The Good: Good detailing, Decent accessory, Good balance, Generally decent articulation
The Bad: Miscolored head, Weird articulation issues
The Basics: I like 4-LOM, but objectively the discolored head (and the way the coin tossed) prevent me from ultimately recommending this bounty hunter toy!
Some years ago, I was looking around my living space and I reviewed a Star Wars 12" Action figure that came with a special book. The figure was Aurra Sing (reviewed here!) and while it has taken me quite a long time to get back around to that whole collection, I am more or less ready to confess my status as an Alpha Geek. Alphas are pretty much required to have a doll collection of some sort. Sure, geeks will describe their collection as "articulated action figures" or "statue-quality display pieces," but let's be honest; they are toys.
I, for my part as a card-carrying Alpha Geek, have an old aquarium that I have set up as a dust-free environment for my collection of twelve-inch collectible dolls of the bounty hunters from the Star Wars films. You don't get much more badass than the bounty hunters and they were easily some of the coolest looking background characters in the Star Wars films, so if one had to have a collection of statue-quality display pieces, er, dolls, why not have something that at least intrigues people when they invade your personal space?
As I resume my reviews of these very different figures, I started with the first one I decided to look up here. It is 4-LOM. 4-LOM, like many of the bounty hunters, was not a speaking part and he (or it) appeared in a single scene in The Empire Strikes Back (reviewed here!), which is pretty much known as the bounty hunter scene in that movie. For those not versed in Star Wars lore, that's the very brief scene aboard an Imperial Star Destroyer where Darth Vader hires a group of bounty hunters to capture Han Solo in his attempt to trap Luke Skywalker. There are several bounty hunters standing in a line and 4-LOM is the briefly-seen droid with the bug-like head.
Basics
4-LOM is a robot assassin and bounty hunter that had perhaps three seconds of screentime in The Empire Strikes Back. The figure stands 11 3/4" tall is a dark gray with rust colored highlights on every raised surface and a giant bug head. The figure is made of hard plastic and after four or more years out of its packaging, it shows no fading or wear from light or air sources. The head, unlike the main body of the figure, is made of a significantly lighter gray plastic about the same consistency as the average rubber duck bath tub toy. Why this is is a mystery to me; 4-LOM requires no special consideration for bouncing on his head.
This toy is a wonderful sculpt, looking precisely like the bounty hunter. As well, outside the head with its green eyes (in the film its eyes were a gray color, like the color the head on this figure is) and miscolored plastic, 4-LOM is amazing in its coloring detail. This looks like a worn droid who has been scouring the galaxy searching for bounties!
Accessories
4-LOM, like a good bounty hunter, comes with a firearm. This is an eight inch plastic blaster rifle that fits perfectly in its right hand. The blaster rifle is detailed well as far as containing all of the nooks and crannies the firearm appears to have in the film, but it is a solid-colored black plastic firearm. There is no detailing that makes it look worn or more realistic or "assembled" as 4-LOM's blaster rifle probably would be. It is, however, a fairly faithful replica of what appeared in The Empire Strikes Back!
Playability
Who plays with these twelve-inch figures?! Not I! However, for displaying, there is much to recommend 4-LOM. First, this is a well-articulated action figure. 4-LOM is impressively endowed with eleven points of articulation. This bounty hunter has joints as the ankles, knees, groin socket, shoulder, right wrist, torso and neck. The neck is a simple swivel socket, which makes sense for the droid. As a result, it can turn its head left to right, but not front to back as any sort of nodding motion. Similarly, the shoulder joints are not ball and socket joints, so the droid's right arm does little other than rotate to a half-bent waving position.
Because the articulation in the arms is limited to the gun-holding wrist, 4-LOM cannot do things like hold the blaster rifle in a two-handed supporting position. I suppose droids do not need to worry about muscle fatigue. The other weird joint is the torso joint. Articulated in the abdomen, 4-LOM cannot turn at the waist, but it can rock a little above the hips. It seems to revert to a straight forward-facing position after moving the upper half in this fashion, though. I suppose this offers a limited bit of flexibility for those who play with the figure.
As it is, for a droid with realistic robot articulation, 4-LOM is remarkably stable. When posed in any sort of flatfooted position, it does not knock over or sway easily. This is important when making a display piece!
Collectibility
4-LOM is part of the Power Of The Jedi twelve-inch series, a series of Star Wars action figures that were released during a time that they were largely being mass produced. 4-LOM was actually fairly common, which tended to devalue the figure quite a bit (though most of the Star Wars figures have taken a hit from overproduction and the sheer number of them that have not been taken out of their packaging on the hopes that someday they might be an investment that pays dividends.
In other words, 4-LOM is only truly worth something to people who have a fetish for bounty hunters or droids and otherwise, it is not going to be a gold mine for anyone's collection.
Overview
4-LOM may have only had a few seconds of airtime in one of the greatest movies of all time, but it was enough that geeks who grew up on the Sacred Trilogy know who and what it is. The die-hard collectors will enjoy having something in the larger scale to display of this obscure bounty hunter, but most of us are still annoyed by the weird coloring of the head that makes us with Lucasfilm's representatives had demanded some higher standards for the figure. Ultimately, that lack of attention to an otherwise well-detailed and balanced figure is enough for me to let it fall into the "not recommend" category.
For other 12" Power Of The Jedi Star Wars dolls, please be sure to visit my reviews of:
Bossk
Han Solo In Carbonite
IG-88
Slave Leia
5/10
For other toy reviews, please be sure to visit my index page by clicking here!
© 2011, 2008 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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