Saturday, May 14, 2011

More Yellow Than Green, The Exclusive Oola Figure Falls Down.




The Good: Collectible, Good idea, Good costume detailing
The Bad: Low on poseability, Poor balance, Coloring is off, Salacious Crumb is terrible.
The Basics: A fun figure to look at, a poor toy for play, display or color realism, Oola is an exclusive that fleshes out the full Star Wars universe poorly.


There is something truly wonderful about geeks. First, geeks tend to be imaginative and second, they tend to be creative in ways that their usually placid and often timid exteriors would never easily reveal. So, for example, when I was married the first time, my wife would accompany me to Star Trek conventions and she would get incredibly bored. She was, however, an incredible seamstress and as a result, she would alleviate her boredom (both at the conventions and at home) by making elaborate costume replicas and entering them in the costume contests at the conventions. The year that surprised me most as far as that went was the year that she entered the costume contest as Oola from Return Of The Jedi. I suppose it ought not to have surprised me; given the relatively low amount of screentime in the film of Oola, she ended up using my Oola action figure as a costume reference.

If you're straining your memory to pick out Oola from the Star Wars Trilogy, relax; she's an obscure character, to be sure. Oola was Jabba's dancer before Leia is captured and made into his slave. Oola dances, resists Jabba and is fed to the Rancor in Return Of The Jedi (reviewed here!). Oola is one of the few women in the films and she is basically a green dancing woman who is not into Jabba and dies as a woman who won't put up with workplace sexual harassment. Surprisingly enough, she was a very popular character and a sought-after action figure sculpt and Kenner made her as an exclusive mail-away figure in the Power Of The Force line.

Unfortunately, though, the 4" Oola figure is a real disappointment in the execution of the action figure, mostly in her coloring details. Never recast (yet!) Oola and Salacious Crumb came as a two-pack back in the day and remain a favored collectible . . . by colorblind people who do not take Oola out of her package.

Basics

The Oola is a Hollywood-thin, scantily-clad dancer who works for Jabba The Hutt. The figure stands 3 1/2" tall to the top of her head. Oola is a fishnet-clad woman with a large headpiece and two descending tentacles coming out the back of her scull. Because the costume is minimal, this is a near-naked woman with strategically molded costume pieces and a lot of skin showing. But, it's green skin so it's hard to imagine kids are seeing much in the way of the character's eroticism. Oola comes with her leash (Jabba kept her chained up) attached and cloth leggings for her calves. The tiny mesh mixes plastic and fabric and this is a fair combination that actually looks pretty good. The figure is made of hard plastic, save the tentacles and arms, which are made of a softer plastic.

This toy is a decent sculpt, looking precisely like the dancer. Still, Oola is terrible in her coloring detail. Outside having bright red lips - Oola actually had dark lips - Oola's primary coloring is off. Oola was green and this figure is a sickly yellow color that is just nauseating. As well, her skin tones have no realistic depth or shading to them. In fact, the only coloring aspect Kenner got right on Oola was the black of the mesh outfit which is well-painted onto the molded mesh outfit and the silver highlights on the headpiece.

Accessories

The Oola figure, being an enslaved dancer, does not come with much in the way of accessories. In fact, the only accessory is a second figure, the inaction figure of Salacious Crumb. Salacious Crumb was the tiny muppet that sat near Jabba's tail and laughed whenever things went horribly wrong for characters in Jabba's Palace. This little 1 1/2" tall figure has Salacious Crumb standing with a hand on his hip looking like he's laughing. Unfortunately, he is unable to stand because the feet are not flat and the toy is woefully off-balance. Moreover, because he is molded standing, he cannot sit on the edge of any Jabba-related thrones or playsets. Salacious Crumb is colored well, but is pretty light on details as well.

Playability

The four inch toy line was designed for play and Oola is poor in that regard. The figure is poorly articulated and lacks significant articulation to make her interesting as a dancer or as someone resisting Jabba. In addition to low articulation, Oola has limited posability, based largely on the fact that she is almost impossible to balance. Even flatfooted, Oola tips over almost instantly and unless one plugs the figure into the pegs on a playset, Oola is more likely to be on her back than standing!

Oola is also low on articulation. While the figure has six points of articulation - shoulders, groin socket, neck and waist. The head has a ridiculously low range of motion due to Oola's head tentacles. With the figure, it becomes quite clear why the Rancor devoured her so easily!

Collectibility

Oola is part of the Power Of The Force four-inch series, a series of Star Wars action figures that was incredibly common. While most figures were incredibly overproduced, Oola was ridiculously limited as it was an exclusive mail-away figure. As well, Oola has not been recast or re-released on any other cards, making it one of the few and its value has stayed constant at over twice its original issue price! This was a good investment figure back in the day and because of how scarce Star Wars figures of female characters are, I suspect it will remain one of the more sought-after ones.

Overview

Unfortunately, Oola truly is a tough sell for anyone with real standards. Well-molded and exclusive, Oola is way off on her coloring and she literally falls down, making her less-than ideal for display or play.

For other Power Of The Force figures, please check out my reviews of:
Mail-Away B'Omarr Monk
Darth Vader with removable helmet
Pote Snitkin (Fan club exclusive!)

4/10

For other toy reviews, please visit my index page on the subject by clicking here!

© 2011, 2009 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.


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