Bossk - SW [SOTDS] - Saga Legends (SL01)

Bossk is a bounty hunter hired to track down the Millennium Falcon. The Trandoshan meets with Lord Vader and is given the task of capturing the Rebel ship. The reptilian humanoid is an efficient and ruthless hunter whose personal goal is to capture Chewbacca.

The Saga Legends line took an interesting turn in direction by the time the 2010 Star Wars "Shadow Of The Dark Side" line look was released. When compared to previous Saga Legends lines, it has a very heavy concentration of bounty hunter characters in that it. The focus of bounty hunter was very appropriate. Not only was it the 30th anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back, the bounty hunters also had major roles in The Clone Wars television show at the same time. Since Saga Legends role functioned as a kids' line, first and foremost, to introduce kids to some realistically styled Star Wars characters, Hasbro thought it would be best to release a nice supply of this hive of scum and villainy into the basic figure sub-line. They did a fine job pulling some of their best efforts from recent years. And collectors jumped on them because many missed them the first time they were released. As a result, the first wave of Saga Legends became very hard to find pretty soon after their arrival at retail. What many didn’t realize initially is that some changes were made to the figures’ paint operations. Hopefully we’ll be able to clear that up for you here.

When an action figure is manufactured in two different time periods, things happen at the factory level that inadvertently change the newly manufactured figure and make it look differently from its original release. And that’s what happened to Bossk. First released in 2007’s very popular “Vintage” The Saga Collection line, he’s back snarling at collectors with an aim to take out whatever Wookiees that cross his path. The sculpt of Bossk has always been incredible since day one. And now the revised paint operation changes made to him.... well.... we’re not sure if it’s better or worse, so we’ll let you decide. You’ll notice right away that the 2010 Bossk has a duller paint wash. Yet, the icon on his flight suit has been applied in a much crisper fashion. You may even notice that the yellow plug on the front of his flight suit is a slightly bolder yellow. His eye color is a different shade and the dark wash that penetrates his scales is muted (and then often darker in places with no rhyme or reason) when compared to the 2007 VTSC Bossk (Bounty Hunter) figure. So some enhancements and some setbacks have occurred to Bossk. Bossk is so cool despite any variation in his paint job, so we doubt that anything could affect your affection for him.

There are also changes to his blaster rifle. The strap is lighter and smoother and quite frankly more even. There aren’t any blotchy sections of dark paint collected throughout it like the VTSC version. We have also noticed that Bossk’s white bib isn’t as evenly painted white as his predecessor. This may be a stretch, but we're pretty certain that his collar is a darker shade of red by a degree or less. It’s hard to pinpoint this detail though. But overall, the 2010 Star Wars “Shadow Of The Dark Side” Saga Legends version just doesn't capture the same magic of the VTSC figure, but maybe that has affected our psyche since it’s pretty impossible to beat the magic of “vintage” packaging. Keep in mind that the insignias on his shoulders look better on the 2010 figure. So maybe you can swap heads and call it a day. That should make you pretty happy. Bossk in 2010 is wonderful to see again. We’d be lying if we said that we wouldn’t have preferred to see him as a “filler” figure for revised case assortments of The Vintage Collection. He and Zuckuss would have benefitted tremendously from that action. But Hasbro has other ideas. If you’re into pack-ins, you’ll also get a character-specific Galactic Battle Game card to accompany Bossk. But that may not be a selling point for you at all.