The Good: Wonderful coloring detail, Good accessories, Wonderful articulation
The Bad: Cloak is ungainly and looks ridiculous, Articulation points that are undone by the cloak.
The Basics: The Vintage Collection resurrects the Nikto Jedi Knight as VC49 Fi-Ek Sirch (Jedi Knight) but undermines the overall quality by adding a ridiculous cloth cloak that mostly gets in the way.
It's pretty exciting to me to be working in a place where I'm able to buy the newest toys (and a whole lot of vintage stuff!) as it hits the market. Truth be told, though, I've been treading more toward some of the actual vintage Star Wars toys, as opposed to the new Vintage Collection castings largely because of my dislike of figures where the cloth and plastic elements mix . . . poorly. Unfortunately for one of the hottest Star Wars figures on the market right now, the Fi-Ek Sirch (Jedi Knight) figure from the Legacy Collection does just that. The figure beneath the cloth robe is all right, but the robe is an ungainly fit and looks absolutely terrible on him!
For those unfamiliar with the Fi-Ek Sirch, that is not terribly surprising as he is visible only for a few frames in Attack Of The Clones (reviewed here!). Fi-Ek Sirch is a Jedi Knight who appears briefly in the Battle Of Geonosis in the arena. He is distinctive for being a Nikto, a brown-skinned, horned reptilian Jedi.
The 4" Fi-Ek Sirch was completely recast from the Attack Of The Clones Nikto Jedi Master figure for the 2011 Vintage Collection and it remains virtually impossible to find on the shelves now.
Basics
The Fi-Ek Sirch figure stands 3 3/4" tall to the top of his head. He is an alien who is wearing the typical Jedi robes and cloak, most of which is made out of plastic. The outermost robe, however, is a light tan cloth robe which inhibits Fi-Ek Sirch's movement and lowers the overall playability of the figure.
This toy is a pretty wonderful sculpt, though the descending horns over this Nikto's eyes are far longer than ones pictured on the front of the figure's card. Fi-Ek Sirch is molded wearing the typical dark brown vest and obi of a Jedi Knight with khaki colored pants and brown boots. What distinguishes this Jedi Knight from all of the others is the reptile head and hands that define him as a Nitko. Fi-Ek Sirch is cast wonderfully with a head that reminds one of a desert lizard or horned toad with spikes around the face and strong plates along the head that suggest that his skin is quite thick. Fi-Ek Sirch is further accented by three powerful claws on each hand which look like they could crush pretty much anything! The half of the Jedi Vest that falls below Fi-Ek Sirch's waist is made of cloth, save a loincloth type piece of plastic. To its credit, Hasbro did an excellent job of matching the plastic and cloth elements on the main figure.
Fi-Ek Sirch is colored with pretty amazing attention to detail. His brown belt is accented with silver highlights for every buckle, grommet and snap giving him pretty extraordinary detailing in the smallest elements. Similarly, the horns on his head are appropriately lighter than his skin. Even his eyes look great with blue irises and black pupils! Even so, Fi-Ek Sirch has a very clean outfit and the outer cloak is made without any wear or discoloration to it.
Accessories
Fi-Ek Sirch is a Jedi Knight, so all he comes with as far as accessories is his lightsaber(s). This Nikto Jedi features a blue bladed lightsaber which is less bright than many others. Instead, the portion of the 2 3/4" blade that is blue is an icy blue plastic. Apparently realizing how breakable the removable lightsaber blades from the Attack Of The Clones line were, the Vintage Collection Fi-Ek Sirch has a lightsaber without a detachable blade and a separate lightsaber hilt. The lightsaber hilt is a simple, 3/4" silver-gray cylinder with appropriate contouring to be a believable lightsaber hilt. It has a tiny peg which attaches to an almost imperceptible hole in Sirch's belt, allowing the backup lightsaber to dangle there!
Playability
The four inch toy line was designed for play and Fi-Ek Sirch is generally good in that regard. First, the figure has decent balance. Flatfooted, Fi-Ek Sirch is pretty solid, and because of the lower half articulation of the figure, he has decent posing options, though many outside having him flatfooted result in him falling over. Still, the holes in the bottom of his feet allow him to stand tall on any number of playsets in outlandish poses or stand in an action pose ready to defend other Jedi on Geonosis!
Fi-Ek Sirch holds up exceptionally well in the articulation department, despite the cloak being problematic. He has hinged ball and socket joints at the ankles, knees, elbows and shoulders, as well as a ball and socket joint which allows a great range of motion for the head. The wrists, groin socket and waist all have simple swivel joints that provide the figure with more than enough posing options to make the figure worthwhile!
Unfortunately, Fi-Ek Sirch is cursed with the cloak, which lowers the range of motion in the arms and is so gangly as to make the Jedi Knight look ridiculous. Similarly, Fi-Ek Sirch's head features two lower horns or skin flaps which inhibit the head motion. While the figure is jointed to have a great head range of motion, the reality is that it cannot turn its head too far.
Collectibility
Fi-Ek Sirch is part of the Vintage Collection line that was released in 2011 and it is one of the harder ones to find at the moment. Fi-Ek Sirch is Vintage Collection figure VC49 and it easily replaces the Attack Of The Clones Nikto Jedi Knight, but given how different the two figures are, that one might still be worth holding onto. Right now, this looks to be a strong investment figure, despite the doofy looking cloth robe.
Overview
With the hood on the cloak up, the gangly cloak on Fi-Ek Sirch makes the figure virtually immobile and obscures all of the great detailing Hasbro did. Even so, the figure is well-made, well detailed and comes with appropriate accessories making it an overall worthwhile Jedi action figure, even if it is far from perfect.
For other Vintage Collection figures, please check out my reviews of:
VCP03 Boba Fett
VC11 (Twin Pod) Cloud Car Pilot
VC22 Admiral Ackbar
VC48 Weequay Skiff Master
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.
No comments:
Post a Comment