Chewbacca (As Boushh’s Bounty) - POTF2 [FF/TKC] - Basic

Chewbacca, acting as a prisoner, and Princess Leia, disguised as the bounty hunter Boushh, infiltrate Jabba's Palace. There they hope to rescue the carbonite-encased Han Solo.

Kenner/Hasbro needed to distance themselves from the earliest Star Wars action figure efforts in the modern line. They had to do this because collectors had already begun their complaining that Kenner/Hasbro wasn’t making the figures in the way we wanted to see. We had a valid argument. They were riding a rough learning curve. In the end, progress was slow but sure, and in only a few short years, Star Wars action figures were looking better than ever. By the time 1998 rolled around, Kenner/Hasbro had big plans to re-release many of their greatest hits into the Freeze Frame phase of the line. That was a good thing. But instead of rehashing some of the ugly ducklings in the line, Kenner/Hasbro created all-new versions of the main characters and added a unique twist to them all to make them both appealing to collectors and well as keeping the line as fresh as possible. They did this by releasing all-new versions of the core characters in The Power Of The Force “2” Freeze Frame line. For example, the new Darth Vader was released as Darth Vader [With Detachable Hand]. C-3PO was released as C-3PO [New Pull-Apart Feature]. And Luke Skywalker was updated to Luke Skywalker (All New Likeness), but also sported a blastshield helmet too. You catch our drift. Kenner/Hasbro were updating the Star Wars figure line as much as they were providing something new and exciting to collectors.

The same could be said for Chewbacca (As Boushh’s Bounty), which gave collectors for the very first time a Chewbacca action figure directly from a film that wasn’t Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. This Episode VI specific version of Chewbacca was an elating release. Kenner/Hasbro for once made a trimmed down “Big Foot free” version of Chewbacca that captured the personality of the character, even though there was room for improvements to it. You’ll notice right off the bat that Chewbacca (As Boushh’s Bounty) is too short. But in an era where scale is not priority number one, we still feel this figure looks great and comparable in size to its fellow counterparts. We’re fond of this figure's portrait. While many samples do possess a cross-eyed issue, we have been successful in securing samples that are free of this infirmity. Staring into this action figure’s face will immediately make you see how warm Chewbacca’s expression is and how well they’ve captured his personality. The hairstyle looks equally appealing. And he even has a different color hanging around his “mustache area” that is perfectly screen accurate. In short, all of the decorative details are in place. Specific to the way he appeared in Return Of The Jedi, Kenner/Hasbro has added a chain (which isn’t removable by the way) to his figure so that he can be dragged around by Boushh so the bounty hunter can collect his (her) bounty.

We love the added chain, but it isn’t screen-accurate. The chain connects to a collar that is visible in the film. Kenner/Hasbro just attached the chain underneath Chewbacca’s fur. To make this screen accurate, Kenner/Hasbro would likely have to get creative and balance screen accuracy with authenticity, so it may be all for the better that they didn’t go this route. We still would love to one see the collar and chain accurately represented, however. For reasons unknown, except for maybe additional play value, Chewbacca (As Boushh’s Bounty) comes with his bowcaster. The only disappointing thing about this is that it’s the same one from the 1995 POTF2 [R/G] Chewbacca basic figure. As a result, the tooling is dated (and inaccurate). An updated bowcaster would have been ideal and much appreciated. We’re still waiting to see a Chewbacca action figure without a molded satchel as part of the figure. It seems like it would make the most sense to sculpt a separate accessory for additional play value. Other than that, Chewbacca (As Boushh’s Bounty) looks pretty great. The paint operations are spectacular as well. On top of alternating brown and gray fur, light gray accents have been added to the edges to give Chewbacca’s fur a wavy and highlighted appearance. Chewbacca (As Boushh’s Bounty) is another pleasant surprise in The Power Of The Force “2” line. We hope that the action figure makers continue to be full of surprises for years to come.