Rum Sleg - LC - Basic (BD09)

The Boonta Eve Classic Podrace draws a huge crowd of spectators including bounty hunter Rum Sleg. Held just outside Mos Espa, the race is a death-defying competition, which doesn't stop young Anakin Skywalker from competing.

If there is one thing we can bet on with Star Wars collecting, it's that we are certain to receive the most obscure characters in action figure form. This was even a practice during the Vintage era, as we received many, many action figures that appeared and disappeared in the blink of an eye in the films. The protocol hasn't seemed to change throughout the years thankfully and more than 30 years later, we continue to get the obscure characters like Rum Sleg in the basic figure line. While ultimately cool, at the same time Rum Sleg makes us scratch our heads on how the team at Hasbro even saw this figure in the films, let alone come up with a decision to release him as an action figure. But then again, with the advent of the Customizable Card Game, it too has played its part for being partially responsible for bringing backgrounds to these relatively obscure characters to the forefront of fan consciousness. Rum Sleg was a bounty hunter who was seen rummaging through the streets of Mos Espa during the time when Anakin Skywalker competed in the fateful Boonta Eve Classic podrace. He can also be seen in Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace as part of the crowd that was watching the podrace in action. As such, we have a much better gander at him as a toy than attempting to ogle him on film.

Rum Sleg has been faithfully duplicated from his description in the card game into action figure form. He apparently wears a skull-like mask which hides his true and unknown identity. And it also hides his true species. Faithfully, Hasbro has also decided against revealing his true identity as well. But even the details surrounding the mask would have never been imitated were it not for some written description of this in the Expanded Universe. His overall appearance is quite alarming and it has everything to do with his mask. Rum Sleg has a removable helmet and it clearly has been expertly designed by well-trained and experienced artisans at Hasbro. It comes off and on without any difficulty and partially hides a seemingly reminiscent "Friday the 13th" image underneath it. While he isn't Jason Voorhees, he is certainly has a strong resemblance to him and this is perhaps the reason why his visage is startling. A detachable double canister backpack can be found on his posterior and this makes us think he has a similar "Plo-Koon like issue" when it comes to breathing oxygen. Rum Sleg comes with two blaster pistols and they fit very nicely into his functioning holsters. Each side of the holster is specially designed to house one unique blaster (and not both). His uniform is cast in a dark red and has a black chest plate, black boots, and black gloves and finished off with both silver and gray highlights that denote metal buckles, armor, or insignias. One thing that you will quickly realize is that he has dreadlocks too. These are really only visible once he is out of the package and with his helmet removed for the most part. It was a very nice surprise to come across and we thank Hasbro for researching a character from head to toe and front to back with such exactness and then applying it to the action figure. They really didn't need to go into this much detail.

Rum Sleg has an issue that we wish Hasbro would address or correct before it happens again. He has a more than necessary articulation but he is a figure that should have come with ball-jointed ankles due to the awkward sculpting of his legs. Although he can stand with relative ease, his posture is very bizarre and he doesn't look too "comfortable". And if you play with him, you may need to spend time getting him in the exact original pose needed to stand him upright again. He can topple over quite easily, much to our chagrin. He certainly isn't the best designed action figure functionally speaking, but a simple fix would have made him essentially flawless. We can attribute all of this posing strife directly to a poorly angled left lower leg. Were Hasbro to include ankle joints, most/all of these issues could be quickly alleviated. But everything cannot be ideally perfect to our standards and we give credit where we can to this action figure, because it really is a nice action figure. His likeness is beautiful when compared to what we saw in the film. And his costume has been replicated awesomely well too. We just wish to ask of Hasbro that if they aren't going to give a figure super/hyper-articulated status (which is fine) then please sculpt those figures in a straight and erect postured pose. Not being able to stand figures easily is one technological hiccup that Hasbro needs to master on their Star Wars figures. We don't mean to be so dismissive or harsh, but we just think that if they can engineer the finest of details, then they should be able to nail a figure's center of gravity.... and there would never be a need to a retake. Nonetheless, Rum Sleg is a fantastic addition to your Episode I cast of action figures. And he is right on time to celebrate its 10th anniversary.