Friday, March 16, 2012

Poor Balance Undermines The Coolness Of The Amanaman With Salacious Crumb Deluxe Figure!


The Good: Generally decent sculpt, Very cool accessories
The Bad: Terrible balance, Low articulation
The Basics: The Amanaman with Salacious Crumb deluxe figure set looks like exactly what they are; figures based on puppets!


Recently, I managed to seal up another box of Star Wars figures for my impending move. That was exciting for me. Of course, that left me free to unearth the next box . . . and there always is a next box when it comes to my Star Wars action figure collection! In that newly unearthed box, I discovered the Fan’s Choice #3 Ephant Mon figure (reviewed here!). Right below it, I discovered Fan’s Choice Figure #2, the power Of The Jedi Amanaman with Salacious Crumb figure! That is the subject of today’s Star Wars toy review!

Amanaman is one of the slew of background aliens seen for only a few frames of Return Of The Jedi (reviewed here!). When Han Solo is revealed in carbonite, Amanaman is the yellow and green alien standing next to the block. Salacious Crumb, of course, is the troublesome little laughing creature who tears out one of C-3PO’s eyes.

I suspect that Amanaman became the Fan’s Choice #2 figure because the original Power Of The Force version of the figure from the mid-1980s was one of the most valuable and hard-to-find figures of that whole line.

Basics

Amanaman is an alien creature who associates with Jabba the Hutt. The figure stands 4" tall to the top of its head and features the reptilian creature with the hugely elongated arms ending in also-long fingers. The figure is not clothed, which makes sense as the creature is an apparently androgynous reptile or sentient candy bar! Hasbro did a decent job of coloring the figure well. This yellow and green monster has vein-like stripes from the back green portion that wrap around to the yellow. More accurate than the monotonal Power Of The Force figure was, this Amanaman features depth and shading. In the wrinkles of its skin there are brown highlights! The little beady red eyes look pretty accurate based on the few frames the character appears on screen.

As for the sculpt, the figure looks like the puppet did. This is a blockish creature with very long arms, stubby curved legs and a tail. The head has a carapace, giving it a somewhat insect-like look. It looks like a monstrous alien, which it ought to.

Accessories

Amanaman, briefly seen puppet alien, comes with a surprising number of accessories: Salacious Crumb, a staff and a rotting skeleton. Salacious Crumb is identical to the mini-figure of Jabba’s pet from the Oola exclusive figure (reviewed here!). The little minifigure of the puppet character stands 1 5/8” tall and features the creature with one hand on his hip. Salacious Crumb features no articulation, is light on the coloring details and has pretty poor balance.

The staff, by comparison, is exceptionally well-detailed. Slightly curved, the 5 1/2” staff fits loosely in either of Amanaman’s hands. The staff is colored and molded to look like wood. Hanging from the top branches of the staff are three skulls. This makes Amanaman look like a headhunter or a very creepy collector of food it ate! Hasbro even included the light near the top of the staff, which is a pretty incredible detail!

Finally, Amanaman comes with a dessicated, headless body. The 3 1/4” skeleton is highlighted with red accents to make it look like Amanaman has been picking this corpse clean! The next time I watch Return Of The Jedi, I am looking out for that to see if it is in the movie! As it stands, it is an accessory that reminds me of Linus’s blanket the way it barely fits in Amanaman’s hand and looks pretty good trailing after the figure.

Playability

This is a surprisingly poor 4" Star Wars figure when it comes to playability. In addition to having hands molded far too big to actually hold any of the accessories, Amanaman has absolutely terrible balance. The rounded feet do not support the figure well at all and it is impossible to keep standing it in anything like a complex pose. Fortunately, it does have the holes on the bottom of its feet that allow it to attach to the pegs in many of the playsets and vehicles.

Even for its time, Amanaman was pretty low on the articulation scale. It is not a well-articulated action figure. Amanaman has only six points of articulation. It has joints at the groin socket, shoulders, and wrists. The groin socket and wrists are simple swivel joints, the shoulders are true ball and socket joints, so the figure at least has good range of motion in that regard.

Collectibility

Amanaman with Salacious Crumb is part of the expanded saga Power Of The Jedi four-inch series, a series of Star Wars action figures that was fairly common. It was one of only four (at the time) Deluxe figures which came with more prominent accessories or theoretically greater consumer demand. Amanaman was something of a pegwarmer and has actually depreciated in value from its original release price. That makes is a poor investment figure and I suspect it will not rebound anytime soon.


Overview

Amanaman is a fine concept for a Star Wars action figure, but the execution from the Power Of The Jedi line pretty much begs for a recast!

For other deluxe Star Wars action figures, be sure to check out my reviews of:
Original Trilogy Collection Hoth Attack Wampa And Hoth Cave
Comic Packs Wedge Antilles and Borsk Fey'lya
The Phantom Menace Darth Maul And Sith Speeder
Power Of The Jedi Princess Leia with Sail Barge Cannon
Power Of The Force Hoth Rebel Soldier


4/10

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

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