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Ratts Tyerell & Pit Droid

April 14, 2012 | By Errex More

Back when Episode I was released, a lot of praise was heaped upon the pod racing scenes in Tatooine but I wasn’t that much impressed, to be honest. The extended scenes included for the latest releases of the film in DVD and BR formats actually add to the rhythm of the whole sequence, but it kind of took about 13 years for them to tweak it.

The one thing I liked, regarding the toys, was that right from the start Hasbro made action figures from some of the more easily recognized alien racers. However, it wasn’t until now that they made an action figure of Ratts Tyerell (VC77), the only pilot that actually lost his life that time on the Boonta Eve Classic.

Ratts is an Aleena, and the second member of his species made into an action figure after Jedi Master Tsui Choi. Even though these aliens are really small, Ratts still has a nice amount of detail sculpted onto him.

His pod-racing outfit consists of a leather vest and what appears to be a rather big diaper with a few extra accessories added, like arm protections, spats and a set of racing goggles.

Ratts face has a fairly neutral expression, for a reptile that is, and the skin is painted in a muted gray/blue color that I think looks closer to how he looked in the movie.

Considering the dimensions of the figure and the character design, Ratts Tyerell has just enough joints to make him interesting:

• Ball jointed neck.

• Pegged hinge shoulders.

• Swivel forearms.

• Swivel waist.

• Swivel hips.

The neck ball goes rather deep into the head, so the actual functionality of the joint is just slightly better than that of a simple swivel, but the rest of the articulation points work as well as one would expect.

Ratts’ seems to be molded primarily in bluish gray plastic, with a few touches of light cream paint for the inside of limbs, face and neck. There is also a darker gray spot pattern painted at the sides of his head, and over his right breast there is a small crest printed in red and blue.

Ratts Tyerell comes equipped with a small black blaster pistol he can use in either hand and a set of removable goggles molded in clear rubber, with the strap and visor areas painted in tan and dark brown respectively.

The goggles fit perfectly on the head obscuring most of the facial features, which is why it would have been nice if Ratts had been given a more intense expression, like screaming or simply showing his teeth.

True to the spirit of those first Pod Racer released in the Episode I line all those years ago, Ratts also comes with and a DUM Series Pit Droid.

This Pit Droid is the same mold released a few years back in the Saga Collection line, but this time it got a really nice paintjob consisting on maroon accents and a shading wash over the off-white plastic used to mold the droid.

The Pit Droid has pre-posed limbs and is articulated only at:

• Ball jointed neck.

• Swivel shoulders.

• Swivel hips.

Despite the fixed positions on knees and ankles, the Pit droid is stable and balanced enough to achieve a good number of poses

The diminutive size of these figures and relatively low accessory count kind of stretches the definition of value for this line, especially considering the going prices but then again, the Star Wars license sells and Ratts Tyerell turned out to be a nicely detailed, fun action figure.