Captain Needa - TLC - Basic (BD 40)

Captain Needa assumes full responsibility for losing the Millennium Falcon when the Rebel ship emerges from the asteroid field. Needa apologizes for the mistake to Lord Vader, who accepts the apology – then kills Needa as punishment for his failure.

Captain Needa may just serve as the new Hasbro template for the next generation of Imperial officers that we will be receiving in Battle Packs, as basic figures, and even Comic Packs. For the first time, Hasbro has engineered a new replaceable (but not removable since it was affixed to the figure with glue) badge on the top left chest to designate the appropriate rank. The Imperial they intend to designate can use the same sculpt over and over and just change the ranking badge instead. And while it looks too bulky on the final product, it is certainly a very clever way that Hasbro can reuse a standard mold yet make it officer-specific as needed. This time, the Imperial at hand is Captain Needa, and he is a pretty good figure, although the likeness is not as perfect to the actor as we had hoped. Hasbro attempted to imitate his large eyes and long face, and for the most part, gives us an idea that this is indeed Needa, but it appears that something is, unfortunately, missing here. And it could be something simple like the way the face is painted. The approached used here means that the sculpt may be fine and that it is the paint operations that are having the adverse effect on our eyes. But all we can tell is that the final product is a step or two away from perfection. Captain Needa boasts 22 points of articulation, has a removable cap and an Imperial issue blaster. Althoug this is fantastic articulation, the joints are inhibited thanks to the lower skirt. Typically we wouldn't spout any complaints here on that, but this figure does have problems with that. The parts are in scale with each other and look great together, but there are other things more pressing with this figure. And these existing issues are something we hope Hasbro can diminish or erase on future Imperials.

Don't get us wrong. We are definitely excited to finally get a super-articulated Imperial officer. But there some aesthetic problems stemming from the way Hasbro has chosen to execute this sculpt and we feel this has negatively impacted the final product. For one, we feel that ankle joints only work for certain figures. And while we are aware that many collectors may disagree, the ankle joints, unless hidden very well, affect the contoured shape of legs and boots as it does for Needa. Although these are the legs of 2007's TAC Death Star Trooper (30 13), they seemed to work better for that figure than Needa. Also, Hasbro has used dull gray ankle joints that look out of place since the boots are shiny black. Likewise, there are some awkward places in the elbow joints and knee joints that also mimic this bulky proportion problem. This has been an ongoing issue for Hasbro, and we are not too sure why they can't get ankle joint color right yet. Articulated joints are great (and we want as many as we can get), but when poorly placed joints start affecting the silhouette of the character, we have to question if they are worth it. Captain Needa's knees look like balls sitting on the top of his boots instead of the crisp clean drape they should have as they appeared in the film. Why further tweaking wasn't done on this figure before its release is a bit perplexing and frustrating to us. It could have been much better than it turned out and we find this very unfortunate. Also for the first time, the Imperial belt has a bluish silver hue that really looks good, although we are not sure how authentic this is when compared to the film.

Don't get us wrong, Captain Needa is a pleasure to add to our collections. And he will be an acceptable action figure in your collections. But he is in need of some fine tuning. Perhaps further retooling of this mold will perfect him and bring more complete final success for the future Imperial designs. We truly look forward to these improvements and will anxiously await and see what Hasbro will bring to the table, if anything. In the meantime, we will certainly enjoy what we have been given thus far. Captain Needa is a great figure, but we just hope Hasbro is open to the constructive criticism. We think the criticism will only ensure a better product. One other thing we would like to point out is that we think it would be better if Hasbro could retool less of an angle for the legs and design them in a more upright than "at ease" position. This small change would add even more definitiveness for our future Imperial officer action figures. This among others will be great enhancements to the figure's successors. And of course that rank badge needs the biggest overhaul of all. It is a shame that Hasbro is going backward instead of forward with this "accessory". Overall, Captain Needa certainly can hold his own, and you need him anyway if you are a Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back fan (or just a fan of the Imperial army). This makes your support for him obligatory. Otherwise, you may have to wait a long time for an upgrade. But don't expect a new one anytime soon. We think that he will be good enough for your Imperial ranks as he is for years to come.