Mosep Binneed - TBS [P2] - Basic (#18)

If you want to know why 40-something year old collectors are so frustrated these days, you needn’t look further than The Black Series 3.75” line. Essentially relegated to being a “supplementary” line to the seemingly “more important” The Black Series 6” line, this basic figure line has done very little to keep us engaged. Sure, there have been some wonderful updates and some even better repacks, but for the most part collectors who have been in this hobby since the vintage Kenner era are feeling like Hasbro has us on the backburner lately. If you look at The Black Series 3.75” line (as a whole – both phases) from a numbers perspective, you probably didn’t realize that we have only received less than ten “never before offered” characters as action figures. And if you only count the Original Trilogy characters, we’re talking only three action figures have been produced prior to this one. Thankfully, Mosep Binneed, a fixture on fans’ choice wish lists for years now, is the latest fruit of Hasbro’s labor that not only brings us an excellent action figure, but another new “never before offered” character from the Star Wars saga. (By the way, to clarify, Mosep Bineed makes the fourth Original Trilogy never before offered Star Wars character.) Although that in and of itself is enough room for celebration, many fans are ecstatic over Mosep Binneed’s release because he served as the alien who became Jabba The Hutt in the Marvel Comics adaptation of the Star Wars story. Even the original costume from A New Hope is identified as Jabba The Hutt in the Lucasfilm Ltd. archives. Killing two birds with one stone really, Mosep Binneed couldn’t be a more excellent, exciting and satisfying release in years. Well, it is for us anyhow. We are sure there will be some clone-addicted younglings that won’t even understand why this action figure was even produced.

Mosep Binneed is a very difficult character to see onscreen in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope. If you watch the sequence where Han Solo exits the cantina after killing Greedo, you will see Mosep Binneed, albeit briefly, at the bottom right of the screen. He is sitting next to Takeel. A better shot of this Nimbanel species, in the same outfit no less but without Mosep’s topknot can be seen around the outside of Docking Bay 94. This however is Tawss Khaa. If Hasbro were to ever become a little more adventurous they could easily make this female version. Because other than the topknot the characters are essentially identical. The Mosep Binneed action figure is a pure joy to own. Our sample has a slight “eye” problem but we have decided to overlook it. There will inevitably be better samples that won’t have this issue, so it’s not even worth mentioning really. Mosep Binneed is pretty much flawless. There are some different approaches taken with this action figure that longtime collectors many not appreciate, but it would be absolutely terrible to discount the figure because of them. Firstly, Hasbro has abandoned the ball-socket head joint for this figure. While this obviously limits a full range of motion, the aesthetics are so much nicer. There are no harsh gaps of space and everything is pretty much seamless. We really appreciate this new “old” way to produce head sculpts. We forgot how much they hide (in a good way). The rest of Mosep Binneed is super-articulated, but don’t expect to get a full range of motion out of his lower body. The lower skirt inhibits the hips just a little bit, but even the ball-jointed knees won’t give you the full range of motion you might expect because of the way the pants bunch up at the knee. It’s really fine however and not anything where you should be concerned.

The best part about Mosep Binneed however are the ball-jointed/”rocker” ankles. These alone really help with the limitations of the hips and knees. They sort of make up for where the articulation system “fails,” which it really doesn’t fail at all in our opinion. There are just some limitations in the points of articulation. Another highlight of Mosep Binneed is the outfit (body) of the action figure. Man, oh man! If Hasbro could just extrapolate upon this all-new sculpt and produce Imperial officers from the Galactic Empire, collectors would really have something to sing about because it is simply the best officer outfit they’ve ever tooled. Of course, Mosep Binneed is wearing a red outfit, but it would be quite simple to color it in olive green, gray and black (and even white) to make all of the various member of the Imperial navy from all of the Original Trilogy Star Wars films. We hope they realize what an awesome sculpt they have here and decide to reuse it in the fashion we’re recommending. Mosep Binneed has a fantastic head sculpt. It is simple, clean and looks just like the alien in A New Hope. Less is more obviously works here very hard because there isn’t much more we would like to see here other than what Hasbro has already provided. A final wash to pick up the details in the wrinkles and whatnot may have been nice, but if it wasn’t applied sparingly, or was added too thickly, it could have rendered the final figure a complete mess. We’re glad Hasbro decided to not take this route. Part of a great wave of figures from The Black Series [Phase II] line look, it’s a shame it took this long the line to get going. Not enough basic figures get produced anymore. Thankfully Mosep Binneed wasn’t pushed out or canceled for another time or place. He’s finally part of our collections and can be a fabulous template for many more future action figures: new and updated/refreshed action figures.