Chewbacca (Escape From Hoth) - SW [S - P3] - Hall Of Fame

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. As the Imperial forces attack the Rebel base on Hoth. Chewbacca works feverishly to make repairs to the Falcon in time to escape the arriving snowtroopers.

We could likely list 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. The list really goes on and on and on.... The same is true for Chewbacca. 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 now get another chance at grabbing this popular version of Chewbacca which was originally released as 2001's POTJ Chewbacca (Millennium Falcon Mechanic) figure. While you may scoff at this interpretation of Chewbacca (due to the seconds long scene on which he is based complete with welding tools), 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 we should all be very happy about this. Not only is he super tall when compared to other action figures in the modern Star Wars line, he also has a pretty nice 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 Hasbro must think he is still alright because he has been re-released in the Star Wars "Saga" Hall Of Fame collection.

Now titled as Chewbacca (Escape From Hoth), this figure is part of Hasbro's "greatest hits" line to help pad the basic figure line with main and core characters from the Star Wars saga. Once again, Chewbacca (Escape From Hoth) 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 2004 standards. 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 (Escape From Hoth) 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’s 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 (Escape From Hoth) 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. The figure 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.

Chewbacca (Escape From Hoth) 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. We have noticed that there are variances in the paint operations when compared against the Power Of The Jedi figure. 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 (Escape From Hoth) takes the best of both of those worlds and re-introduces a well known character into a re-released action figure. It’s a fine sculpt with impressive size and fun accessories, so we think Hasbro utlimately made a good decision here to re-release him. 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.