The Wookiees are intelligent, fiercely loyal and exceedingly strong. When their peaceful home planet of Kashyyyk is enveloped by the Clone Wars, these ferocious warriors fight the Separatist incursion.
What came first? The chicken or the egg? Or how about the tan Wookiee Warrior or the brown Wookiee Warrior? Evidence actually points to the fact that both the tan and brown Wookiee Warrior arrived at the same time and it just depended upon where you lived what version you saw first. Reports on the East coast centered around the tan version being found first while reports out West contradicted that and they were finding the brown version instead. And then in between was a hodgepodge of mixed reports. But no matter which version you saw first, we loved the fact that Hasbro was able to effortlessly give us a running change at the same time under the same name and product number. Army builders are always a blast to have in any basic figure lineup, but when they look unique from each other, it makes collecting multiples of them much more exciting. But unfortunately the Wookiee Warrior action figure wasn’t the greatest of Hasbro’s efforts and we quickly realized it wasn’t going to be an acceptable long term action figure. But you’re probably wondering why.
Although the Wookiee Warrior [Brown] figure has 12 points of articulation, its movement is severely limited for a few reasons. First, most of it is swivel articulation. This limits the range of motion to 360 degrees in one plane. Yes, we said one plane! What Star Wars character moves in one plane? The answer is none! It would have been better if they eliminated the articulation altogether because an arm or leg without swivel articulation looks so much more authentic. Yet there are some collectors out there who would rather have swivel articulation than no articulation. To them we ask “Are you crazy?” Wookiee Warrior [Brown] is painted well. We’re at a loss to decide which version we prefer the most. Because we’re not enamored with this figure, it’s hard for us to find the less of two evils. We really want to see Hasbro’s attempt at a collector focused Wookiee Warrior, even it it remains generic and not a specific character. But the Expanded Universe has really developed the profiles of some notably specific Wookiee profiles, so Hasbro has some options for being us named Wookiees.
Wookiee Warrior [Brown] comes with the same exact accessories as the Wookiee Warrior [Tan] figure and vice versa. There is absolutely nothing different between these two figures’ packaging and accessories (including the color of them). There is no doubt the Wookiee Warriors are nicely accessorized. In fact, we love how the harness is removable. It was a nice feature for Hasbro to tool a separate accessory like this that fits so well on the action figure. Unfortunately, the action feature built into the figure’s leg is such a detraction, it almost makes us angry. That may be a bit of an exaggeration, but there were so many Collection 1 characters that we wanted to see come without action features. In a movie year, Hasbro is adamant on releasing these types of action figures to appeal to the kids, but it never seems to sit well with collectors. Some of the Collection 1 action figures were saved by Hasbro including the “action feature” in the accessory instead of the figure. This of course is always much more preferable to collectors as it doesn’t affect the aesthetics of the action figure. So, we’ll wait for an unobtrusive version of the Wookiee Warrior. Because this isn’t the way to do it.
Collector Notes
Wookiee Warrior [Brown]
Status: Wookiee Warrior is an all-new figure. It came in two colors: brown and tan.
Articulation Count: 12 points
Articulation Details: ball-socket head (inhibited movement), 2 ball-jointed shoulders, 2 swivel elbows, 2 swivel wrists, swivel waist, 2 swivel hips, 2 swivel knees
Accessory Count: 6
Accessory Details: Wookiee blaster, shield, bowcaster (2 parts), projectile, removable bandolier
Date Stamp: 2004
Assortment Number: 85461/85173
UPC: 653569024439
Retail: $5.99 USD
Market Value: Click here to check the latest prices based on listings.