Tuesday, September 28, 2010

The Cloud City Wing Guard Fixes Earlier Bespin Guard Problems, But Makes Some New Ones!




The Good: Good sculpt, Great articulation, Cool accessories, Great playability
The Bad: Jacket is not as ornate as earlier Bespin Guard.
The Basics: A more mediocre than extraordinary figure, the Cloud City Wing Guard is still, objectively, an above average action figure.


Not long ago, I reviewed the Bespin Guard figure from the "Power Of The Jedi" line (click here for that review!). That figure was an obscure character done surprisingly well, with a minor flaw which was the accessory coloring. Sadly for the follow-up figure, the Cloud City Wing Guard, the alterations to the jacket make the Legacy Collection figure less impressive than the Power Of The Jedi version! The result is that the less-inspired Cloud City Wing Guard actually gets a high rating based more on the technical aspects than the desirability of the overall figure. It is also worth noting that there are actually two Wing Guard figures that come on identical card and bear the same collector's number in the Legacy Collection. One is black (Sergeant Edian?) and the other is white with a somewhat lupine face (Utris M'Toc?). The only one I could find when I decided to assemble an HK-50 droid by collecting various figures in the Droid Factory line was the black Wing Guard, who has a rather stern expression on his face.

For those unfamiliar with the Wing Guard, they were the security forces used by Lando on Cloud City near the end of The Empire Strikes Back (click here for the film review!). There were several Wing Guards in the film and this was the latest figure that represented them!

The 4" Wing Guard figure is fairly cool, but even though it is more articulated than the Bespin Guard figure, it is not perfect in the Legacy Collection rendition. That said, one can never have too many Bespin Security operatives, so most fans ought to be happy with this toy.

Basics

The Wing Guard is a human police worker working for Lando Calrissian on Cloud City. This figure has the Wing Guard in its fairly familiar (more like fans recognize it when they see it as opposed to knowing it outright) uniform! The figure stands 4" tall to the top of his head when his hat is on. This Wing Guard figure is coifed in his dark blue jacket, tight pants with a gun holster which is attached to his right thigh. He is posed so he can hold his blaster with his left or right hands (while it fits in his right hand, that hand seems more designed to hold his shock baton). The figure is made of a fairly soft plastic, though it is a harder plastic than the Bespin Guard. The Wing Guard has a decent amount of painted and molded details for an action figure, but even the details are not are impressive as the Bespin Guard figure. That figure had a jacket that was more realistic; on this figure the jacket is completely molded on.

This toy is a wonderful sculpt, looking precisely like the black Wing Guard pictured on the package for the figure. The Wing Guard is average in his coloring detail and facial paint job includes his dark eyebrows. But the skin tones are monolithic and lack any realistic shading detail. Even so, this figure has a very stern expression to his face and the eyes are a very menacing brown with black pupils.

Fans will also be less impressed by the coloring detail of the paint job on the figure's jacket, which is not as defined as what is pictured on the package. On the plus side, this figure has holsters for both the baton and the blaster the figure comes with and both are easily removable from the figure.

Accessories

The Wing Guard, police officer among the clouds, is endowed with only three accessories, plus his droid part. The main accessory he comes with is a small blaster. The blaster is the Wing Guard's distinctive blaster pistol, rendered as a 7/8" long gunmetal and silver colored weapon that looks just like the one in the film in both molded and color details! It fits perfectly into Wing Guard's right hand, as well as in the holster on his left thigh. The blaster looks great as it has surface details like the textured grip and the trigger molded right into it! It is, however, lacking in realistic coloring details; the powder blue plastic it is molded in looks utterly ridiculous, especially when the gun is in the holster.

The Wing Guard also comes with a recolored baton like the Bespin Guard possessed. The 1 1/8" long baton fits nicely in the Wing Guard's right hand or into the special holster on his right thigh. It has molded details like the distinct handle. It it monotonally cast in silver-gray plastic.

The Wing Guard also comes with a custom hat which fits perfectly on his head and completes his outfit nicely.

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. The Wing Guard comes with left arm of the HK-50 droid. This is a skeletal humanoid droid (which bears a resemblance to a metallic blue Terminator!) and the arm is articulated at both the elbow and the wrist!

Playability

The four inch toy line was designed for play and Wing Guard is great in that regard. The figure is well-articulated and here the figure fixes oversights by the Bespin Guard's casting. The Cloud City Wing Guard comes with fourteen points of articulation and he is even able to stand when his feet are moved slightly out of flatfooted position. He has joints at the ankles, knees, groin socket, shoulders, elbows, wrists, neck, and waist. The ankles, knees and elbows are all hinge joints for realistic movement and head is on a ball so, it may nod as well as look left to right! The shoulders are also true ball-and-socket joints so this is a very posable figure!

As well, because of the ankle articulation, the legs can be spread apart because the Wing Guard may maintain a flatfooted position even when in more outlandish posed. As well, he has holes in either heel to make him stand on the pegs that adorn some of the Star Wars playsets. With such posability and articulation, this is a very easy Wing Guard to recommend!

Collectibility

The Wing Guard is part of the 2009 Legacy Collection four-inch series, a series of Star Wars action figures that was not incredibly common and while there are multiple Wing Guards and Bespin Guards, they are they type of generic soldier that one may have more than one of. Fans of the toys generally made this one of the pegwarmers of the series, so it is probably not a great investment at this point.

The Cloud City Wing Guard is BD50 in the Legacy Collection.

Overview

Despite having a less-cool vest than the Bespin Guard, the Cloud City Wing Guard from the Legacy Collection is actually a fairly decent figure and has been generally underrated by the fans.

For other Star Wars figures, please check out my reviews of:
2009 Legacy Collection Jawa with Security Droid
2004 J'Quille Jabba's Sail Barge
2010 Saga Legends IG-88

8/10

For other toy reviews, please check out my index page!

© 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.



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