Momaw Nadon - Sideshow Star Wars
"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."
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The undeniable L is back
tonight with a look at a recent Sideshow Star Wars release - tell us
all about it, L!
Hey, kids, it’s Momaw Nadon! Once he was just “Hammerhead”
but then somebody somewhere (almost certainly at Decipher) decided that
every random extra in the original Star Wars trilogy needed not only a
proper name but an extensive background. Hey,
presto: meet the Ithorian monk (or whatever he is) Momaw
Nadon.
This figure is something new from Sideshow. While we have
seen aliens from them before, there haven’t been many, and all have
looked more human than the uniquely bulbous and bizarre
Hammerhead. Hammerhead is also a somewhat iconic figure from
the vintage line, a crazy-looking alien that kids loved despite having
nothing to do with the main story. And, hey, he’s a movie
star! Hammerhead is one of the few action figures ever –
maybe the only one – to have been featured in a movie. Early
in Spielberg’s E.T., Elliot identifies Hammerhead to his new alien
friend while playing with his Star Wars toys.
This figure is consequently noteworthy both as a great throwback to a
classic part of the vintage line, and also as the first foray of the
Sideshow line into the more unusual corners of the Star Wars
universe. It’s a fantastic example of an “I can’t believe
they made THAT” figure.
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Packaging
- **** The
packaging is stellar as always, but it’s hard to keep praising the
packaging for the same features. I wouldn’t mind if Sideshow
shook things up a bit here. Still – good photos of both the
product and the reference material, a good write-up of the character,
collector-friendly. It’s a good box. As a fun
acknowledgement of the vintage line, they even include his vintage
sobriquet alongside the new, more sensitive “Momaw Nadon.” One
side note which I’ll also mention in the Accessories category:
the box erroneously lists a Cantina drinking glass as included with the
figure, but early reports indicate that no such accessory is
there. Mine certainly didn’t have one.
Sculpting - **** Sideshow
faced a number of challenges here. First, the movie only really
shows Hammerhead from the chest up, so not only do we not have an
official movie version of the rest of his design, we don’t even have
official proportions for the guy. Of course, Hasbro has already
produced a smaller version of the character, so it’s not as though
Sideshow had to invent him from scratch – but they had to make
something that feels right, something that seems like he belongs in the
movie. A large figure like this can have a lot more detail than a
small one, and needs to look believable. Second, they had to
produce something that could STAND. The head is clearly huge –
but how huge can it actually, practically, be?
They did a great
job. The design of the character has really been done justice –
he looks knotty and veiny, like he’s walking swamp vegetation.
The head has character, bearing the same blank (perhaps mournful)
expression as in the film, with little details like the teeth in his
mouth (along the side of his head) and the drooping
eyelids. The hands are wonderfully detailed and wrinkled,
there are veins running up his arms,his legs look vaguely like elephant
legs, with folds and bumps and elephant-like toes. Because the
head is done in a rotocast style, it’s hollow (and a bit squishy) which
makes the figure lighter and easier to balance. It also has
another crucial benefit: the head can be posed without drooping
over time under its own weight.
Paint
- *** I might be
being too hard on Sideshow here, comparing the final product to the
mock-up presented at Toy Fair months ago, but in the end while the
paint impresses, it just doesn’t have the same depth, the same richness
of tone, that it might. It’s still pretty great, though. It
does a good job of bringing out the details in the sculpt, and makes
vivid and eye-catching what is essentially a very monochrome
figure. Judged without reference to what might have been, it’s
very possibly a four-star paint job. They also managed to
highlight the folds on his legs without making him look striped, which
can be very tricky given the design. But there still isn’t as
much shading as there might be, and the eyes, which look pretty great
from a distance, are a bit sloppy and cartoonish when seen close up.
Outfit
- *** The outfit
hangs well and fits snugly without restricting his movement, but two
things bother me. First, the color seems the tiniest bit too red
to me. I’m sure Sideshow did their homework and I don’t doubt that the
original costume could be this color – but in the dim lighting of the
Cantina, through the smoky haze, it certainly didn’t appear this
colorful. I’d have rather seen more muted tones, darker
browns. Second, and more importantly, the hood is too tight
around the back of his head, looking more like a bandana or a scarf
than a hood. He looks like a babushka, like a little old granny
going out for groceries on a Sunday morning. It’s foolish.
Luckily, it’s possible to pull down, but that means you can’t have his
hood up -- I think the material needs to be thicker, and there need to
be some folds in it, and it needs to sit on his head a little more
loosely. Again, it’s entirely possible that the fit here is “film
accurate” – but what is seen only fleetingly, in smoke and shadow, is
not the same thing as what is seen in the bright lighting of a toy
shelf. It may have worked in the former, it works less well in
the latter.
In other respects, though, the outfit is pretty
great. His belt looks like a real rope belt, there are pouches
hanging off it in various places (which can be moved around). The
outfit is raggedy, shabby, with loose threads hanging from the
edges. It effectively suggests that this is an outcast, someone
powerless and disenfranchised.
Articulation
- ****
There really isn’t any better articulation here than we’ve seen
in prior figures, but maybe because the outfit is less restrictive than
most, it ends up SEEMING like he’s more poseable. The
double-jointed elbows are wonderful, the ball joint on the neck allows
for all sorts of expressive positioning of that outrageous head.
The legs are designed well enough to keep him standing, with ball
joints at the ankles and hips and double pin joints at the knee, so he
can be posed dynamically, he can sit at the bar, he can stand pensively
in the corner, all without toppling over.
Accessories
- *** for the exclusive, ** for the regular edition I’m
not a collector who cares all that much for accessories unless they are
traditionally associated with the character (Captain America’s shield,
Frodo Baggins and the One Ring, Darth Vader’s lightsaber). If it
doesn’t fit onto the figure somewhere, it’s just clutter that I have to
store somehow. Still, when figures are this expensive, it’s nice
to see some gesture towards giving you a total package. This time
we have two extra hands, and a gun which is essentially the standard
issue stormtrooper blaster done with some rusty brown detailing.
It’s neat and all, but a bit uninspiring. Given that the original
intent was clearly to include a Cantina drinking glass (which the box
fallaciously indicates is present), it’s particularly disappointing
that he comes with so little. Since Sideshow has made not one but
two Cantina environments so far (the table and chairs for Greedo and a
slightly different table for “Nadon’s Nook”), a unique and
interestingly funky sci-fi goblet of some kind would have been kinda
cool.
Buyers of the exclusive edition do get a decent accessory,
albeit a non-film one: his staff, seen also in the most recent
Hasbro 3 ¾” version of the figure. It’s well done, simple and
basic but not bland, and it can be used to give him a more “fantasy”
appearance. Still, for a character known primarily for hanging
out in a bar in the middle of the afternoon, it’s a shame we didn’t get
some fun Cantina-specific accessory. A space ashtray. A
galactic cocktail napkin. An interstellar coaster.
Anything,
really. (And hey, wouldn’t it have been neat to give us the
loose-fitting blue bathing suit the vintage figure wore as an
alternative costume accessory? Who’s with me? Anyone?
Anyone? Is this thing on?)
Value
- ** This is
getting more and more subjective, I fear. More and more people
are bristling at Sideshow’s prices these days, and many of those people
would seemingly prefer to pay much more for figures that are much
better. My own opinion is that most of the time, Sideshow is
priced fairly. This stuff is MUCH better than what we got from Hasbro,
and occasionally it’s hard to imagine anything but the tiniest of
obsessive-fanboy tweaking by way of improvement. And while Hot
Toys has quickly set the standard for high end 1:6 product, they also
tend to charge a lot more for what they offer. Sideshow is
somewhere in the middle – more expensive than when Hasbro did this
in-house, less expensive than the tricked out Hot Toys versions might
have been (or might be, if you believe the rumors). Nadon sells
for $120, which is maybe a bit high given that he doesn’t seem as large
or elaborate as the Gamorrean Guard that costs the same, but given the
fact that he’s not only got new hands and a large head, he’s also got
uniquely sculpted legs and feet – eh, it doesn’t strike me as grand
larceny. I’d be happier if Sideshow released a figure like this for
$80-90, sure, but at the current price I’m not feeling robbed.
Fun
Factor - *** This
is where the figure shines. The sculpt is great, as well, of
course, but both the paint and the outfit are both a smidgeon shy of
truly outstanding. But what really matters is that this is a
really fun toy. Because his design and costume are fairly simple,
he’s sturdy enough that even younger, slightly more reckless fans could
play with him without him breaking. But more importantly, he’s a
freaking weird looking alien. That’s awesome. He’s
eye-catching, he’s poseable, he’s evocative of exotic locales and
intrigue, he’s just what he should be.
Overall-
**** Yes, I’ve quibbled over some minor points
here, but really this is a fantastic figure. He’s unique, he’s iconic,
he’s both a great reminder of where Star Wars toys began and an
exciting new direction for the current line. It’s always fun to see
something truly original in a line that’s gone on for so long, and
we’ve never seen a 1:6 Hammerhead before. And, hey, this one’s really
well done.
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This product was purchased for the review by the reviewer.
Photos and text by Lawrence Horsburgh.
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