Gungan Warrior

February 9, 2013 | By More


 

 

Even though as a species, Gungans have not received the same amount of toy love as, say, Ewoks, I have always considered them a pretty cool alien race, Jar Jar notwithstanding.

 

This latest, and oddly numbered, Gungan Warrior (VC74) is another of the figures included in the last wave of 2012’s Star Wars Vintage Collection by Hasbro.

 

The Gungan is loosely based on the previous Gungan we received back in the last incarnation of the Build-A- Droid line. In fact, only arms and legs seem to be the same molds developed for that other figure, although the new Gungan Warrior has a noticeably narrower stance.

 

The torso and head are entirely new pieces, each with a very nice amount of detail in the form of leathery textures applied to the garment and the Gungan’s skin. The facial expression of this alien is fairly neutral, although it is hard to read faces that are so non-human.

 

Articulation is excellent, consisting of:

 

• Ball jointed head.

• Pegged hinge shoulders.

• Pegged hinge elbows.

• Mid-forearm swivels.

• Swivel waist.

• Swivel hips.

• Pegged hinge knees.

• Pegged hinge ankles.

 

There are a couple issues with the character design, like the neck which functions mostly as a simple swivel joint, or the shape of the lower thighs preventing the knees to bend sideways, but none of this really impacts too negatively in the amount of fun to be had with this figure.

 

The paint applications are perfect, although the color palette itself is rather dull. The copper deco on the uniform helps a little bit, but even though the skin has a second color applied to the inside of the arms, the front of the neck and under the jaw, the overall look is not varied enough for me.

 

On a more positive note, this time Hasbro took the time to sort of match the color of the articulation pins to that of the adjacent areas, and even though the knee joints are the same color of the kneepads, this time these look good like that.

 

This Gungan Warrior comes equipped with a shoulder-mounted stereoscope and a really long staff with a pocket on one end, not unlike a lacrosse stick. The staff comes disassembled in the blister and has coppery-gold decorations painted at each end as well as a couple of brown wrap handles, while the stereoscope is almost entirely painted in gold with only the subtlest hint of patina.

 

It is something of a shame that Hasbro didn’t release this figure earlier and in the regular assortments, because being part of the online-exclusive last wave of this collection it will be next to impossible to army build it, and this Gungan Warrior action figure is definitely one worthy of having multiples of.

 

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.