Acklay (Arena Battle Beast) - SW [S - P1] - Creatures

The acklay is a huge, six-legged creature with sharp pincer-like claws and razor-sharp teeth. When the acklay is let loose in the Geonosian arena, the vicious beast swiftly attacks the courageous fighters and captive victims awaiting its deadly arrival.

You should be well versed in our opinion that the Battle of Geonosis was the saving grace of Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones. We never get tired of reminding you of that however. In particular, we grew quite fond of the various beasts in the Geonosian arena that attempted to take the lives of the three main heroes in the film. The Nexu, the Reek and the Acklay were all standout creatures in the film and despite the filmmakers heavily relying on CGI to create them, they did a pretty great job at getting these beast look as realistic as possible, despite not really existing in “real life”. Aside from a few moments of film where the beasts seems to jerk unnaturally, it really felt that they were costarring next to the actors and for the most part the effect was a success. But when Hasbro designed these beasts for the toy line, it was really the first time they had been “realized” in physical three-dimensional form. And it goes without saying that Hasbro did a pretty excellent job at designing these beasts in the Star Wars “Saga” toy line. Hasbro must have been fans of these beasts as well because they ensured that during the first year of the Star Wars “Saga” line that all three beasts and the Geonosis Battle Arena were are on tap for release during its fist phase.

The Acklay (Arena Battle Beast) is perhaps the most complicated of all the Geonosis arena battle beasts. Obviously its larger size and multiple limbs would translate into more work for Hasbro, but they approached this creature and developed a surprising graceful toy that came with twenty points of articulation and the ability to be displayed in so many ways whether lunging for Obi-Wan Kenobi, or just standing and waiting for its next meal. We don’t think that the Nexu, Reek (Arena Battle Beast) and the Acklay (Arena Battle Beast) are in perfect scale to one another as seen in Attack Of The Clones, but Hasbro created enough disparity between them to give collectors a sense of their actual size differences. Towering over all 3.75” action figures, the Acklay (Arena Battle Beast) is the perfect menace for your action figures and a beautiful addition to the Geonosis Battle Arena setup for your collection. The Acklay (Arena Battle Beast) has more articulation than we expected Hasbro to include here, but not all of the points are perfectly functioning. We will explain this all in great detail shortly. We should express first however that the Acklay (Arena Battle Beast) comes with a gorgeous paint job. It makes some of its faults more palatable.

Even with 20 points of articulation, the Acklay (Arena Battle Beast) is sometimes hard to position upright. The ends of its claws have been cast in a very rubbery plastic which don’t allow it to stand as firmly upright as this beast should. With a little bit of patience you can make it work just fine, but we feel that toys should have to be futzed with long to achieve a certain pose. That is frustrating at best. With this creature however you will need some extra time to get it just right. All of the arms are ball-jointed at the “shoulders” and then the “elbows” and “fore-claws” each have hinge-jointed articulation. The top of the head is articulated as well. It is spring-loaded and when you pull back the head the mouth opens viciously. (It looks great!) The Acklay (Arena Battle Beast) also comes with one spring-loaded claw for extra play value (the front left to be exact). The best part of the Acklay (Arena Battle Beast) however is the removable belly portion which reveals soft and mushy purple innards. While this detail wasn’t seen in Attack Of The Clones, it’s an awesome feature to interest collectors of all ages. Guts are fun for everyone to play with no matter your age. Acklay (Arena Battle Beast) looks great. You can really make this creature work for your collection.