Bastila Shan

March 3, 2012 | By More


 

The Star Wars Expanded Universe is a rather bizarre beast. Over the years there have been numerous books, comics and videogames that explore the often-unseen events that take place in the lapses of time punctuated by the films. The sheer volume of information is simply way too cumbersome for me to bother trying to catch up, although there is one segment of the Expanded Universe I feel comfortable with, and that is video games.

The reason is simple. Videogames are visual, like the films, and interactive which goes a long way with me as far as immersion goes. One of the all-time top-rated Star Wars games is the RPG Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic, and the figure I’m reviewing today, Bastila Shan, comes from that game.

Bastila Shan (VC69) was released as part of a half-wave in the Vintage Collection that included a few more new characters from the films and some repacks of previously released figures that didn’t see wide distribution the first time around. I mention this because, as things go these days, Bastila still wasn’t particularly easy to find in the wild.

Distribution woes aside, Bastila Shan is certainly a nice action figure, although the overall aesthetics are not necessarily what comes to mind when one thinks about jedi. Bastila wears a yellow/tan jumpsuit under what appears to be a leather tabard. The sculpted detail is not very complex, although there are some patterns stamped on the torso and the clothes display the necessary folds and creases at the joints.

 

The figure is a fairly close rendition to the default appearance for Bastila in the game, although I think the headsculpt deviates a bit from it. The one thing I noticed is that her forehead seems a bit too prominent compared to the way the digital model looked, and although pretty, the face doesn’t resemble the card art either.

Articulation follows the standard for the Vintage Collection line, with the following:

 

Ball jointed head.

Pegged hinge elbows.

Pegged hinge shoulders.

Swivel wrists.

Swivel waist.

Swivel hips.

Pegged hinge knees.

Pegged hinge ankles.

 

Due to the shoulder pad sculpt, Bastila has trouble extending her arms but there is a way around it by flipping the arm upwards, extending the shoulder and then turning the arm right back. Other than that, the rest of the joints works as well as I would expect and the figure is very stable.

The paint operations on Bastila are fairly simple, since her outfit consists of only two colors with few little extra details painted in silver or a slightly different shade of brown. The areas of exposed skin on the face, neck and hands are all painted, which is good for consistency even though I’m not a big fan of this approach as it is a pain to try and match colors whenever a paint rub occurs.

Bastila comes equipped with a double bladed lightsaber with translucent yellow blades and a deactivated silver hilt that can be plugged onto her belt. I was half expecting it to be the same mold as Darth Mauls saber, but I’m glad to report it is an entirely new piece.

As a whole, Bastila is a fairly nice figure but not necessarily a must-buy, unless you happen to be a fan of the game she comes from.

 

Errex Score: 85/100

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Category: Featured, Star Wars, Toy Reviews, Video Games

About the Author ()

I've been collecting action figures since the original Kenner Star Wars days. Nowadays, I still collect pretty much anything that catches my eye.

Comments (2)

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  1. Bill White says:

    I saw this figure in the wild a couple of times, but I passed as I was not familiar with her. After reading several postings about it, though, I now want one, and she is long gone. My bad.

    Your review was another good one, which of course just adds to my frustration. What is up with Hasbro’s distribution? Remember back in the 90’s when, if you were patient, you would eventually find every figure, even the “hot” ones (i.e. “Monkey Face Leia”. Not that she LOOKED hot, she was just hard to find at first)?

    BTW, who is that other figure in the last photo?

  2. Engineernerd says:

    The figures I had the hardest time finding were R2 with holo leia, and the dark death star droid and hoth leia from near the end of the POTF2 line. But yeah, things were easier to find back then.

    The other figure is Maris Brood from the Force Unleashed.