Admiral Ackbar - TFA - Build A Weapon (Space)

A veteran of the Clone Wars and the galactic Civil War, Admiral Ackbar has decades of experience in large-scale combat operations. Even so, the Mon Calamari officer has doubts about the Resistance's chances of success against the First Order.

Apparently Admiral Ackbar becomes pinker with age. Is that the sign of a Mon Calamari’s coming of age? Even the mottling on his head is significantly muted. All that probably doesn’t matter that much at all. Because what you should be fixated on is how impressive The Force Awakens Admiral Ackbar action figure is. Yes, it only comes with five points of articulation.Yes, it has a relatively silly action feature (the hinge-jointed upper jaw). But man, we would be doing a disservice to you by advising you to pass on the figure solely for the reason that it’s not super-articulated. Let go for a moment or two of your anger that super-articulated 3.75” figures are a rarity today, and see with clear eyes why Admiral Ackbar is a must-have action figure. Don’t discriminate against him because he didn’t come the way you wanted him to arrive as an action figure. There is no other way of putting it. Admiral Ackbar may just be the nicest looking figure in the entire The Force Awakens line. That’s quite an impressive bill to fill. But we’re sure we can relay the figure’s positives articulately (no pun intended) and accurately. The figure works well even with your super-articulated collection because all Admiral Ackbar did was stand around, much like he did in Episode VI.

Hasbro has aged him appropriately too. He is a little more filled out, yet still possesses his fiery passion to defeat those trying to suppress him and his band of freedom fighters. Although we didn’t see him hold one in the film, Admiral Ackbar comes with a unique (and much darker) Resistance blaster. His right hand can hold it (loosely), but his left hand is too outstretched to welcome it. The sculpt is dynamic and fans of the Mon Calamari are going to be astounded with what Hasbro has done to make this sculpt looks so incredibly lifelike. The pose is very generic which is great, but spend some time inspecting the perimeter of the figure and you’ll find an extraordinary amount of detail etched into the figure’s clothing and skin (shell). We’re not so sure if Admiral Ackbar was this exact shade of pink in the film, but as far as we’re concerned there isn’t anything to forgive because the figure just looks too darned amazing. It would have been neat to see him don the same off-white uniform he wore in Star Wars Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi, but that may have been too predictable. Besides, it’s neat to see a new outfit of a characters you probably didn’t expect to see differently in any way, shape or form. It’s all good.

You know about Admiral Ackbar's incredible sculpt. Well, in a line where we have to get our stomachs upset over when it comes to paint operations, we’re happy to report that we find little to no issues with Admiral Ackbar. We’ve mentioned how great the mottling on his shell looks. But there are other impressive paint applications that you should note and appreciate. His eyes are applied perfectly. The lines that divide his layers of clothing are neat and clean. The texture of the sculpt warmly welcomes the beautiful paint operations too, so you get an array of texture that really helps bring everything to life. Again, we’re thoroughly impressed with Admiral Ackbar. He comes with five points of articulation. But instead of the standard ball-socket head sculpt, Hasbro decided to think outside of the box here and give their buying audience an action feature instead. Admiral Ackbar’s head (the top half) rolls back on a hinge-joint to simulate him opening and closing his mouth. It’s a cute feature, not too necessary, but nonetheless fun. We would have loved to have seen a ball-socket head sculpt instead of this feature, but for what it’s worth, it’s still pretty cool. We hope you heed our advice about Admiral Ackbar. In an era of collecting that has been dry as well as dreary, this is one that should spark or stoke your passion a bit more.