Monday, June 8, 2015

Loose And Flexible The Legacy Collection Jodo Kast Is A Mediocre Repaint!


The Good: Good articulation, Good sculpt, Good accessory, Generally decent coloring detail.
The Bad: Exceptionally loose joints, Comparatively expensive, Lame play function
The Basics: The first Jodo Kast figure is a recolored Boba Fett with ridiculously loose shoulders, but is otherwise all right!


My wife is an incredibly sweet woman. Every now and then, she picks up something off my old want list and randomly picks it up and gifts it to me! Unfortunately, several of the items on the want list are things I either saw once or have only found online. The Jodo Kast figure she picked up for me was one such item and, unfortunately, it was an underwhelming Star Wars figure.

The Legacy Collection casting of the Jodo Kast is exceptionally articulated and recreates the expanded universe bounty hunter in Mandalorian armor that is recolored and loose limbs that are unsightly and tough to pose.

Basics

The Jodo Kast figure is incredibly detailed both in the sculpt and the coloring, at least for the figure, if not his accessory. The thin, armored bounty hunter stands 4" tall, from his boots to the top jet pack's rocket. The Jodo Kast figure was released in 2008 as part of Hasbro's Legacy Collection with the Droid Factory bonus. This Jodo Kast appears on the Stormtrooper helmet-shaped card with the rounded plastic bubble.

This toy is a very cool sculpt, though it is pretty hard to get a Mandalorian sculpt wrong at this point, given how Hasbro has been making them for years! This sculpt is the standard blue-gray Boba Fett figure with knee and shoulder pads molded in and recolored. This figure's helmet is not removable.

As for the coloring, the Jodo Kast figure is good, though this is a very clean version of the Jodo Kast, outside the portions that are supposed to be fabric beneath the armor. He is clad mostly in green and orange armor with additional padding on his gauntlets, knee pads, and the iconic Mandalorian helmet. He looks exactly like he is supposed to; a recolored Boba Fett.

Accessories

This Jodo Kast, bounty hunter who is happy to mistaken for Boba Fett that he is, comes with only one accessory: a blaster rifle. The blaster rifle is the 1 7/8" long blaster rifle with the scope and elongated barrel which allows Jodo Kast to hold the gun in a two-handed grip and look realistic while doing it! The blaster rifle is cast in monotonal black plastic.

This figure was part of the "Droid Factory" line of the Legacy Collection figures and the basic premise was that for every six figures you bought, you'd get a seventh which would be assembled from parts in each of the six toys in the collection. Jodo Kast comes with left leg section of the MB-RA-7 droid. This is a silver-gray leg that has joints at the ankle and knee. This sets MB-RA-7 up to be exceptionally articulated, especially for a protocol droid. This piece is monotonally colored, but looks good for a clean droid.

Playability

The four inch toy line was designed for play and the Jodo Kast is mediocre in that regard. While Jodo Kast has great articulation, his play function makes him look goofy because he has super-loose shoulder joints. Jodo Kast is solidly built outside the shoulders and has great balance and articulation.

Jodo Kast comes with twelve points of articulation, most of which are not just simple swivel joints. The Jodo Kast has joints at the ankles, knees, groin socket, shoulders, elbows,neck, and waist and he twists at any of those points. The ankles AND knees are both hinged ball-and-socket joints, though the rest are on swivel joints. This Jodo Kast figure has more dexterity, balance and poseability than the earlier Boba Fett figures.

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 the Jodo Kast's feet.

The shoulders are exceptionally loose because the jet pack rocket has a special play function. Pushing the rocket down, raises the arms. That means that unless one pushes down the rocket, the arms stay by Jodo Kast's side. In order for them to be loose enough to work the play function, the shoulder joints are exceptionally loose and unsightly with their exposed joints.

Collectability

The Jodo Kast is part of the 2008 Legacy Collection four-inch series, a series of Star Wars action figures that was not incredibly common and Jodo Kast was just a repaint. While this was not overly common at the time, there was a later Saga Collection Jodo Kast which was an improvement, and that has depressed the value of this first-release Jodo Kast.

Jodo Kast is BD18 in the Legacy Collection and is one that is ideal for collectors looking to make a massive expanded bounty hunter collection or Mandalorian army!

Overview

Jodo Kast is a good concept assembled poorly, which makes for an impossible sell, especially now that there are better versions of the figure available.

For other Legacy Collection Build-A-Droid figures, please check out my reviews of:
R4-D6 Build-A-Droid Figure
R4-J1 Build-A-Droid Figure
GH1 Commander Gree
GH4 EVO Trooper
BD7 Bane Malar
BD17 Coruscant Landing Platform Clone Trooper
BD20 Saleucami Trooper
BD35 Pons Limbic
BD40 Captain Needa
BD43 Ugnaught Engineer

4.5/10

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

© 2015 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.
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