Chewbacca (Millennium Falcon Mechanic) - POTJ - Basic

Loyal even at a great personal risk, strong as a gladiator, and as technically savvy as the brightest Academy graduate, the two meters plus Chewbacca is a true hero of the rebellion. Chewbacca is copilot aboard the Millennium Falcon, where his skill as a mechanic proves invaluable to the safety of the ship and its crew.

We could likely list quite easily all of our favorite Star Wars characters that don’t change outfits much throughout the films. Darth Vader. Darth Maul. C-3PO. These are just some examples. And there are quite a few more that remain relatively identical from one frame to the next. The same is true for Chewbacca. So Hasbro has to become extra clever when they want to bring a character like this into a new light. In order to accomplish this they went with a very scene specific iteration of the character. Based on his appearance on Hoth, collectors can welcome Chewbacca (Millennium Falcon Mechanic) into the fold. While you may scoff at this interpretation of Chewbacca (due to the seconds long scene on which he is based), it’s more important to note that Hasbro has approached this version of Chewbacca with greatness and accuracy. This is a monumental release because it is the first true to scale action figure version of Chewbacca, so count yourselves blessed. Not only is he super tall when compared to other action figures in the Power Of The Jedi line, he also has a fantastic likeness. The figure isn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but he is a good template for Hasbro to make improvements on in the future. But hopefully most collectors will be distracted by the fact that we finally have an appropriately scaled Chewbacca action figure.

Chewbacca (Millennium Falcon Mechanic) once again is not a perfect action figure. He has a bizarre posture and the articulation as far as we’re concerned just isn’t up to snuff. With a little patience, you can get him in an almost perfect upright position, but due to the sculpt, that isn’t his most natural position. Chewbacca (Millennium Falcon Mechanic) comes with seven points of articulation, although his head joint movement is so inhibited from his fur that it almost makes no sense calling it a point of articulation. The portrait is very nice. Chewbacca’ blue eyes are piercing through the dark brown fur and he is showing his teeth almost as if he is in mid roar. His left arm is sadly too close to his body, so the left shoulder joint is also inhibited because of this. But the good news here is that Chewbacca (Millennium Falcon Mechanic) is able to hold both of his included accessories quite well thanks to excellently sculpted hands. His accessories include a welding torch and goggles, both of which were utilized in the scene where Han Solo and he were repairing the Millennium Falcon’s hyperdrive. Chewbacca (Millennium Falcon Mechanic) also comes with a sculpted bandolier and satchel. They look nice, but it’s our opinion that the satchel portion hangs a bit too low on his right hip. We still would love to see Hasbro produce a full accessory that is completely removable.

Chewbacca (Millennium Falcon Mechanic) has a very, very nice paint job. In order to give the fur a layered texture, Hasbro utilized a deep brown base color and then accented it with subtle gray color in the knees, upper arms and other portions here and there. The colors work together to add texture and diversity to his fur and we think the approach was successful. With all that being said, if Hasbro can add useful quality articulation to a Chewbacca action figure of this size, collectors will be very happy. Chewbacca is without a doubt a very popular character in Star Wars, but he can become a little bit boring in the basic figure line. However, if Hasbro keeps reinventing him and designing scene specific versions of him for the basic figure line, he likely won’t become stale. Chewbacca (Millennium Falcon Mechanic) takes the best of both of those worlds and introduces a well known character into a first time action figure (from the perspective of the scene on which this figure is based). And it’s a fine sculpt with impressive size and fun accessories, so we think Hasbro delivered well here. We’re excited to see where the character of Chewbacca will head next in the basic figure line, but a whole new door has been opened with this release and the future can only be brighter. Let’s just hope that Hasbro makes articulation a priority going forward.