Captain Antilles - ROTS - Basic (III 51)

Under the command of Senator Bail Organa, Captain Antilles retrieves a Jedi homing device beacon, which may help the Senator as he attempts to warn the Jedi about dangerous events taking place on Coruscant.

The Captain Antilles character in Revenge Of The Sith is responsible for creating confusion to fans of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith. And perhaps the confusion this character causes is something that isn't going to go away. In fact, Captain Antilles walks the tightrope in a sky of controversy as far as we’re concerned. We will get to this in a moment, but it seems that some fans think he is one character while the rest feel he is a completely different character. Originally believed to be related somehow to Wedge Antilles, it ends up there is no relation at all, save for their identical surname. That theory got debunked rather quickly because, after all, it’s been said a time or two that “Antilles” is like the Star Wars equivalent to “Smith” in the United States of America. It’s just one of those common names. But this man had a very important role in A New Hope and he ended up giving up his life to support his cause. Per Wookieepedia, Captain Raymus Antilles in Episode III is the same man who Darth Vader choked in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope.

You’ll have to read the Wookieepedia entry in its entirety to put together all of the pieces and see the big picture, but basically many fans reject the notion that it’s the same man specifically for the age difference lack of continuity just by visually comparing their ages. (Captain Antilles in Episode IV is just not old enough to be the same Captain Antilles from Episode III.) We are digressing a bit here and really don’t want to get involved with that debate any further, but for all intents and purposes, we’re moving forward with the notion that this action figure is the Prequel Trilogy version of the same Captain Antilles from Episode IV. That being said, we became big fans of this character even though his role was small. We adore seeing how the Prequel Trilogy connects to the Original Trilogy. (And let’s not forget that this was the man was responsible for wiping out C-3PO’s memory bank. What’s there not to like?) We like this figure, but there is actually quite a bit to not favor here. Captain Antilles is clearly an action figure for collectors. And because this is true, we’re a bit perturbed that Hasbro didn’t make a better effort in the articulation.

Captain Antilles has less than ten points of movement and that just isn’t nearly enough for a figure that will likely never be revisited again in the basic action figure line again. This is a crying shame because Captain Antilles deserves getting the premium treatment in the basic figure line. We think all of the obscure, typically one-off figures should get the definitive treatment right from the start. Captain Antilles comes with a removable cloak and removable communications device. He also comes with an environmental display stand which evidently was intended to look like part of the flooring and wall of one of the hallways in the Tantive IV. The paint job on the figure is good and does the figure justice, unlike its articulation. For trivia lovers, Rohan Nichol, the man who played the Episode III version of Captain Antilles, nicked his face shaving and he couldn’t get the wound to stop bleeding and left an obvious blemish on his face. So his scar was written into the script as a Clone Wars battle scar memento. Hmm, that wasn’t the only time George Lucas had to alter his script for wounds to the face.