty much perfect when it came to detailed paint applications and useful articulation, but ever since series two, the paint has gotten less detailed and more sparing, and a lot of the articulation choices have been pretty strange. Fortunately, there are no soft goods to enter the conversation with this figure, but, man, we are so close here. If the paint on the face (especially the blood) and the right shoulder articulation would have remained the same as the left, I would have no nits to pick with this figure. Again, he is soooooo close, and that makes almost more difficult to take. Am I being too harsh here? Possibly, but I KNOW Hasbro can do these things correctly, I just want to them to make this line the absolute best it can be.
Oh, we still have Luke to talk about, don’t we? Overall, Luke is okay, but seeing as how I got carried away with the star of this show in the prose, I am going to do something a little bit different here. To get the full rundown on both the wampa AND Luke, check out the video review below. You are probably tired of all this reading by now anyway, right? Oh, and don’t forget to get your order for this set in at the links below. Despite getting a little tangential with the paint and articulation, I would still recommend this set because the wampa is still a lot of fun.
Additional Links
