Rebel Pilot (Mon Calamari)

June 23, 2012 | By More


The Star Wars movies are populated with a lot of interesting looking alien species, although there is no denying that one of the more prominent from Episode VI are the Mon Calamari. In the Expanded Universe, these aquatic aliens are responsible for providing the Rebellion with equipment and supplies, and their starships form the backbone of the Rebel Fleet.

The one Mon Calamari that immediately comes to mind is Admiral Ackbar of course, and his crewmen aboard the Home One, but some of them also served as fighter pilots during the Battle of Endor. Unfortunately, we never get to see a Mon Calamari fighter pilot in action, although some scenes were shot and ultimately left out of the movie.

However, the scene was included as an extra in the Blu-Ray release of Return of the Jedi, so Hasbro decided to mine those deleted scenes and finally give us the Mon Calamari Rebel Pilot (VC91).

This Mon Cal is attired as an A-Wing pilot, according to the type of vest he wears. Some of the pieces on his flightsuit are obviously reused from previous figures, most notably the B-Wing Pilot uniform; this means that the level of sculpted detail is quite good, but also that the roster of rebel pilots could be boosted just by switching hands and heads. The outfit is completed with a removable helmet adapted to Mon Cal anatomy and a set of straps and hoses that hang from the control vest.

The hands and head of the Mon Cal pilot are new sculpts, which came as a surprise because I half expected Hasbro to just stick the pieces from the previously released Admiral Ackbar onto the pilot’s body.

The difference is evident when you put both figures side by side, as, the Mon Cal pilot does appear to be younger than Ackbar and both of his hands are sculpted with extended trigger fingers. In fact, the Mon Cal pilot’s head makes me think of a realistic sculpt of Naddar Vebb, the Mon Cal padawan that appeared in the early seasons of Clone Wars.

Articulation is extensive and well integrated into the costume, consisting of:

• Ball jointed neck..

• Peg & hinge shoulders

• Peg & hinge elbows.

• Swivel forearms.

• Floating torso.

• Swivel hips.

•Peg & hinge knees.

• Peg & hinge ankles.

The joints work well and the straps are flexible enough to allow sitting poses, although the rather large head of the Mon Calamari Pilot makes it rather difficult to fit inside the cockpit of current A-Wing toys.

The uniform is molded in olive green plastic, with solid block paint applications at the vest and footgear. The exposed carapace areas were painted with a mottled dark orange pattern and the eyes were given dark pupils and bright gold irises.

Since this guy is a pilot, accessories are rather few. There is the helmet, of course, which fits tightly on the pilot’s head and there is also a pistol, which is the same mold we have gotten before issued with the other B-Wing pilots, only this time the weapon has a silver paint application on the tip.

The Mon Calamari Rebel Pilot manages to fill a few collecting niches in one go, being an alien, a pilot and having originated from the original trilogy but also, the action figure is remarkably well designed, so I’m counting it among my favorite figures for 2012.

Errex Score: 98/100

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Category: Featured, Star Wars, Toy Reviews

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.

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