The Good: Good concept, Great poseability, Decent detailing, Fine balance.
The Bad: Not the most realistic sculpt, Not the most compelling subject.
The Basics: The Star Wars Saga Collection General Veers action figure is a good, but not great, figure, that may have already been improved upon.
I am hesitant, believe it or not, to write about a figure that may have been improved upon already when the improved version of the figure is still on the market and I haven't yet had a chance to review it. That is actually where I'm opening my thoughts on the Star Wars Saga Collection General Veers action figure. This figure is a dramatic improvement on the Power Of The Force General Veers that came with the AT-AT toy that was released when I was in college, but it has since been succeeded - supposedly - by the Vintage Collection Veers currently in stores. I intend to take a look at the Veers in the store I work at before I post this review, but from memory, there seems to be little difference in the sculpts and General Veers is a pretty obscure Imperial Officer to keep resculpting. But, considering the Legacy Collection did Captain Needa (reviewed here!), General Veers is not a bad choice, either then or now for recasting.
For those unfamiliar with General Veers, he is a pretty generic imperial officer in the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back (reviewed here!). What makes him at all remarkable is that he: 1. Has more than one line and 2. Led the AT-AT detachment that went to stomp the Rebels on Hoth. Veers survived Vader's wrath and, in scenes deleted from The Empire Strikes Back was killed by Rebels in a suicide run when a snowspeeder pilot desperately tried to save other Rebels. That scene, not shown in the final film, allows fans of General Veers to believe that the Imperial Officer and his AT-AT survived to torment more Rebels another day.
The 4" General Veers figure is pretty much a generic Imperial officer and he almost works better in that regard than as the AT-AT Commander, who he is supposed to be.
Basics
The General Veers figure stands 4" tall when he is not wearing his helmet. He wears the gray outfit common to the Imperial officers in the Star Wars Trilogy. This toy is a poor sculpt, however, of General Maximillian Veers. Having met actor Julian Glover - who played Veers - in person at a convention a few years back, the toy lacks the basic shape of Glover's face and the stern set of his eyes. Moreover, the figure is very light on coloring details. Sure, the uniform hat has the silver pin colored appropriately and the insignia pins and pen are in much better proportion than those on the Kenner figure which was released in the late 1990s, but the hair poking out from under the hat lacks the shading or highlights to make it look like hair. As well, the face is cast in a monotonal tan plastic which lacks the realistic shading and coloring of Julian Glover (or any other human caucasian).
Hasbro cheats the rest of the coloring details for the skin tones by having Veers wearing black gloves which are common for many of the Imperial Officers. Outside that, the sculpt and coloring are decent. The lines of the uniform look great and the simple gray and black outfit looks entirely authentic, down to the overhanging bottom of the shirt that is molded in a soft plastic that does not inhibit the figure's flexibility or poseability.
General Veers is molded to be in an action or administrative pose which does not require him to straighten his arms or appear to be running. This makes sense for his station, but does not make him a terribly compelling subject for a figure, as far as display goes.
Accessories
General Veers is an Imperial officer and the commander of an AT-AT, which requires him to be specially armored. As such, the figure comes with a helmet, breastplate and blaster pistol, as well as the usual stand for this series of figures. The helmet is unique to this toy and slides on over the head and hat, making General Veers appear as he did during the battle of Hoth. The 5/8" tall helmet is appropriately colored in a gray-blue color that looks exactly like the helmet in the film. It pops onto the figure's head and is only slightly disproportionate to the figure's head, but because it covers the hat molded to Veers's head, it looks as good as it can. The helmet is a simple gray and black helmet with goggles molded into the front. Interestingly enough, while General Veers fits in the new AT-AT toy, he cannot stand in the cockpit with the helmet on as the helmet's thickness makes him that fraction of an inch too tall to stand there!
The breastplate is harder to reconcile, at least for fans who want to be able to play with or display figures at all angles. The breastplate is a 1 3/8" plastic armor piece that is cast in the same gray-blue plastic as the helmet. That they match perfectly is a great detail and works nicely. Unfortunately, the breastplate simply clips to the front of General Veers's uniform. From the back, this looks ridiculous and almost laughable. As well, while the side clips that connect the breastplate to the action figure work perfectly, over time, the breastplate may warp slightly. Mine, for example, now has the right shoulder piece raised as it does not connect to the figure. It looks somewhat off and if it gets worse with age, I'll be even more annoyed.
The blaster that Veers comes with is the standard Imperial blaster remolded for the Saga Collection figures. The 1 1/8" long gun fits in either of General Veers's hands and looks more or less proportionate. As well, when not in his hands, the blaster may be put in the holster on his waist, though it looks a little illy poking out from there. The monotonal black weapon is generic, but fine.
General Veers does come with a stand which was emblematic of the 2006 Saga Collection series. The stand is a 2 1/2" wide by 1 1/2" deep by 1/8" tall stand that is gunmetal colored with the name General Veers on the front. The holes in either of Veers's feet fit the peg on the stand and allow him to stand completely stable. As well, Veers fits perfectly in the cockpit of the new AT-AT toy from Hasbro!
Like all of the 2006 Saga Collection figures, General Veers features a hologram figure. General Veers comes with a 2" tall red Darth Vader hologram inaction figure. The game piece-like figure is solid red and features Darth Vader with his lightsaber drawn and ready to strike down anyone who approaches.
Playability
The four inch toy line was designed for play and General Veers is generally good in that regard. General Veers has decent balance on or off his stand, which makes him good for play or display. As well, Veers has improved poseability over the late 90's AT-AT Commander. This General Veers is articulated at the shins, groin socket, waist, shoulders, elbows, wrists and neck. While the head is on a ball and socket joint, all of the other points of articulation are simple swivel joints. This gives him limited poseability, but there are several stances he looks quite good in.
Collectibility
General Veers is part of the Saga line that was released in 2006. General Veers is 2006 Saga Collection figure #007. General Veers was fairly common and demand for it was easily met. Because Veers was not the most popular character and it has since been recast, this is not one of the most difficult figures to find, nor the most valuable. As such, this is not a great investment toy.
Overview
General Veers is good for toy enthusiasts looking to bulk up on Imperial Officers or in need of an inexpensive AT-AT Commander, but is not great for those looking for a good Julian Glover figure. He's a little more average than other Imperial Officer figures, but the Saga Collection General Veers is still not bad at all.
For other figures from the 2006 Saga Collection, please check out my reviews of:
001 Princess Leia as Boushh
003 Bib Fortuna
005 X-Wing Pilot Luke Skywalker
031 Momaw Nadon
071 Kitik Keed'Kak
6.5/10
For other Star Wars toy reviews, please check out my index page by clicking here!
© 2011 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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