Pablo-Jill - TBS [P1] - Basic (#10)

Pablo-Jill is an Ongree Jedi Knight who battles Separatist forces during the Battle of Geonosis.

The absolute greatest Hasbro Star Wars action of 2013 is and will remain The Black Series’ Pablo-Jill. We'll explain in-depth why that is true shortly. As soon as The Original Trilogy Collection wrapped up its original basic figure line in December of 2004, Hasbro needed to pad retailers with some “hold over” figures until the groundbreaking Revenge Of The Sith line would become available. You see, back in those days Hasbro didn’t go months without releasing action figures. They kept the momentum strong and would brainstorm ways to keep collectors engaged during lulls or when preparing for huge multimedia events. Some leftover Star Wars “Saga” basic action figures that didn’t have time to get released thanks to the interruptive OTC line were shelved until a free spot in the line became available. That ended up becoming the first quarter of 2005. Posthumously dubbed POTC for “Post Original Trilogy Collection”, these figures came in OTC lookalike packaging yet contained characters from the Prequel Trilogy as well as those from the Original Trilogy. One character, Pablo-Jill was released with great anticipation. Sadly, distribution wasn’t perfect back then either and many collectors never found him at retail. But Pablo-Jill (Geonosis Arena) (‘05 #1), the very first figure in this revised line look was a tremendously well done action figure that even aesthetically holds up excellently today. Thank goodness we now have The Black Series Pablo-Jill to deal with the articulation issues.

You better get a chair to sit down in because you’ll probably collapse. Pablo-Jill comes with an amazing 16 points of articulation. With a first cursory glance you’ll probably only notice 14 points. But just like the recent The Black Series 6” line, Hasbro has give Pablo-Jill much needed rocker ankle joints. This is equal to getting two ball-joints in the ankles alone. It was tested on a few figures in other lines, like 2010’s TCW [SOTDS] Mace Windu (CW20) and 2012’s SW [TPM 3D] Clone Commander Cody (CW7) figures, but with Pablo-Jill they seem to have mastered this much-needed articulation point. The bottoms of his feet are easy to get flush with any surface on which you pose him. And they also allow you to attain more aggressive and action-oriented poses because you’re able to secure a strong center of gravity or counterweight thanks to these updated ankle joints. Not all Star Wars action figures will require these points of articulation, but they seem to be a necessity with Jedi and clones. We’re just happy that Pablo-Jill has them because they’re wonderful enhancements. Another new approach Hasbro has taken with Pablo-Jill is the inclusion of ball-socket wrists. You’d be surprised how much better they function than the premium ball-jointed wrists and we almost wish Hasbro would continue this trend on future figures, or wherever it’s appropriate. Pablo-Jill's remaining articulation is standard however. But his ball-socket head gives him inhibited movement to a fault. That is just one tiny letdown here however.

Pablo-Jill looks fantastic and actually his sculpt is quite amazing. His awkward features make it seem like he wouldn’t be able to walk around normally, but that certainly isn't the case at all. Granted, he does walk around with oddly bent legs and his face is upside down, but he is a strong and able-bodied Jedi who valiantly fights Separatists during the Battle of Geonosis. His sculpt is all-new. When you compare the 2005 OTC figure against this new version, you’ll notice that the portrait on the 2005 POTC Pablo-Jill (Geonosis Arena) ('05 #1) figure has an astounding amount of more detail etched into the sculpt. That may translate as a setback to you, but if you look at the stills from Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones, you’ll find that the contour of his skin is smooth and creamy more than it is scaly and textured. The Black Series sculpt also gives us a better idea of his body shape. Did you know Pablo-Jill is hunchbacked? And he also is “hunchfronted” too. Yet his bulbous torso doesn’t make him look corpulent at all. It’s a flawless design for him and Hasbro did a phenomenal job at making him look stellar. We are huge fans of soft-goods and 90% of the time we overlook the bagginess of them. And Pablo-Jill is really no exception either. But while we can see that his soft-goods are indeed bulky, they befit his frame amazingly well. They have been tailored remarkably and seem like they were designed for him an no one else. He doesn't come with a hilt for the hole in his belt, but oh well. Pablo-Jill is an incredible accomplishment by Hasbro. He was long-awaited by us and it’s a pleasure to finally have this update of him in the basic figure line finally.