Kaadu And Jar Jar Binks - EI - Creatures

The kaadu are nimble creatures from the planet Naboo. Often used by the amphibious Gungans as steeds, they carry Gungan warriors like Jar Jar Binks into battle against the seemingly unstoppable Trade Federation army.

Hasbro smartly included both kid-focused and collector-focused toys in the Episode I product launch. But the Kaadu And Jar Jar Binks set might be a hybrid of the two, albeit an imperfect one. Based on the two-legged steeds seen during the Battle of Naboo, the Kaadu beast is a part-duck, part-ostrich animal indigenous to the plains of Naboo, and friendly enough to serve the Gungan army against the threats they face. The Kaadu And Jar Jar Binks set is all-new, meaning both the creature and the pack-in figure possess all-new tooling. That shouldn’t be a surprise here, but we’re overwhelmed with how many unique Jar Jar Binks tooling Hasbro created for the Episode I line. And here is another. Interestingly, collectors may find the most favor with this version of Jar Jar Binks because it has more articulation than the others. And it interacts with the Kaadu wonderfully. The Battle of Naboo was perhaps the greatest scene in The Phantom Menace, and it’s great that we received so many toys based on this sequence in the film. We wish, however, that some of them were more screen-accurate to the movie. Let’s take a close look at both characters here, and see what is good, what is bad, and what could be improved upon to make it more collector-friendly.

The Kaadu is a decent toy, but it looks very different than the onscreen character, in both design and color. While the overall shape of the character is accurate, the creature is missing its “war” feathers on the back, and the saddle has some noticeable differences as well. More importantly, and we’re not sure what wrong here, the Kaadu toy has an incorrect color scheme. Perhaps the toy was made before final approvals were made for this beast, but the Kaadu has lighter and more colorful accents, like a tan/yellow body with dark brown speckled accents. Here, we have a cream-colored body with red/orange accents. It’s jarringly inaccurate to the onscreen character. If you can move on from the deco issues, the Kaadu has minimal articulation: two “swivel” legs. They’re connected to an action feature housed in the saddle (which serves as a button to articulated the legs). But because of the feature, the legs don’t naturally rest at a flushed position with each other, causing terrible balance. And if you’re not careful, one of the legs will try to lift itself from the standing position and topple the Kaadu to the ground. Yes, it’s frustrating. However, with a little patience to get things to balance, the Kaadu can hold its position most of the time.

As briefly mentioned, the included Jar Jar Binks has significant articulation. It might be the best Jar Jar Binks figure in the entire Episode I toy line. Keeping in mind that Hasbro designed Jar Jar Binks exclusively for seating on the Kaadu, Jar Jar Binks looks a little silly off of the creature, especially since his arms are posed in a way that looks like he is holding the reins of the Kaadu. The inclusion of a swivel right forearm and two hinge-jointed knees give Jar Jar Binks the extra edge in articulation. And they help the figure to look completely natural atop of the Kaadu. When fully assembled, collectors are going to love the seamless interaction of the Kaadu And Jar Jar Binks set. Sometimes pack-in figures don’t come with the greatest paint operations, but that’s not the case with Jar Jar Binks. Hasbro did a fantastic job on the figure’s deco. Jar Jar Binks comes with two accessories including an atlatl and a removable vest. We’re surprised that Hasbro took the time to tool a free-floating vest for this figure, but we appreciate the effort. The atlatl looks like it has a handle that is too long and Jar Jar Binks has difficulty holding it, but again, we appreciate its inclusion here, especially since we haven’t received one with the character yet in the Episode I toy line. The Kaadu And Jar Jar Binks creature set is a mixed bag, but we imagine you’ll enjoy most of it.