Tedn Dahai - Mini Busts

A former scout for the Imperial Navy and card-carrying member of the Intergalactic Federation of Musicians, Tedn Dahai is the backup fanfar player in the all-Bith Jizz band Figrin D'an and the Modal Nodes (better known as the Cantina Band). This band of Bith musicians have been the entertainment for many rough and tumble bars across the galaxy.

Is it really going to come down to reviewing every member of the Modal Nodes as Mini Busts, 1:6 Scale Figures and other collectible formats? Yikes, it’s going to be impossible to write about seven Bith musicians from the same band and try to present a different perspective on each one! Tedn Dahai is the backup fanfar player in Figrin D’an and the Modal Nodes. And that’s about all we can tell you. In Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope he is seen to the right of Figrin D’an, the leader of the Modal Nodes. His instrument is reminiscent of the woodwinds we see in various orchestras in this world. But other than their unique instruments, it’s physically impossible to tell the members of the Modal Nodes apart from each other. Maybe that concerns you, but likely it doesn’t. We never thought that we would lose some of our interest in these characters, but we have. Perhaps they have been “done to death” in other formats.

Gentle Giant Ltd.. has really dillydallied bringing the Modal Nodes into the Mini Bust format. They did however release the “almost” complete band in their very popular Bust-Ups line (and there were even chase Bust-Ups to try to collect – it was maddening to find them all). So now it’s time for the high-end Mini Bust line to start bringing us these characters but it seems that Gentle Giant is intent on bringing them to us one by one. (This too is going to be maddening.) In our opinion, Gentle Giant Ltd.. should have just made a boxed-set of the entire Modal Nodes Mini Busts. Just bang them all out at once for a discounted price, let’s be done with it and move on already. One of the most popular characters that collectors wanted to see released by Kenner in the original vintage lineup, it appears as if they have overstayed their welcome in recent years. We’re not so sure what happened.

The Mini Bust itself is pretty good. But he looks just like the Figrin D’an (Cantina Band Leader) Mini Bust that was released before it so there isn’t much new to expect here other than his fanfar. The paint job is just average because he appears a little too bleached out for our liking. But then again, the lighting in the cantina was very dark. Maybe these creatures are this pale. The sculpt is very accurate but Tedn’s upper body is posed in an annoying position. He sure looks like a musician jamming, but without the rest of the body he just looks cocked to his left. One thing we’d like to credit on Gentle Giant’s part is that they’ve so far managed to ensure that the Bith musicians’ complete instruments make the “cut” above the base. Granted, some of the instruments are short and are just going to naturally “fit” in this format without too much thinking, but it seems that we’re going to get a complete band with their complete instruments. But there is one question yet to be answered. if Gentle Giant Ltd.. does decide to release them all, will they make all seven (7) members? We sure hope so! Because there are seven and not six!