Action Features ranging intrusive to integrated

[JediTricks]

At this point, I have 25 ROTS figures including the preview figs, and over 1/3rd of those have action features, specifically:

#1 Obi-Wan Slashing Attack
#2 Anakin Lightsaber Attack
#6 Clone Trooper Quick-Draw
#7 R2-D2 Droid Attack
#8 Grievous' Bodyguard Battle Attack
#9 General Grievous 4 Lightsaber Attack
#11 Darth Vader Lightsaber Attack
#12 Palpatine Firing Force Lightning
#27 Obi-Wan Jedi Kick
#28 Anakin Slashing Attack

What I've noticed is that Hasbro doesn't seem to have 1 central mindset on designing these figures' action features, the same feature may even appear on several different figures but each one impliments it differently and has its sculpting and articulation impacted in dfferent ways.

Obi-Wan #1 and Anakin #2 have the exact same action as each other even though they're called different things, and use the same exact articulation and sculpting styles to do it: squeeze the right leg inward and the upper body twists at the waist to its left, let go and it whips back to original position, and the right arm's shoulder and elbow are loose to whip around in both motions. Both figures have extra low crotch sections to accomodate the action feature lever in the right hip, both figures have their bodies' outfits sculpted to accomodate the right arm's path, both figures' right AND left arms have universal joints at the shoulders and elbows, both figures' right and left elbows have really ugly sculpting at the joint, both figures' have loose hinges in their right arms' universal joints at the shoulder and elbow but normal tight rotation points on those same joints, and both figures have articulated hips even though there's a gimmick in play and waists via geared ratcheting as part of the gimmick.

#6 Clone Trooper and # 8 Grievous' Bodyguard have a similar type of gimmick, squeeze their right leg inward and one or both of their shoulders move, respectively - on the Clone Trooper, his right arm moves upwards, hwile on the Bodyguard 1 arm moves up while the other moves down. Neither of these figures have waist articulation. However, #11 Darth Vader has an arm gimmick where his arm rotates at the bicep via the same 'squeeze leg' action yet not only does he have waist articulation, but unlike Obi-Wan and Anakin (and most Saga figures with a gimmick arm), Vader's waist articulation uses the gearing to allow natural full range rotation of the waist without ratcheting.

Even more interestingly, #28 Anakin has exactly the same gimmick as the #6 Clone Trooper - squeeze leg and arm raises - yet this Anakin figure not only has waist articulation, but even uses the same smooth-movement style that #11 Vader's waist has so you aren't stuck having to choose between only what the ratchet allows.

Oddly, both #1 Obi-Wan and #2 Anakin have fully-articulated arms with universal jointed shoulders and elbows, yet #27 Obi-Wan and #28 Anakin have non-matching arms, with 27 Obi-Wan sporting uni-jointed shoulders and rotating lower biceps, and 28 Anakin sporting uni-jointed shoulders and a uni-jointed right elbow while the left one is a rotating lower bicep; and both 27 and 28 have preposed non-gimmick arms for some reason.

The Clone Trooper and 28 Anakin integrate their action features very well - except for the lack of a waist on the Clone which doesn't make sense since Anakin has a totally working waist - they're well-articulated and don't look oddball because of their gimmicks. The Bodyguard figure and Grievous himself have fairly well-integrated gimmicks too, but both seem a little hindered by their gimmicks even though technically they aren't. Vader has a little gapping problem at his bicep and his elbows are preposed but he's not too bad off because of his feature either. Palpatine has a hole in his robe's sleeve and dopey-looking Force lightning accessories, so his action feature isn't as well integrated, but it's not terribly intrusive either. #1 Obi-Wan and #2 Anakin aren't exactly limited by their gimmicks, but there are few too many little intrusive bits which adds up. That leaves poor #7 R2-D2, who is completely mangled by his action feature, his dome has a little cut-out hole at the top and slight gappage but that could easily be overlooked - especially since he can still rotate his dome - the real problem is that the 3rd leg is not only permanent, but it sticks out extra far for the gimmick to work making this incredibly intrusive.

Finally, some of the figures' action features aren't explained on the cardbacks well enough, why does R2 come with that weird seesaw base, why does it have shallow footpegs too wide for R2 at one end? And #27 Jedi Kick Obi-Wan's card really doesn't explain anything very well, it was trial-and-error finding out that the boot doesn't rotate, only the hip; and I still don't know why his base with the extra tall footpeg (to activate the gimmick) has the part he stands on slide out slightly.

All in all, I'd say they did a better job with this line than with Saga's first outings, but they still have some schools of thought to deal with before they can really expect these to be up to snuff with non-gimmicked Star Wars figures.

[LTBasker]

Yeah, so far I only have twoe figures that use the gimmicks. Clone Trooper and Grievous (regular).

Even with the gimmicks they're still very fun, if these had been done during the Saga line it's likely Grievous wouldn't be able to move at all and the Clone would be more like the Saga/CW Speederbike Clone gimmick. It's too bad they didn't think this well about the gimmicks last time, it might've really helped alot of the sales.

[jjreason]

I must say that I'm a lot more "okay" with the action figures on the ROTS figures at this point than I was with the Saga ones. Generally speaking, it's the display factor that makes me decide one way or the other - if I hate looking at the figure because of the ugliness of the action feature, I don't rate the figure very highly. Only poor R2 falls into this category so far, though I'm pretty close to not loving Spinning Yoda (if it weren't for the comedy the thing actually provides, I think I would dislike the figure ).

Tough thing, these action features. I think I'd rather have a figure with an action feature and some posability than a beautifully sculpted, but unposeable "collection 2" style figure (imagine Saga Luminara).

[Mr. JabbaJohnL]

Yeah, based on these new action features I actually wouldn't mind getting more like these. Just so long as there's no buttons anywhere on them. They're done (for the most part) very nicely this time around.

[JediTricks]

I got Palpatine #35, and his action gimmick sucks on both levels, it uglifies the figure in several different ways AND it's super lame. The figure is a salt-shaker with facade feet at the bottom, push down on the figure and the feet push into the body causing the right arm to slightly move upwards, it's miserable.

[darko666]

Tough thing, these action features. I think I'd rather have a figure with an action feature and some posability than a beautifully sculpted, but unposeable "collection 2" style figure.

i wouldn't mind if the figure is posable, but i don't like the action feature at all. i usaually just open a figure and set them up in a cool looking position. i haven't opened any of the new figures, so i don't know if they pose well, since they have action features. but i enjoyed the saga 2003/04 figures.
i thought they were the best Hasbro offered. but the some of the ROTS figures do look good. but not all of them.

[beckmen]

I think that Palpy figure will be a decent fig to buy if I find him on clearance in time. Or maybe buy one and try and customize it? Or not.

[WesleySr]

I guess I will chime in here too. I have to agree on the statements about the action features. They are nowhere near as bad as they use to be. We can all remember the Saga '03 #02 Mace Windu (Arena Confrontation). You remember, the one with the big pole sticking out his back. Sure it gave you total control of the lightsaber, but you had to put him in the back of your display with his back towards the wall.

So, I think the action features have become alot better, and alot less notable (with the exception of the new Deluxe Obi-Wan).

[plasticfetish]

The figure is a salt-shaker with facade feet at the bottom, push down on the figure and the feet push into the body causing the right arm to slightly move upwards, it's miserable.

Aww, shoot... I didn't know that... I didn't know that figure had a gimmick.

In general, I'd say that I'm not hating the action features this time around either. I'm not exactly in love with them, but it seems that Hasbro has put some decent effort into improving on past failures and they've tried to up the "play value" for most of these. In some cases I'm not exactly sure why they choose to give certain figures gimmicks. I don't know why we needed two Obi-Wan or two Anakin figures in the first 35 with action features. Would have rather had a decent collection 2 version of each instead.

To Hasbro's credit, these may be the first figures like this that my son actually plays with.

[Devo]

Aww, shoot... I didn't know that... I didn't know that figure had a gimmick.

Neither did I. In the poster it looks like a good detailed non-kiddie figure in the vein of Episode I and II palpy's. Unfortunately this one is more like a Happy meal toy. Disappointing in every respect. Its not very poseable and it looks like a lesser figure on the shelf.