Wednesday, November 7, 2012

Three Of The Least Practical Star Wars Action Figures: The Jabba The Hutt’s Dancers 3-Pack Underwhelms!


The Good: Good concept, Good basic sculpts
The Bad: Cheap cardboard backdrop, Low articulation, Abysmal collectible value, Poor balance, Utterly impractical subjects.
The Basics: A truly disappointing 3-pack, the Power Of The Jedi Jabba The Hutt’s Dancers set is not worth buying.


With Star Wars action figures, there are some that work only as background characters and are pretty much worthless for play and difficult for display. The Power Of The Force 3-pack of Jabba The Hutt’s Dancers is one such three-pack. It’s unsurprising that with more than a decade of opportunities to recast any of these figures, Hasbro has never bothered to try. Rystall, Greeata, and Lyn Me are the three dancers that are part of the three-pack that interact poorly with the current line of Star Wars which are far more detailed and articulated than these simplistic action figures.

The Jabba The Hutt’s Dancers is a collection from Return Of The Jedi (reviewed here!) that features Boba Fett’s girlfriend, Rystall, the green-skinned Rodian, Greeata, and the Twi’lek Lyn Me.

The 4" figures are very average, lightly detailed versions of all three action figures and are the only renditions of the figures from Kenner or Hasbro.

Basics

This is a set of three action figures and a "playset" (or more accurately a play environment). The Jabba The Hutt’s Dancers fits the 4" figure line and the three figures each come without any accessories. The Lyn Me figure is the most dynamically posed of the three figures. She is 3 ½” tall, with two white Twi’lek tentacles are molded almost straight down, but the hands are molded flat, as if she was doing “jazz hands.” The coloring of this figure is monotonal, without any sophistication, depth or subtlety. Even so, her eyeshadow and lips are appropriately colored.

The Greeata figure in the Jabba The Hutt’s Dancers 3-pack is one of the better, most detailed figures from this era. The skin on the figure is molded to look textured, like lizard skin. It is monotonal green and her outfit is solid orange with gold highlights. Ironically, the hair on Greeata is colored to look detailed and realistic and it actually works. At 3 3/4” tall, Greeata has hands molded open, so she could not hold anything even if she came with something.

Rystaal is 3 3/4" tall and is monotonally colored with solidly molded hair that does not look even remotely feathered (like the actual character’s). Her costume is monotonally-colored and her skin is accented only with tiny pink and mauve dots.

As for the background play environment, the base is a 10" inch long by three inch wide section of imitation rock that represents the floor of Jabba’s palace. The slot is just wide enough for the cardboard back that has the mural of the musician who was digitally added to the original print of Return Of The Jedi.

Accessories

None of the figures in this set have any accessories.

Playability

The four inch toy line was designed for play and the Jabba The Hutt’s Dancers figures are a real mixed bag in that regard. The play environment is a good idea, but the execution is quite poor. The figures are poorly articulated and later sculpts improved upon each of them considerably. All three figures have limited articulation and balance issues when they are off their action base. Each of the figures has one specific pose they are molded for and each of the figures come with only six points of articulation, all of which are simple swivel joints. They have joints at the groin socket, waist, shoulders, and neck. The elbows do not extend, so all arm posing is straight-armed.

Collectibility

The Jabba The Hutt’s Dancers play environment is part of the Power Of The Force four-inch series, a series of Star Wars action figures that was incredibly common. This three pack was very overproduced and is exceptionally easy to find in the secondary market, even now. Even with none of these figures being recast, it is hard to imagine this three-pack ever appearing to be a good investment!

Overview

The Jabba The Hutt’s Dancers three-pack is a particularly disappointing three-pack of three entirely supplemental Star Wars figures, who have limited appeal to begin with and little in-context appeal in larger scenes one might make.

For other Star Wars 3-packs of action figures, please check out my reviews of:
Final Jedi Duel
Rebel Pilots
Mynock Hunt
Death Star Escape

2.5/10

For other toy reviews, please visit my Toy Review Index Page!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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