

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?
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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.
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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. |