Chewbacca - OTC - Basic (OTC #08)

The Rebel hero Chewbacca is a skilled mechanic who is always working on the Millennium Falcon to repair it or make it faster and more powerful. He sometimes loses his temper when the repairs don't work, such as when he and Han are trying to fix the ship and leave the Rebel base on Hoth before the evil stormtroopers arrive.

One of the most immutable things about Hasbro is that they’re going to salt the basic figure line with repacked action figures. With some collections they add more repackaged figures than others, but with The Original Trilogy Collection, they had to go into “repack overdrive” to meet the deadline of the Original Trilogy making its debut on DVD. Hasbro doubled up on many characters in the same outfits. The “Vintage” Original Trilogy Collection brought definitive and near-definitive updates into the basic figure scale, yet Hasbro had to also include these same characters in the same outfits in the kid-friendly $4.99 basic figure assortment. As a result, some duplication existed across the lines. Some of the older sculpts were refreshed. And quite frankly it was very nice to see the updates made on figures dating back to 1997. But some figures are best left to be never released again. We feel that Chewbacca (OTC #08) more than fits that bill. Just say “no” Hasbro. Just say “no”.

This particular Chewbacca is a relative nightmare as an action figure. We almost don’t even understand how Hasbro made it possible for him to stand up unassisted with the way his legs have been sculpted and posed. Seriously, look at those legs. They don’t even make physical sense. The problem with all pre-2004 Chewbacca figures was the limited articulation that plagues them. When you’re a Wookiee, you need a lot more than seven points of articulation to be a useful action figure. What’s worse in this scenario is that Chewbacca is meant to represent the version of him from The Empire Strikes Back welding the Millennium Falcon while on Echo Base right before the Battle of Hoth. How much can you weld and how can you maneuver into all of those cramped small spaces when the most impressive point of extra articulation is a swivel left elbow? You don’t even have to think about it. It just isn’t a pretty picture.

Hasbro should have used 2002’s SW Chewbacca (Cloud City) (‘02 #38) figure instead. That figure has much better proportions and better articulation. In fact, they could have repainted it somewhat to make it a unique release, but they decided to go with what we consider an inferior figure. Chewbacca (OTC #08) is really a waste of your time. If you collect them all, then this is a necessary purchase, but if you don’t, you can easily forgo this release. The torch is a neat accessory to have, but we believe it’s now out of scale with the line. And there was no point to include the annoying goggles because they don’t go over his head and you can’t make Chewbacca hold them up to his face. OK, so Hasbro needed a quick placeholder or filler Chewbacca figure. Here it is. But we don’t think this sculpt does the character any justice. There are much better choices they could have resorted adding to the line instead. Oh well, what do we really know?