Bane Malar

A number of character’s costumes are same way. A piece from here, an off the shelf jumpsuit, and volia! A new background character. Bane Malar here appears to be a great example of that kind of “Yankee ingenuity.”

Appearance:

When I was prepping for this review, I tried to get some screen caps of Bane from the Jabba’s palace scenes in “Return of the Jedi.” I couldn’t find him onscreen long enough to get a good shot of him though. I just remember him as the guy who gets pushed down the stairs when Leia makes her disguised entrance with
Chewie. (I know there’s some web controversy over
whether this is right or not, here’s an example:
Erikstormtrooper’s Sergeant Doallyn
Custom.)

Whether he’s correct or not for the scene, I’ll leave up to you kind
reader. However, he is one of the things scene builders can always use more of, a fairly generic spaceman. Put him in Mos Eisley or your Boonta Eve Pod Race scene and he’d fit right in.

To that end, he is a pretty generic figure. He’s got a blue jumpsuit on, which could pass for just about any of the Imperial or Rebel ones. Added to this are long gloves and black boots, again generic enough to be from anywhere. Over top top of that a couple of ammo belts, and a gun belt and this fairly generic body is complete.

My only real complaint about the body is oversize holster. Yeah it’s nice his pistol fits it, but I’m still on the fence between the sculpted holsters and functional ones.

The paint, what little of it there is, doesn’t have any real issues. Ah, now for the head. Here’s more of that Star Wars junk bin spirit. Malar here appears to be wearing a motorcycle helmet with hoses on the sides and a  webcam on top. I know when Jedi came out they didn’t have webcams, it just looks that way. I’m not sure how much of the plainness to blame on Hasbro and how
much to blame on the original design, but it’s definitely a boring head. To add to that, the hoses are probably some of the worse we’ve seen in recent times. They look more like a solid silver ring than hoses.

Fun:

Like I said above, if you are looking for a generic background filler, this is a good one. He’s got all the articulation you would need to put him just about any scene. The articulation in this case is well done, and doesn’t detract from the overall figure.

Thinking about it, if you’re a GI Joe collector, you could probably use him in your Cobra ranks for some type of environmental trooper. The generic face plate and body scheme sure seem like some of the various Cobra trooper variations.

Speaking of GI Joe, if Bane Malar’s rifle doesn’t come with one of those figures, it will some day. It’s a typical earth type slug thrower with a strap. It’s got some nice paint work for an accessory, as well. We sure have came a long way from the days of monochrome weapons. Add to that a standard Jabba’s palace gun, and Bane is fairly well armed.

As
with the other figures in this wave, Bane comes with a droid
piece. In this case, an astromech body. I have to say
I’m fairly impressed with the detail on the inner  workings of this guy. By itself it would like fine in Watto’s shop. The odd thing about this body is the extra lower set of “leg” holes. I’m guessing this would allow you to build a protocol droid with an astromech body. The only reason I can see to do this, is to pay homage to the vintage “Droid Factory” playset.

Overall:

Bane Malar is one of those figures, I thought looked cool when I saw him. When I got him out of the package, I wondered why I put down the cash for him. Then after I put him in my Jabba’s palace display, I realized why. The Star Wars universe is filled not only with the characters we love and hate, but a wide variety of plain folks as well. And while those folks will never make the most incredible figures in the world, they are a big part of what makes the Star Wars universe look the way it does.

Engineernerd Score: 87/100

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