The Good: Great investment value, Great detailing, Cool accessories, Good balance
The Bad: Awkward poseability.
The Basics: Hem Dazon is another obscure Cantina alien from A New Hope that fleshes out the action figures exceptionally well in the Saga Collection!
There is something to be said for the bummer that comes with changing the original Star Wars Trilogy. One of those bummers has to be the fact that several very cool aliens in the Mos Eisley Cantina were edited out. Some, like the Shivasten Wolfman, were edited out of the film, but had figures made in earlier toylines. Others, like Bane Malar (reviewed here!) would not be released until Hasbro was desperate to make even the background aliens appear absolutely cool. Hem Dazon, ironically, was made into an action figure after being edited out of the Star Wars Special Edition and then being replaced for the DVD version of A New Hope.
For those unfamiliar with Hem Dazon, his head popped up to begin the Mos Eisley Cantina scene in A New Hope (reviewed here!). Seen only as a head, the Arconan popped into frame while the Modal Nodes played in the background and thus the rockin' Cantina was introduced. The alien had no lines, explicit story or even other shots in the movie. Yet, he warrants an action figure to the delight of Star Wars geeks!
The 4" Hem Dazon figure is pretty cool, in terms of detailing and sculpt, and it fleshes out the full Star Wars universe exceptionally well. Fans who like having more aliens in their collections for play and display will be thrilled to add Hem Dazon to their shelves and to have one that is so playable makes it easy to recommend enthusiastically.
Basics
The Hem Dazon figure stands 3 7/8" tall to the top of his head. He is more than a head, which is nice. This Hem Dazon - the only one to be made by Hasbro so far - looks like a bounty hunter with a triangle-shaped reptilian head. Standing like most humanoids, Hem Dazon has long arms and lizard feet that make him look like he's quite a jumper!
This toy is a great sculpt, looking like the head seen briefly in A New Hope! More than that, though, this looks like a fully-realized character and for fans of bounty hunters or Star Wars aliens, this is a great investment. Hem Dazon's triangular head is well-sculpted and includes the ridges around the base of the eye stalks that make it look realistic. His uniform may be very clean, but it features multiple colors for various patches and the shoulders look armored like the image on the front of the package suggests it ought. Hem Dazon's feet are sculpted with great bone veining that looks incredibly realistic and pretty deadly. Similarly, Dazon's fingers look almost skeletal and creepy!
The coloring details on Hem Dazon remind toy enthusiasts just how much may be done with contemporary toymaking processes. Hem Dazon's eyes have a pearlescent yellow-green eyes shimmer and the intensity of the eyes is a wonderful detail. Dazon's belt buckle and pouches feature silver highlights that also add realism. One of the drawbacks to many Star Wars figures has been that they do not feature realistic skin tones or shading. Hem Dazon's crevasses are darker hues than the front of his face and for a puppet that was seen for only a few frames, that level of attention to detail is phenomenal.
Accessories
Hem Dazon is a fearsome bounty hunter or smuggler in the Cantina and as such, he's packing heat, drinking and comes with a table-type accessory. The "table" is a simple column with a sticker that insinuates the standalone lit-top tables in the Cantina. This accessory is an unremarkable 5/8" in diameter, 1 7/8" tall column which simply stands there and acts as a place for Hem Dazon to set his drink.
The drinking glass for Hem Dazon was part of the push in the late 2000s (first decade) for Cantina Aliens to feature more realistic accessories, like drinking vessels, considering they are sitting in a bar. Hem Dazon's is a 1/2" tall contoured clear plastic cylinder that is about 1/8" in diameter. The bottom half of the plastic is actually translucent blue, which makes it look like the glass is almost full and that is a pretty neat concept considering early figures in the Star Wars line had opaque glasses or no drinking paraphernalia at all. The glass fits perfectly in Hem Dazon's left hand.
Hem Dazon, as an alien scoundrel contemporary of Han Solo, also features a blaster pistol. His blaster pistol resembles Han Solo's in size - as a toy accessory, it is about 3/4" long - though Dazon's has a brown grip. Hem Dazon's blaster pistol fits perfectly in Dazon's right hand, which is sculpted to hold it and make it appear he is ready to pull the trigger! The blaster also fits perfectly in Hem Dazon's holster on his right hip.
Hem Dazon also comes 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 Hem Dazon on the front.
Like all of the 2006 Saga Collection figures, Hem Dazon features a hologram figure. Hem Dazon 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 looking ready knock down some Jedi!
Playability
The four inch toy line was designed for play and Hem Dazon is pretty great in that regard. The figure features twelve points of articulation, most of which are simple swivel joints. Hem Dazon has joints at the ankles, groin socket, waist, shoulders, elbows, forearms and neck. While the ankle articulation is somewhat weird - especially for how it makes the feet appear - the ball and socket and hinged shoulders add incredible movement realism to the upper half of the figure. As well, because the head is on a ball and socket joint, it can swivel from left to right and nod up and down which is pretty cool. Unfortunately, the knees do not bend and the elbows only rotate, as opposed to bend.
Even so, Hem Dazon looks awesome while standing and he does have holes in his feet which allows him to be placed on any number of playsets. He had pretty good balance on or off his stand, though when off his stand he must be posed in a flatfooted position.
Collectibility
Hem Dazon is part of the Saga line that was released in 2006. Hem Dazon is 2006 Saga Collection figure #033. Hem Dazon was exceptionally shortpacked and demand for it was not met by the fans determined to flesh out their full collections. As a result, Hem Dazon remains a pretty worthwhile investment piece whose value has doubled. Hem Dazon is one of the more obscure aliens on the market and it will likely continue to grow in value, largely because there is little reason for Hasbro to bother with recasting the obscure alien.
Overview
Hem Dazon is an overall worthwhile Star Wars action figure and the 2006 sculpt might not be perfect, but it is so close that Hasbro since moved on (and never looked back) to recasting or making first attempts at other Cantina aliens.
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
007 General Veers
022 Firespeeder Pilot
031 Momaw Nadon
071 Kitik Keed'Kak
8.5/10
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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