Yoda - SW [TLJ] - Basic

Added: September 12th 2017
Category: Star Wars [The Last Jedi]
Reviewer: Paul Harrison
Score:

Name: Yoda
Collection: Star Wars [The Last Jedi]
Number: N/A
Source: Revenge Of The Sith
Availability: October 2017
License: Hasbro

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There were two characters from the Star Wars [The Last Jedi] line that piqued the interest of the collecting community when it was “teased” that they would be part of the basic figure line. Yoda was one of them and when he started arriving at retail fans and collectors were pleasantly surprised. If you can get past the fact that he is an action figure with limited articulated, you can focus on the sculpt and see a well-designed action figure. Hasbro has expressed time and again that if a certain Star Wars character, by its design, doesn’t need articulation in a certain spot that they would overcompensate for its shortage somewhere else. This has been proven true with Yoda. He is a simple action figure that literally comes without any hip movement, but has been graced with ball-jointed elbows, a swivel waist, a reverse ball-socket head and two ball-socket feet which gives him more movement that you probably realize. The reverse ball-socket head is especially smart. It allows you to cock his head and hang his head low just like he did in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. It also gives him a range of motion that we really haven’t seen in the line to date. Articulation junkies are probably going to be impressed. From an engineering standpoint Yoda looks great. We just wish that they didn’t sacrifice leg movement here.

Product lists describe Yoda as sourced from Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith and all of that makes sense. Before knowing that detail it’s just as easy to source him from Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones. After all, if Yoda comes with a lightsaber accessory, those two Star Wars films are really your only options. Wha is tricky here however is his likeness. In an almost noncommittal way, Hasbro has seemingly tooled a hybrid likeness of Yoda. We see elements from the Prequel Trilogy as well as the Original Trilogy (all in his face). But it’s probably safest top assume this is intended to be an Episode III version of Yoda. The lighsaber accessory is a nice addition here. It fits very well into his right hand and thanks to ball-jointed shoulders Yoda can swing it generously. What is unfortunate here however is that there is no articulation in either wrist. It would have been wonderful to include extra articulation here to maximize movement and posing abilities. Yoda also comes with a gimer stick/walking cane which the character uses across the entire Star Wars saga. His left hand is cupped to accommodate the rounded end of the gimer stick so he can “sort of” hold it when on display. The engineering of this figure was well thought out and the final results are impressive, especially for such a simple action figure.

While not really an accessory technically, Yoda’s cloak shell is removable too. When you remove it you can’t help but notice how long his lower body is in comparison to the rest of the figure. It gets covered up well when fully assembled, but Yoda definitely looks off a little bit thanks to his long static legs and super-short torso. It’s not the end of the world of course. These are kids toys and the focus here is the playability and interactivity, not the screen accuracy. Though many collectors would beg to differ with us on such a notion, we feel that Hasbro has provided Yoda with other things to make up for where the sculpt falls short, no pun intended. We would have liked to see the ball-socket ankles be a little more utilitarian. We didn’t find that they helped with the balancing of the figure much at all. In fact, they almost worked against the figure’s center of gravity. We feel that next time they attempt Yoda they should really just focus on giving the legs more movement instead. As far as paint operations are concerned, we’re very happy with how the deco on Yoda has turned out. There is a great deal of detail carved into this figure and the paint brings it out beautifully. This is a hard figure to dislike. Yoda certainly isn’t perfect, but to say he is junk wouldn’t be close to being accurate either. Check him out sometime!

Collector Notes

Yoda

Status: Yoda is an all-new figure.

Articulation Count: 8 points (6 areas of articulation)

Articulation Details: reverse ball-socket head (1), ball-jointed left shoulder (2), ball-jointed right shoulder (2), swivel waist (1), ball-socket left ankle (1), ball-socket right ankle (1)

Accessory Count: 3

Accessory Details: lightsaber, gimer stick, removable robe shell

Date Stamp: N/A

Assortment Number: C3465/C1531

UPC: 630509591770

Retail: $7.99 USD

Market Value: Click here to check the latest prices based on Click here to check the market value on eBay! listings.

Yoda

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