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12" Zam Wesell

Hasbro keeps putting out the 12" Star Wars figures, and we keep on buying them.  Doubtful that will change any time soon.

The latest wave, the first since last spring when the first Episode 2 figures hit, includes Count Dooku, a Super Battle Droid, and Zam Wesell the bounty hunter.

Fans love bounty hunters, and female bounty hunters get extra points.  Zam was a fairly interesting character in the film, and at least she got a few minutes of screen time before being unceremoniously offed by old man Fett.

Zam's specialty was transformation, giving her the opportunity to look like all kinds of beasts if she needed to.  Unfortunately, this was woefully underused in the film.

I picked mine up at a local Meijers for $20 plus tax.  Not a terrible price for 12" Star Wars figures, but are they worth even that?


Packaging - **
Nothing really surprising here.  The packaging is the same as the previous AOTC 12" packaging, only less collector friendly this time.  You'll have to tear it up to get all the parts out, since the 'transformation' mask is sealed to the backer card.

Sculpting - **
It's not that this is a terrible head sculpt - she's actually quite pretty.  I don't know who the hell she is, but she's quite pretty.

It's definitely not Zam, unless she tried to morph into Cameron Diaz and got stuck half way.  The face is long and thin, where's Zam's is round.  And, as is expected with Hasbro, her head is about 20% too big for her body.

Paint - ***
The paint ops are decent, particularly Zam's face.  Her skin tone is way off though, and while I really like the mask, the eyes on mine are off center, giving her a lazy eye.

Articulation - *1/2
There's simply no excuse for Hasbro's continued use of these extremely poor bodies.  The sixth scale market has progressed far beyond this level, and Hasbro has to catch up.

Zam has neck, ball jointed shoulders, waist, hips, and clicky knees.  She might have ankles, but the thick rubber boots make that a moot point.

With no elbow, no wrist, and poor leg joints, her articulation is well below any basic acceptable level.

Accessories - **1/2
Zam has three real accessories - a hand blaster, rifle, and her transformed face (mask).

The hand blaster is fairly weak, with a soft sculpt that's far too small even for her petite hands.  On top of that, it's practically lost in the large holster.

The rifle is far better, and is one of the best 12" accessories in the AOTC line so far.  Too bad her hand sculpts, combined with her truly awful articulation, make the rifle almost impossible for her to hold in any realistic manner.

The mask sculpt is pretty good, and it fits her face well, although it sticks out quite a bit.  It's the best of the accessories, since it looks good, like the rifle, but is actually useful with the figure.

Outfit - **1/2
Not one of the worst Hasbro sixth scale outfits we've ever seen, but not one of the best either.  Let's go top to bottom.

The helmet fits well, and it's a good sculpt.  Sure, the oversized head causes the helmet to be large as well, but it looks good given that inherent problem.  However, the binoculars don't drop down in front, and that was fairly disappointing since it looks in the package like they might.

The weirdest item in the outfit is the veil.  I have no idea where this thing is suppose to hook, but it looks like there was some sort of plan.  There are eyelets in two corners, but nothing that I can find on the helmet or head for them to attach to.  You can tuck it up inside the helmet I suppose, but overall the veil is a major let down.

The body suit, vest and belt are all nicely done.  They have the arms sculpted, but the rest of the body covered in clothing.  That's an odd combination, and removes any possibility of swapping out the poorly articulated body with a better one.  The outfit finishes off with a pair of decent boots.

Value - **1/2
Twenty bucks isn't a terrible price, but I think collectors would be happy to pay $35 if they could get Dragon quality.  Can you imagine a Zam Wesell as good as a Cy-Girl?

Overall - **
Poor Zam was *this close* to losing another half star.  We don't get too many sixth scale Star Wars females - well, not decent ones anyway - and I had hopes that Hasbro would finally come through.  It looks like they are improving the male figures, at least in the case of Dooku, but they've got miles to go before they can produce a decent female.

Where to Buy - 
Target and Meijers are getting these first, although I doubt Toys R Us or Wal-mart can be far behind.  On-line:

- Amazon.com is already shipping her, along with the Super Battle Droid and Dooku, for $19.99 plus shipping. (MROTW Affiliate)


Figure from the collection of Michael Crawford.

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