Try As They Might, They Can’t Delete The Mon Calamari Rebel Pilot From The Vintage Collection!

The Good: Wonderful coloring detail, Good accessories, Amazing articulation
The Bad: None that I can find!
The Basics: The Vintage Collection restores a Mon Calamari Rebel Pilot from a deleted Return Of The Jedi scene and makes for a perfect action figure!


Every now and then, I get a very pleasant surprise when I am out shopping. Following the Easter holiday, I was out buying up all of the Cadbury Chocolate Eggs (reviewed here!) that I could find, I found myself in a store’s toy department and I had one of those pleasant surprise moments. There, I found four of the five figures from the Star Wars Vintage Collection Sandstorm Wave of figures. While I hemmed and hawed over three of the toys, I instantly grabbed the Rebel Pilot (Mon Calamari) action figure. I had heard about the wave and I thought I missed it, but there they were (mostly) and the Mon Calamari Rebel Pilot figure looked amazing in its package, so I was not about to resist getting it while I still could!

For those unfamiliar with the Mon Calamari Rebel Pilot, that is not terribly surprising as it was part of one of the deleted scenes from Return Of The Jedi (reviewed here!) that was only restored in the deleted scenes for the Blu-Ray release of the Star Wars Saga. The Mon Calamari Rebel Pilot is an A-Wing pilot who is of the same fish-like race as Admiral Ackbar.

The 4" Mon Calamari Rebel Pilot is a completely new Mon Calamari action figure and it looks incredible with its glossy skin and A-Wing Pilot outfit for the Vintage Collection release. In fact, I was unable to find a single flaw with this figure!

Basics

The Mon Calamari Rebel Pilot figure stands 3 15/16" tall to the top of its unhelmeted head. It is an alien who is wearing the typical A-Wing pilot flightsuit and is made entirely of plastic. This figure, however, features the straps and breathing tubes needed to make the Mon Calamari Rebel Pilot as accurate as possible!

This toy is an absolutely amazing sculpt, with the simple flightsuit of the A-Wing Pilot broken up by the distinctly fishlike hands and head of a Mon Calamari officer. The eye stalks and the finest fins on the forearms of the character are molded with perfect detail onto this toy. As well, the pouches, belts and pockets of the character are adequately represented.

The real impressive aspect of this figure is the meticulous nature of the coloring detail. This Mon Calamari Rebel Pilot features glossy brown mottled skin that perfectly represents the fish-skin of the Mon Calamar. The outfit is a very clean one, but the boots features some coloring depth and shading and more than one main color, just as the chestpiece features realistic coloring to help indicate various layers of the outfit. This is an incredibly colored action figure!

Accessories

The Mon Calamari Rebel Pilot is a basic Rebel Soldier, so all he comes with as far as accessories is his blaster pistol and a helmet. The helmet is a gray and black dome that fits perfectly over the Mon Calamari’s oddly shaped fish head. There is actually only one way the helmet fits that makes sense (if you put it on upside down, the part number is in the middle of the figure’s forehead. Like the rest of this pilot’s outfit, this helmet is very clean looking.

As for the blaster pistol, the little 7/8” gun appears unique to this figure. This gun has a blockish stock and a round silver barrel. The two colors on it give it a more realistic sense of depth than the old Star Wars toy weapons. The gun fits in either of the Mon Calamari Rebel Pilot’s hands.

Playability

The four inch toy line was designed for play and the Mon Calamari Rebel Pilot is amazing in that regard. First, the figure has great balance. Flatfooted, the Mon Calamari Rebel Pilot is absolutely solid, and because of the lower half articulation of the figure, he has decent posing options. The holes in the bottom of his feet allow him to stand tall on any number of playsets in outlandish poses or sit in the cockpit of an A-Wing fighter!

The Mon Calamari Rebel Pilot holds up exceptionally well in the articulation department. It has hinged ball and socket joints at the ankles, knees, elbows and shoulders, as well as a ball and socket joint which allows a great range of motion for the head, though the head does not have a full range-of-motion. The forearms, groin socket and torso all have simple swivel joints that provide the figure with more than enough posing options to make the figure worthwhile!

Collectibility

The Mon Calamari Rebel Pilot is part of the Vintage Collection line that was released in 2012 and it remains one of the harder ones to find at the moment. The Mon Calamari Rebel Pilot is Vintage Collection figure VC91 and it augments any Rebel figure collection. Given how some of the obscure characters are burning up in value, this seems like a very safe bet as an investment figure at this time.

Overview

The Rebel Pilot (Mon Calamari) action figure may well be one of the best Rebel action figures Hasbro has yet released; it is an unexpectedly great action figure well worth buying, even if you do not have an A-Wing fighter for him to pilot!

For other Vintage Collection figures, please check out my reviews of:
VCP03 Boba Fett
VC01 Dengar
VC05 AT-AT Commander
VC10 4-LOM
VC11 (Twin Pod) Cloud Car Pilot
VC17 General Grievous
VC22 Admiral Ackbar
VC30 Zam Wesell
VC33 Padme Amidala (Peasant Disguise)
VC37 Super Battle Droid
VC41 Commander Gree
VC46 AT-RT Driver
VC48 Weequay Skiff Master
VC49 Fi-Ek Sirch
VC53 Bom Vimdin
VC61 Boba Fett (Prototype Armor) Mail-In
VC65 TIE Fighter Pilot
VC82 Daultay Dofine
VC85 Quinlan Vos
VC86 Darth Maul

10/10

For other Star Wars toy reviews, please check out my index page by clicking here!

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