The Good: Amazing articulation, Great coloring detail, Good sculpt for certain poses.
The Bad: Bowcaster is annoyingly rendered, Outside certain poses, hair looks awkward or ridiculous.
The Basics: Chewbacca has only so many looks, so for the 2008 Legacy Collection, Hasbro got creative on his leg and the figure mostly works.
Given how little Chewbacca actually does in the original Star Wars Trilogy, there are remarkably few figures or figure variations for the character. This might be why for the Shadows Of The Empire toy assortment, Chewbacca was granted a concept figure. It's also why for the Legacy Collection, Chewie was once again a concept figure. This time, the concept is from The Return Of The Jedi and the idea is that the wounded Chewbacca had to keep his leg from bleeding and had an impromptu bandage thrown on it. To the best of my knowledge and observations, the only real difference between the SL18 Chewbacca in the 2010 Saga Legends line and the 2008 Legacy Collection Chewbacca is the left leg from the knee down.
For those unfamiliar with Chewbacca, he helped liberate Han Solo from Jabba The Hutt in Return Of The Jedi (click here for the review of the film!). While keeping Han safe in the battle over the Pit Of Carkoon, Chewbacca is shot in the leg. Not shown in the film, Chewbacca bandages up his leg and goes with the Rebel forces back to the Millennium Falcon to get medical attention.
The Legacy Collection casting of Chewbacca is exceptionally articulated and has the hairy Wookie with his hair tousled.
Basics
Chewbacca is incredibly detailed both in the sculpt and the coloring. Standing above most of the rest of the line, this Chewbacca is in scale at 4 5/8" tall. Chewbacca was released in 2008 as part of Hasbro's Legacy Collection with the Droid Factory bonus (and later with a different left leg as Saga Legends figure SL18). Chewbacca from the Legacy Collection appears on the Stormtrooper helmet-shaped card with the rounded plastic bubble.
This toy is a very cool sculpt, though it forces Chewbacca to remain in very specific poses to not look entirely goofy. Chewbacca is cast with his trademark bandoleer molded to the topmost (shoulder-level) piece, then cast below in a rubbery, flexible plastic that allows it to drape appropriately no matter what the pose. This solves a big issue many earlier castings had with the way the bandoleer looked in various poses. Chewbacca's hair is posed as if he has just taken a blast of air to the face, so his eyes are visible and his snout is also cast on. He has his mouth open and the detailing on this sculpt is so impressive that it has right down to his teeth! Getting the furry Wookie detailed right has been a challenge for past sculptors, but the Legacy Collection Chewbacca gets it right with molded detailing throughout that has enough individual lines to make it look like Chewbacca is furry, not matted or weirdly hairy or armored. The hair is molded to hang from the arms, especially, which makes the figure look great when he is holding his bowcaster.
Unfortunately, the physics of the hair make this Chewbacca look utterly ridiculous when he raises his arms up. Sadly, with his arms raised, Chewbacca looks like some strange brown tulip or fountain sprouting out from below. With his arms down and before him, this Chewbacca looks wonderfully realistic from the molded details, but with arms raised anything above the usual plane of movement, and he looks silly.
As for the coloring, Chewbacca is great. This Chewbacca is several shades of brown, so he looks like the non-monotonal Wookie that he was in the movies! The bandoleer is molded in soft brown plastic which is then accented by silver paint for the boxes and snaps, making it look very real! This Chewbacca also features a brilliant pink tongue and enough detailing to the eyes to make them look more real than ridiculous. Even the bandage on the left foot is colored to make it look worn as opposed to clean!
Accessories
Chewbacca, wounded Wookie and Rebel lackey, comes with only one accessory: his trademark bowcaster. The Bowcaster should be a real cool weapon, but the Legacy Collection does not quite get it right and it makes the consumer work for it. The Bowcaster comes in two pieces, with the main part of the gun featuring a ridiculously long strap that fits the character and the scale. The soft plastic strap accents the 2 1/8" long gunmetal firearm. The gun features three scopes which actually look very cool. And this fits in either of Chewbacca's hands and looks good in a two-handed grip, which the figure is articulated enough to handle.
So, then, why am I down on the bowcaster? The crossbeam, which makes the blaster gun look like a crossbow, is detached when the figure ships. The 1 1/2" curved plastic piece with two large balls on either end has to be slide through an impossibly small slot in the gun. This means bending the gun open and hoping it does not break while one forces the giant ball through the slot. I managed to do it, but the older these toys get, the more brittle the plastic is likely to be and I shudder to think of how many fans will open them in ten years and find they snap instead of bend!
This figure was part of the "Droid Factory" line of the Legacy Collection figures and the basic premise was that for every four figures you bought, you'd get a fifth which would be assembled from parts in each of the four toys in the collection. Chewbacca comes with the head and central leg of the R4-D6 droid. This is a black and navy blue R2 unit with a more conical, as opposed to domed, head. The head that comes with Chewbacca is a 7/8" tall fez-shaped hollow plastic piece that snaps into the top of the barrel section. From there, it rotates nicely. This piece is accented with silver-gray highlights for the two nodes at the top and features a single eye port. The central leg is the descending leg which slides into the bottom of the barrel of the droid. R4-D6's central foot is not articulated, though it does feature a tiny wheel which allows it to help the droid roll along. Rather nicely, this 3/4" tall accessory may only fit into the droid one way, so inserting it into the barrel is idiotproof.
Playability
The four inch toy line was designed for play and Chewbacca is fair in that regard. While this Legacy Collection figure has great articulation, his balance is easily compromised. While I could get this Chewbacca to stand in some pretty outlandish poses, getting him to stand in more standard poses frustrated me because he often fell over.
Chewbacca comes with sixteen points of articulation, most of which are not just simple swivel joints. Chewbacca has joints at the ankles, knees, groin socket, shoulders, elbows, wrists, neck, waist, midriff and bust and he twists at any of those points. The shoulders, elbows, ankles AND knees are all ball-and-socket joints. The head joint is pretty worthless, though, because the hair covering the neck inhibits all but a few degrees of motion for the figure. Even so, this is the most articulated and poseable Chewbacca yet!
For added support, should one wish to make improbable poses with the figure, there are playsets with foot pegs which fit into the holes in either of Chewbacca's feet.
Collectability
Chewbacca is part of the 2008 Legacy Collection four-inch series, a series of Star Wars action figures that was not incredibly common, but Chewbacca has been done several times before and the same essential sculpt (with accessory) has been used since. As such, this is not an ideal investment figure.
Chewbacca is BD3 in the Legacy Collection.
Overview
Chewbacca is a tough figure to get perfectly right and this version gets more right than earlier incarnations of Chewbacca, despite the hair molding issue. I recommend the Legacy Collection one over the Saga Legends figure solely because I like the added value of the Build-A-Droid figure. That's, arguably, the only reason I picked this one up!
For other Legacy Collection Build-A-Droid figures, please check out my reviews of:
GH1 Commander Gree
GH4 EVO Trooper
BD7 Bane Malar
BD20 Saleucami Trooper
BD35 Pons Limbic
BD40 Captain Needa
BD43 Ugnaught Engineer
6.5/10
For other Star Wars toy reviews, please visit my index page!
© 2011 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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