The Good: Great sculpt, Fine accessory, Good articulation, (Generally) Amazing coloring
The Bad: Balance issues with more elaborate poses, Overall color.
The Basics: The 2009 Legacy Collection offers Star Wars fans arguably the ultimate Zuckuss figure.
My loyal review readers know that I have a pretty decent collection of Star Wars bounty hunter toys (including the 12" version of Zuckuss, which is reviewed here!). In fact, I have the whole doll collection of bounty hunters displayed in a case - my wife is currently mulling over picking up the Sideshow Jabba and having me invest in a larger display case - so the idea that I am an Alpha Geek is not one that we are ashamed of at Chez Swarts. Outside the doll collection, I have a lot of the 3.5" Star Wars figures of bounty hunters and because of one of Hasbro's recent gimmicks - the Build-A-Droid endeavor - I ended up with another Zuckuss in my collection, the 2009 Legacy Collection version and I am overwhelmingly pleased with it.
For those unfamiliar with Zuckuss, this is hardly surprising as Zuckuss was a name given to the bounty hunter by the toy manufacturers. Zuckuss is one of several bounty hunters seen on Darth Vader's Star Destroyer in the bounty hunter scene in The Empire Strikes Back (reviewed here!). Zuckuss is the insect-like bounty hunter seen in a few frames with a breathing apparatus and a pretty cool gun in (according the common Star Wars lore) her hands.
The 2009 Legacy Collection figure is at least the second Zuckuss figure to hit the market in the 3.5" scale in the current (post 1995) toy line and it has some distinct improvements over Kenner's Power Of The Force figure, despite having a blend of fabric and plastic parts.
Basics
The Zuckuss figure is well-detailed and features the insect alien with its breathing tubes, backpack, breastplate and skirt-like robes. The bounty hunter is oddly mixed in the robe department as she has a cloth skirt, but the robe from the waist and above is made of plastic. The Zuckuss figure, based upon a shorter character in the Star Wars universe, stands 3 1/4" tall as an action figure and she looks pretty good! Zuckuss was released in 2009 as part of Hasbro's Legacy Collection with the Droid Factory bonus. The support character is cast in fairly soft plastic.
This toy is a fairly impressive sculpt; for a character that was seen ridiculously briefly, this looks just like the picture on the package! The head is well-sculpted and includes the big, buggy silver eyes with the accented lids and the appearance of a hood. She also has her mouth region entirely covered with what appears to be breathing mechanisms. Part of the tour de force of casting with this Zuckuss figure are the tubes which extend out of the head, down around the figure and into a backpack on the bounty hunter's back. Hasbro managed to escape any problems with coloring for the flesh tones of the alien by completely obscuring the character's skin, just like in The Empire Strikes Back!
But, there is a problem with the coloring of Zuckuss, despite my not wanting to admit that this figure was a little farther from perfect than I originally wanted to consider it. In ever picture I can find, Zuckuss is dressed in tan robes and tan everything else. She looks like she could blend in on the desert. The Legacy Collection figure is brown, almost a caramel color which does not match the appearance of the alien in the picture. The basic coloring, then, is a little off and that is disappointing for those looking for entire realism with the sculpt and coloring of the toy.
The costuming details are decent and that admission is a lot coming from me, who has shied away from the figures that blend plastic and cloth elements. Zuckuss has a series of pouches and an armored loincloth which Hasbro makes look amazing in this sculpt. Her backpack is a gunmetal silver and it has a slightly worn look to it. One of the most impressive details on the sculpting of the costume has to be that the tubes that extend from Zuckuss's mouth to the backpack are cast with a look that makes them appear to have kinks and deflated portions. It's a clever idea and the overall look is very cool. Moreover, the costume Zuckuss wears is designed to not look entirely clean, which fits the whole bounty hunter image. The cloth on the skirts actually has a stained (or, I suppose, camouflage) look to it.
Zuckuss has armored shin guards on and that makes her look more segmented and insect-like, which fits the insect alien motif of the character. Her three-fingered hands hold her blaster easily in a one or two-handed grip.
Accessories
Zuckuss, the deadly bounty hunter, comes with only one accessory in addition to the droid part. She has a blaster rifle and it is unique to Zuckuss. The rifle is cast in black plastic and has a double barrel look that is pretty cool - the two barrels are above and below one another, as opposed to side-by-side. The 1 1/2" blaster has a grip at the back and a secondary gripping point where the two barrels diverge. That makes the gun, which features a painted woodstock accent on the stock, ideal for the two-handed grip Zuckuss is seen clutching the gun with in The Empire Strikes Back.
This figure was part of the "Droid Factory" line of the Legacy Collection figures and the basic premise was that for every six figures you bought, you'd get a seventh which would be assembled from parts in each of the six toys in the collection. Zuckuss comes with left leg of the HK-50 droid. This is a skeletal humanoid droid, which is reminiscent of a mechanized bug, and the leg is articulated at both the knee and the ankle!
Playability
The four inch toy line was designed for play and Zuckuss is impressive in that regard. This Legacy Collection figure has amazing articulation as well as generally decent balance! Flatfooted, this is a very balanced toy and it is hard to tip Zuckuss over. Zuckuss comes with fourteen points of articulation, most of which are not just simple swivel joints. Zuckuss has joints at the ankles, knees, groin socket, shoulders, elbows, wrists, neck, and waist and she twists at any of those points. The shoulders, ankles, elbows AND knees are all ball-and-socket joints with hinge joints, offering unreal amounts of articulation! The head is on a ball joint, which allows the bounty hunter to nod up and down as well as look left to right, at least in a limited fashion (limited by her breathing tubes)!
Unfortunately, for more than simple poses, Zuckuss does lose her balance, especially simple running poses. However, for those more complicated poses, there are playsets with foot pegs which fit into the holes in either of Zuckuss's feet.
Collectibility
Zuckuss is part of the 2009 Legacy Collection four-inch series, a series of "Star Wars" action figures that was not incredibly common. Even so, this Zuckuss has not appreciated in value, arguably because it appears to be the same sculpt from the Bounty Hunter pack and the new 2010 Saga Legends Collection. Fans of the toys need only one of this Zuckuss and those who spent big on the exclusive Bounty Hunter multipack arguably did not feel the need to get yet another Zuckuss, especially because the same droid part can be found in a few other packages. Despite the quality of the sculpt, this is not likely to be a great moneymaking investment.
Zuckuss is BD54 in the Legacy Collection.
Overview
Zuckuss is a pretty wonderful little figure for bounty hunter fans, but she is not perfect at all. Despite my initially wanting to rate her higher, objective standards and testing on the figure revealed that it has some flaws, at least one of which ought to have been dealt with on the manufacturing level. Still, those looking for a Zuckuss figure will find this to be a surprisingly worthwhile one and it can, at the very least, replace the earlier Kenner versions.
For other Legacy Collection figures, please check out my reviews of:
BD17 Princess Leia (Slave Leia)
BD34 Leesub Sirln
BD39 Jawa with Security Droid
BD41 The Utai
BD42 Jeremoch Colton
BD50 Wing Guard
BD52 R2-X2
BD55 Snowtrooper
8.5/10
For other Star Wars toy and doll reviews, please visit my index page by clicking here!
© 2011 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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