Chewbacca - TROS - Galaxy Of Adventures

You’ve heard our arguments already. The Hasbro Star Wars brand needs anything but another new scale. The “5POA” line is officially dead, and Hasbro decided to work their “kids” line into a new scale of 5” figures with an animated style for the Galaxy Of Adventures format. But most fans always felt he line should have been animated from the start. Hasbro’s now backtracking to reinvent the line, and from where we sit, the line is turning out to be something that Star Wars collectors can describe as impressive, excellent, and brilliant, while still being a bit of a frustrating basic figure line. There is no argument that the 5POA action figure line is the cheapest to produce. So throwing it all away like it never existed feels odd and slightly backward. Still, if the figures don’t sell and pile up to the point that they need to mass-unloaded at discount chains like ROSS and Ollie’s, it makes sense that it’s time to stick a fork in it. That’s not doing anyone good. Despite the excellent line of figures, we have to admit that it doesn’t make complete sense. The newly updated Galaxy Of Adventures line feels like direct competition to the 6” line while alienating the 3.75” line. And we don’t know why numbers cannot be crunched to maximize the value of scales that are already doing well. But that’s for another discussion.

We can’t discount what Hasbro’s done with the revitalized 5” Galaxy Of Adventures line. In short, the figures look incredible. We’re hard-pressed to criticize any of the final figures in the first wave. They all turned out excellently, and although you have to be a collector that appreciates animation-styled Star Wars interpretations to enjoy this line, no one can discount the high-quality efforts Hasbro put into them. Whether critiquing the design (from the tooling to the details etched into the parts), the paint operations, or the inspiration of the animated style, the new Galaxy Of Adventures line is a success from where we stand. And whether this is salt in the wound for you or not, the figures are super-articulated, attempting to be “Mini-Me” versions of The Black Series 6” line, yet we know very well that Hasbro won’t come close to replicating the same hyper-articulated systems of the 6” figures for the 5” Galaxy Of Adventures line. Chewbacca is another highlight in the Galaxy Of Adventures line. Chewbacca serves as a testament to what can be accomplished in the line, and even though we’re not entirely satisfied with the approach of Chewbacca, the production figure is astounding. With a stunning sculpt that feels very “Disney Infinity,” Chewbacca sports geometric shaping throughout his frame and showcases his innate Wookie characteristics stunningly.

Like other figures in the line, Chewbacca comes with an impressive 23 points of articulation. He doesn’t have seamless articulation, but the figure moves enough as needed for your display purposes. Because of the patch of fur around his midsection, the movement of the figure is a bit encumbered. He doesn’t move as freely as we’d hoped, but he does come with an admirable amount of movement. Also, the same encumberment is present in Chewbacca’s ankles. The ball-jointed/”rocker” ankles don’t move at all as much as we expected, so we find this to be a huge setback for the figure. Regardless, Chewbacca’s greatest feature is his paint job. Hasbro added many layers of color to recreate a texture that imitates his various tuffs of fur color. He has a slightly angry face, but it works well on this figure. His satchel is not removable, and we’re thankful for that because it’s easier to pose the figure when the accessory hanging from his shoulders won’t stay in place. But it’s important to remember that the deco on the entire figure is beautifully applied, and breathes life into the character. Lastly, Chewbacca comes with his signature bowcaster. It comes in the package in an animated style too, but his hands have been tooled in a way to hold it with one hand or both. Hasbro thought about this in advance, and it turned out expected to meet collectors’ expectations. Overall, Chewbacca is a fun figure. You’ll love him.