Nom Anor - TVC - Basic (VC59)

The Yuuzhan Vong and the New Jedi Order books are some of the most controversial entries into the Star Wars Expanded Universe. Despite your feeling on the overall series, one thing that made the Yuuzhan Vong interesting as a species was the character of Nom Anor. In the majority of the books, Nom Anor served as the point of view character for the Yuuzhan Vong side of the war. As a character, Nom Anor is a wonderful mixture of deviousness and opportunism. Throughout the series, we see him as a spy, courtier, exile, and even prophet for the Jedi. At one point, he even shoots his own soldiers in the back in order to protect his reputation. Ultimately, Nom Anor added depth to the Yuuzhan Vong and allowed readers to see them as more than just a race of bloodthirsty warriors.

Like the Yuuzhan Vong figure that came in 2009's LC Yuuzhan Vong/Kyle Katarn Comic Packs (3) set , Hasbro did an excellent job crafting and detailing this Nom Anor. However, the Nom Anor figure is overall a more accurate representation of the species. The figure is smaller and the body proportions are less comic-bookish. Also, Hasbro painted striking blue tatoos on his head. The chest plate is painted a beautiful light brown with blue dots. Many collectors have complained that the paint color on the hands doesn't quite match the yellowish skin tone on the face. However, upon checking the reference image of Nom Anor on Wookiepedia is does appear his hands are a different shade from his face. While we are torn as to whether this looks better, technically Hasbro is right on this one.

Interestingly, the prototype figures we saw in early 2011 depicted Nom Anor wearing a plastic cloak. While the plastic cloak seemed to fit more snugly around his head, we're glad Hasbro decided to go with the softgoods cloak. We like the way it drapes behind him. The cloak has a hole in the back so you can put his back spikes on over the cloak. This looks great from the front, although from behind it looks a bit odd (then again, according to the books the cloak is an organic lifeform, so it's possible it shapes itself around the spikes). One thing we noticed is that if you remove the cloak and chest plate the figure looks more like a generic Vong. If you like the New Jedi Order, it's worth getting multiple copies as Vong army builders - frankly, this is probably the closest Hasbro will ever get to releasing a realistic generic Yuuzhan Vong figure. Given how popular the NJO figures are try searching for 2010's Legacy Collection Jacen Solo (BD59) or Jaina Solo (BD60) on eBay, we are surprised it took this long to make such a central character. We can only hope we don't have to wait another ten years for Verere.

About Arnold Corso: Arnold Corso is a political scientist and is interested in the politics of Star Wars (not as his dissertation topic, just a side interest that he's just starting to blog about). He is currently working on a short article about the lack of political parties in Star Wars, and then he has another one in the works about what he think Lucas' inspiration for Order 66 might have been.