Gasgano - EI - Basic

With his multiple arms, thrill seeker Gasgano is uniquely suited for the extreme sport of pod racing. Piloting a cockpit pulled by two dangerously powerful engines, he relies on a crew of pit droids to keep him in the race when the action heats up.

Well, it seems that Podracing is a thing. Hasbro has added a couple of them to the Episode I basic figure line, and there is an interest. Sadly, not all of them are getting vehicles, so we have to wonder how important the pilots are going to be ultimately. Gasgano is another basic figure release of a podracing pilot. While each pilot is unique from one another, we can’t help notice that they share a theme. They’re typically obtuse, out-of-scale (to the rest of the cast), and small in stature. Oh, and many cannot speak a lick of English. Still, there is a facet of collectors that find them interesting, and Hasbro seems already prepared to deliver them to us, with some coming much sooner than others. We don’t recall Gasgano having any more or less screen time than the other background podracing pilots, so we imagine that Hasbro had to start somewhere with getting them into the basic figure line. The question is how does the figure fare? Well, like most figures Gasgano has plusses and well as minuses. Let’s find out how this is so.

Gasgano is a simple action figure. For one reason or another Hasbro gave him a peculiar articulation system. He is a mix of swivel and ball-socket articulation, but none of it is all that useful. His character has four arms, and Hasbro recreated this by giving the action figure four ball-socket shoulders. Sadly, the arms break off from this articulation point very easily even with the slightest of movement. It may have been better just to make all four arms with swivel articulation instead to prevent the “breaking off” that the ball-socket articulation allows. Gasgano also comes with a swivel neck and swivel waist. But he doesn’t come with any leg articulation at all which severely limits what you can do with him. Also, if Hasbro ever decides to make his podracer, how is Gasgano going to ever pilot it? He cannot sit and that is not ideal for any pilot action figure. What’s more, Gasgano doesn’t come with any accessories which frankly is disappointing. You’d think that Hasbro could have included removable goggles or something.

Hasbro must have realized that they shortchanged Gasgano because although there are no accessories included here, you do get a whole other figure. Hasbro has included complete Pit Droid instead. The Pit Droid is a very nice sculpt and have wonderful paint operations. White in color, the Pit Droid has also been accented with gray and black and has been adorned with a white circle on its chest. The Pit Droid has a pretty tame sculpt. Its arms and legs aren’t pre-posed, and the figure can stand very well unassisted. Getting a second figure surely makes up for the lack of articulation and accessories, doesn’t it. We think the Pit Droid is a nice complement to Gasgano. It makes the purchase worthwhile for us. Like all Episode I figures, Gasgano comes with a CommTech chip. If you have the CommTech reader, this allows you to hear the figures talk, although the phrases aren’t from the films and done by voice actors instead. We don’t think Gasgano is going to be a huge hit with collectors, but those who are looking for some additional Pit Droid diversity may set their sights on this action figure for that purpose alone.