Giran - LC - Basic (BD21)

Giran is a Nikto Guard who helps Malakili take care of the vicious rancor in the chamber below Jabba's lair. A warrior species with a reputation for shady activities, the Nikto are loyal to the Hutts and work in Jabba's palace and on his sail barge.

Every now and again, Hasbro sends a figure our way that wasn't necessarily on our wish lists but still makes us wonder why it wasn't requested sooner because of how excellently it was executed. Giran, the green Nikto Rancor Keeper fits this bill perfectly and he is without a doubt one of the best Droid Factory figures in the Legacy Collection. Giran is the "other" Rancor Keeper from Star Wars Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi. All of us are very familiar with Malakili (or simply Rancor Keeper) so it is quite refreshing to get a background (but yet very visible) Jabba's Palace alien to pair with Malakili. (And what a bonus it is to get a figure that has been designed beyond expectations). Giran is more than a winner as an action figure. As many of us started off collecting figures in the vintage era, we have been waiting to get Klaatu (Wooof) for quite a while now. (Editor’s Note: Wooof has been released in wave 3 of The Vintage Collection during November 2010.) Hasbro is making us wait a little longer, but they have decided to go with another Nikto character in the meantime to perhaps tease us about how sharp they can make this species look in action figure form. We can assure you that this was a wise move. Giran is everything and more you would want a Jabba's Palace denizen to be and he is so well designed it nearly leaves us speechless. Every detail has been captured and it floors us that Hasbro developed such an extraordinary action figure. We are being completely serious here. Giran has easily landed in our top 10 best action figures in the Droid Factory series thus far. Please don't underestimate his awesomeness, it would be egregious!

Giran has a removable hood and this was an excellent design choice by Hasbro. It has been the theme of the Return Of The Jedi wave to include those characters with hoods with removable separate pieces. This allows for the reuse of the marvelous portraits they created as well as including additional play value. And we specifically hope that Hasbro has already utilized Giran's head for the Wooof figure and other Nikto characters not yet announced because it is a spectacular testament to what Hasbro can achieve on such small 3.75" scale. Every bump and scale is there and the colors are incredible. He has solid black eyes (thank goodness) with a twinkle in each to give the impression of a light reflection (captured via two tiny white dots), but no pupils have been included! This is the way the Nikto species should be (green, yellow, or brown Nikto). His costume is remarkable and one of the best we have seen - again, we are very serious here. We hope Giran will exceed Hasbro's expectations, because he has done so for us. While this is mere conjecture, we are saddened by the potential fact that this figure's beautiful sculpt will likely not see a return to the basic figure line after the Legacy Collection has finished (just by the very nature of how the basic line goes). This would be a crying shame. Giran deserves much longer headline billing that he will ultimately not receive. Giran is super-articulated, but prepare yourself to spend some good time finding where Hasbro hid all the joints. Amazingly engineered, the figure appears wholly perfect to the viewer/collector. It makes us want Wooof even more and we hope Hasbro delivers him as soon as humanly possible. Giran, however, will be the perfect figure to hold you over until more Jabba's skiff guards/palace denizens are released in the basic figure line. Incorrectly denoted Klaatu Skiff Guard above the UPC code, it makes us wonder if Hasbro might have had different plans for this slot than what materialized.

One small criticism about Giran, we are still perplexed by how Hasbro ignores matching the ankle joints to the rest of the area on the figure where they are inserted. Usually this mismatch occurs in the feet, but unfortunately for Giran, it happens in the elbow joints as well. Two gray colored joints lie directly within his light cream colored shirt. Not unforgivable, it is at worst a small imperfection to a nearly flawless mold. On a much more positive note, a nice touch to this figure is that Hasbro designed his loincloth to not interrupt hip movement. It can be quite annoying for an action figure to have hip joints that are rendered useless from plastic parts that inhibit their movement. The coloring on Giran is spectacular. He is mostly earth tones, but they work incredibly well together and it appears that Hasbro went all out to match the action figure to the onscreen character seen in the film. And Hasbro has included many sculpted accessories (as part of the mold) that bring his outfit together. His black pants stand out from amongst the rest of his outfit and it simply looks top-notch. His uniform contains spikes and metal details and Hasbro has grabbed it all. Giran comes outfitted with the skiff guard force pike and again, Hasbro has sculpted a perfect replica of the popular weapon. It has been designed from a firm plastic, and with a little respect, it looks like it will retain its shape without issue. It is also multi-colored and this is a nice treat for us. After years of weapons that have been cast in solid black plastic (for the most part) it is very nice to get weapons that are unique and special. Giran may be one of the most underrated figure in the Legacy Collection. He has peg warming status already and this is a terrible shame. We hope he picks up some momentum before the line ends. We absolutely encourage you to make Giran a top priority for your collection. He is everything and more you would want an action figure to be, even if he is only a background alien! Support these collector-focused figures!