Ratts Tyerell & Pit Droid - TVC - Basic (VC77)

Celebrate the legendary Star Wars saga that changed the universe forever! This collection brings to life the incredible story of good versus evil that captured our imagination and took us to a galaxy far, far away. Iconic Star Wars heroes and villains are captured with incredible detail and premium features to commemorate each epic tale in the Star Wars saga. May the Force be with you!

Meh. Hasbro should have just bitten the bullet and taken a hit by releasing Ratts Tyerell with 2009’s LC Clegg Holdfast (BD11) figure as originally planned. They cut this intended duo in half to help stay on budget with their tooling costs, but the two-year delay of the figure seems to have negatively affected the desire of this figure as a single carded release. (The included Pit Droid really doesn’t seem to add enough extra value here. This isn’t the first time we’ve received an Aleena in the basic figure line. The “judge me by my size do you” aggressive Tsui Choi was part of the infinitely better second series of Order 66 and released as 2008’s TAC Tsui Choi/BARC Trooper (3 of 6) set from the Order 66 (Series 2) collection. You would think that Hasbro would somehow utilize the same parts to make Ratts Tyerell, but they didn’t. Ratts Tyerell is an all-new figure and from what we see, not one part has been recycled. Because Tsui Choi is a Jedi and Ratts Tyerell is a podracer, it makes sense that Hasbro would need to retool (or redevelop) the figure since their appearances are so unique. Even so, the Aleena species isn’t the most popular amongst Star Wars fans. If you love podracing, then this figure is a no-brainer, but if you don’t care about weird aliens driving around vehicles that are the space equivalent to racecars, than this may be one of the easiest passes for your collection.

Ratts Tyerell is articulated well for his size, but Hasbro has included more impressive articulation in other figures of comparable size. Aside from a ball-socket head and ball-jointed shoulders, the rest of the figure is articulated via swivel joints and as you know every well, these are very limiting. In fact, Ratts Tyerell has inferior articulation when compared to Tsui Choi because Tsui Choi had ball-socket ankles. Ratts Tyerell has no ankle articulation. Sigh. The sculpt however is very good. Hasbro has included a lot of depth and texture in his skin texture throughout and his outfit is simple but beautifully painted. He has some sort of podracing identification detail on his right breast and his outfit is covered in the Tatooine dust from the dangerous podrace in which he competed. Ratts Tyerell has some balancing issues. You have to balance his swivel hips perfectly since his feet do not cover a great deal of surface area, so be warned that you may lose your cool when trying to pose him. He comes with a visor/goggles combination piece that fits perfectly over his head and the obligatory blaster to complete him. His tiny hands have been perfectly sculpted to welcome the included blaster pistol, but we wonder if Hasbro ever made his podracer if he would be capable of reaching the steering column. This little guy is small!

All collectors have another opportunity to get one of the two “Bonus Pit Droid” molds with this release. Instead of using one of the basic figures from the 2000 Episode I line, Hasbro has opted to used the much harder-to-find sculpt (even though they have been rereleased in the Saga Legends line.... with a few changes of course). Repainted with an all-new deco, this may be the nicest looking Pit Droid yet in the basic figure line. It has a wonderful sculpt, but it lacks terribly as far as articulation is concerned. It has a ball-socket head, but then the shoulders and hips are both swivel. Its right arm is permanently sculpted at a harsh angle and the left arm is also permanently bent at the elbow, but more discretely. Hasbro finalized this figure with a very nice dirty wash and it collects in all the necessary parts to show the harsh environment of Tatooine. The Ratts Tyerell & Pit Droid two-pack will certainly be of use to many collectors, but we think it would have been much better to receive him in a multipack or something similar. And since Ratts Tyerell is barely seen in Episode I and quickly crashes and explodes his podracer in the cave portion of the track, it quite possible that many of you don’t even recall seeing him in Episode I. At least we’re almost at the end of making all of the podracers thank goodness. We wonder if we’ll ever see all of the podracers now. (Yikes!)