JediTricks
05-20-2007, 07:27 PM
Once again in the vintage-style line, Leia gets the short end of the stick. You know you're in trouble when the best thing you can say about a figure is it has a nice gun.
Packaging: 3/5
Odd to see the same Vintage TSC packaging, only this year's mail-in stuff is gold instead of silver (and the tabs are generic). The heat-sealed collector case really bothers me though, takes this down a LOT.
Sculpt-Design: 3.25/5
She seems really short, she's POTJ Bespin Leia's height but that figure has bent knees while this doesn't, and this has a really long neck to boot so the shoulders are lower. Her hair and facial likenesses look like they're accurate, if a tad simplistic (the facial likeness bumped the score up from a 2.5). The head is another ball-jointed affair so the "front" of the hair around her neck is an ugly hollowed area. That long neck is super lame too, Leia looks like a giraffe. The outfit is decent but hardly outstanding, and the crotch piece is once again this huge square thing, why hearken back to that? Finally, a pointless small notch is cut away exposing the joint at her back.
Articulation: 2.5/5
ball-jointed neck
universal shoulders
universal elbows
standard waist
standard hips
universal knees
universal anklesPretty chintzy for the Vintage line! The ball-jointed neck is done as sloppy as any figure in this line, even if it does work for up and down. The elbows don't want to raise up to 90 degrees, you have to force it to bend the sleeve plastic it plugs into. It really bugs me that the knees bend forward as easily as they do back. And there's no rotating wrists or mid-torso joint which would have been nice for speederbike poses.
Paint-Deco: 2/5
Doll-like pale plastic for the head and forearms, cheapness for the eyes which really hampers accuracy, but the makeup isn't doll-like anywhere else thankfully -- no blush-laden cheeks, just a decent red lipstick. The lame eyes (big thick eyebrows, no eyeliner below) and pale plastic damage the impact of the sculpt. Accurate but sloppy and boring outfit paint. It was really stupid of them to choose the light blue plastic for the ankle hinges since the boots are black.
Accessories: 3.5/5
Blaster, helmet, poncho, belt. The helmet is recycled from the Saga Endor Trooper yet again, so it has that idiotic open chinstrap and is missing the dents, it's a little big but fits ok. It's also missing Leia's specific helmet markings, but is otherwise decently-painted.
The belt is decent, a little intricate sculpting, holsters the blaster nicely, and it also closes around the poncho well once you get it higher than her hips.
The blaster is great, looks accurate, not too big, it's bendy but no surprise really, and she holds it well due to her trigger-posed hand. (They should have included 2 so you could give one to VOTC Leia!)
The poncho is very similar the recent Luke Endor's, but shorter. It's not the right coloring, Leia's poncho was lighter and had more green, and it's a little bulky on her - that's what the figure's giraffe neck is for, and it mostly pays off but the neckline is way too high really. It kinda bothers me that the hood is sewn down but the collar isn't, should be the other way around.
Overall: D+
If this were a basic figure, I might give it a "C+" or a generous "B-" as individually it breaks down better than I expected, but as a Vintage-style figure it's an insult to my ten bucks. Underwhelming articulation, weak paint, a recycled helmet, and an ill-fitting, badly-colored poncho all work hard to tank this figure.
Packaging: 3/5
Odd to see the same Vintage TSC packaging, only this year's mail-in stuff is gold instead of silver (and the tabs are generic). The heat-sealed collector case really bothers me though, takes this down a LOT.
Sculpt-Design: 3.25/5
She seems really short, she's POTJ Bespin Leia's height but that figure has bent knees while this doesn't, and this has a really long neck to boot so the shoulders are lower. Her hair and facial likenesses look like they're accurate, if a tad simplistic (the facial likeness bumped the score up from a 2.5). The head is another ball-jointed affair so the "front" of the hair around her neck is an ugly hollowed area. That long neck is super lame too, Leia looks like a giraffe. The outfit is decent but hardly outstanding, and the crotch piece is once again this huge square thing, why hearken back to that? Finally, a pointless small notch is cut away exposing the joint at her back.
Articulation: 2.5/5
ball-jointed neck
universal shoulders
universal elbows
standard waist
standard hips
universal knees
universal anklesPretty chintzy for the Vintage line! The ball-jointed neck is done as sloppy as any figure in this line, even if it does work for up and down. The elbows don't want to raise up to 90 degrees, you have to force it to bend the sleeve plastic it plugs into. It really bugs me that the knees bend forward as easily as they do back. And there's no rotating wrists or mid-torso joint which would have been nice for speederbike poses.
Paint-Deco: 2/5
Doll-like pale plastic for the head and forearms, cheapness for the eyes which really hampers accuracy, but the makeup isn't doll-like anywhere else thankfully -- no blush-laden cheeks, just a decent red lipstick. The lame eyes (big thick eyebrows, no eyeliner below) and pale plastic damage the impact of the sculpt. Accurate but sloppy and boring outfit paint. It was really stupid of them to choose the light blue plastic for the ankle hinges since the boots are black.
Accessories: 3.5/5
Blaster, helmet, poncho, belt. The helmet is recycled from the Saga Endor Trooper yet again, so it has that idiotic open chinstrap and is missing the dents, it's a little big but fits ok. It's also missing Leia's specific helmet markings, but is otherwise decently-painted.
The belt is decent, a little intricate sculpting, holsters the blaster nicely, and it also closes around the poncho well once you get it higher than her hips.
The blaster is great, looks accurate, not too big, it's bendy but no surprise really, and she holds it well due to her trigger-posed hand. (They should have included 2 so you could give one to VOTC Leia!)
The poncho is very similar the recent Luke Endor's, but shorter. It's not the right coloring, Leia's poncho was lighter and had more green, and it's a little bulky on her - that's what the figure's giraffe neck is for, and it mostly pays off but the neckline is way too high really. It kinda bothers me that the hood is sewn down but the collar isn't, should be the other way around.
Overall: D+
If this were a basic figure, I might give it a "C+" or a generous "B-" as individually it breaks down better than I expected, but as a Vintage-style figure it's an insult to my ten bucks. Underwhelming articulation, weak paint, a recycled helmet, and an ill-fitting, badly-colored poncho all work hard to tank this figure.