Borsk Fey’lya/Wedge Antilles - LC - Comic Packs (4)

Wedge Antilles and the rest of Rogue Squadron are enjoying some R&R, but trouble soon ends their break. Acting-Emperor Sate Pestage is captured when the Empire discovers he's made a deal with the Rebel Alliance. Rogue Squadron is tapped to rescue Pestage, but Provisional Council member Borsk Fey’lya is hostile to the plan.

It’s very surprising that it took a quarter of a century (that’s 25 years, folks) to get our first Bothan action figure. A character that we couldn’t relate to because of no existing visuals until the comics), the Bothans are a species that do a lot of good and for the most part remain as neutral as possible, but when pushed they can also have some major attitude. If you recall, the word “Bothan” was uttered by Mon Mothma in Star Wars Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi during the tactical meeting for the Battle of Endor. We didn’t know much about them then, and it took years to get a visual representation of them in the comics. But the time arrived in The Legacy Collection Comic Packs series to release one as an action figure. Looking like a character that would have fit in very well in Episode VI, the Bothans are a species that fans will no doubt come to love even if they aren’t fans of the Expanded Universe. The Borsk Fey’lya/Wedge Antilles is just a straight repack of The Legacy Collection two-pack, but this set was wonderful in that it gave us our first action figure of a Bothan. It's worthy of re-release, but not all of the contents make us totally happy. The sets value is centered on Borsk Fey’lya alone because in all honesty, the Wedge Antilles figure is not looking that great, even for a second time. (A big “sorry” to X-wing Rogue Squadron fans is in order.) We will get to the nuts and bolts in a minute. This Comic Packs set should make fans of the series happy and we believe it may just interest others as well.

Borsk Fey’lya is an awesome action figure, ranking with some of the best figure Hasbro has graced us with for our collections. Created in a realistic style of what image we witnessed of him in the comic book, Hasbro ensured that he was designed with the best quality standards in mind. He is super-articulated and seems to have extra mobility thanks to a wider stance (that many other super-articulated figures don’t have). This is a plus and it fits the personality of the action figure amazingly well. Looking like a cousin of the Yak Face species, Borsk Fey’lya would have fit in perfectly somewhere in Jabba’s Palace or at the Rebel Alliance’s rendezvous point and it appears that Borsk’s designers intended for him to have this seamless appeal. Borsk’s portrait has captured a look of wariness and angst and it leaves the collector with the feeling that this character is holding some important information close to the vest. We think Hasbro exceeded the standards for a great Comic Packs figure and we think thie figure would have found success in the basic figure line. We're not happy about his swivel elbows, but the rest of him is so great we're going to let it go. They definitely did well here. We even believe that he would have performed better that way since the Comic Packs significantly has slowed down and the frequency of releases have been stunted to lower sales. And we’re not sure how many fans actually wanted this “poor” version of Wedge Antilles. We are certain that we didn’t.

Wedge Antilles utilizes the ungodly legs (and hands) of the 2007 TAC Clone Trooper (Training Fatigues) (30 55) figure. This of course gives Wedge a very awkward posture and the inability to stand freely in multiples poses. The good news is that the rest of him is new, but don’t get too excited yet. Depending upon your sample, you may have paint job issues. We found that most of the ones we saw in the wild had very sloppy red vertical stripes. Your mileage may vary, but we think this is a big shame on Hasbro’s part. The figure should have been all-new, but even if they couldn’t justify it due to costing issues, Hasbro should have given Wedge better legs. There are plenty of tolling choices out there now and the best ones should be used for the Comic Packs figures. We believe that the Comic Packs figures are one-time offers from Hasbro. This was the medium to finally get them into collections. So we doubt that many (if any) will ever get a second chance at new tooling. Both figures are simply outfitted with blasters, just enough to make a point. And since Tycho Celchu (A-wing Pilot) played a major role in this series, you can swap heads with Wedge and have another new figure. The Tycho head has a good fit on the Wedge body. Whether Hasbro was forward-thinking about this or not, we don’t know for sure, but it works very well. The Borsk Fey’lya/Wedge Antilles Comic Packs set gets high marks from us simply because of the Bothan included. But if your looking for a steal for this MSRP, you won’t find it here. However, it is still a pretty fine set nonetheless.