Yoda - SW [Y/AOTC] - Movie Heroes (MH08)

Yoda battles Count Dooku on Geonosis. The venerable Jedi takes on th Sith Lord in a ferocious Lightsaber duel as Dooku tries to escape from the planet. Yoda and Dooku are both strong in the ways of the Force. They face each other with unyielding determination and ignite their Lightsabers to do battle.

When you see a figure like the Movie Heroes Yoda, you really have to ask yourself “what is Hasbro thinking anymore?” Sure, this Yoda figure, which was originally released as 2005’s ROTS Yoda (III 26) figure, was fun with its gimmicky seven years ago. We never thought it would see another chance at retail. And then it did! In 2012 Hasbro made Yoda part of the Star Wars [The Phantom Menace] Movie Heroes line. It didn’t sell well at all and caused huge pileup on action figure pegs. In 2012, figures like Yoda were competing for shelf space with the likes of premium figures in The Vintage Collection, you just have to concede that no one is going to spend $10 on Yoda when they can get a quality super-articulated figure for the same price…. in vintage Kenner era packaging to boot! We’ve always felt frustrated when a good sculpt is ruined by action features. But what adds salt to the wound is that despite Yoda’s very poor performance in 2012, Hasbro released the same exact figure in the 2013 Movie Heroes lineup. What gives? Forget about the argument that these things are designed for kids for a few moments. It’s just a bad action figure. We thought that we would never expect to see a figure like this in 2005, but Hasbro released it again in 2012 and 2013. Never say never, unfortunately.

Yoda admittedly comes with a decent head sculpt, but at the same time a Yoda without two independently articulated legs and ball-jointed arms is a figure we won’t ever fully accept into our collections. This is articulation at its simplest and it really detracts from the aesthetics of what this figure should have. Keep in mind that this figure is an action feature itself, so aesthetics were thrown out of the window when they started this toy. We’re pretty sure that kids are going to love this thing. But will parents buy this figure for them with all of the action figure competition out there? We’re not so sure. Many kids become fans because their parents are already collectors. And those collector moms and dads are spending their money on The Vintage Collection figures instead. There are few exceptions to this. As you may or may not know, Hasbro decided to go cheap and exclude the environmental piece that interacts with Yoda. So you can turn him and click his “feet” pedal and it will unlock, but it really needed that extra piece to be meaningful. At least we get the removable cape, the interchangeable lightsaber with hand attachment and cane. Still, we’re not so sure what Star Wars fans will be able to do with Yoda since he is technically incomplete. Also, his articulation isn’t useful for these extra parts. You do however at least you get some variety.

The paint job is actually quite spectacular on Yoda and we feel these great paint operations were wasted on such an inferior sculpt. But that’s the way the cookie crumbles when you’re a Star Wars collector. Things don’t often make very much sense. It’s sort of like the 2012 SW [TPM 3D] Jar Jar Binks (MH13) figure getting a significantly better paint job than its counterpart, 2012’s TVC Jar Jar Binks (VC108). With the 2013 flavor of Movie Heroes figures you no longer get the Galactic Battle Game parts. Hasbro has eliminated the game altogether. Instead, you get a flyer about Hasbro’s Fighter Pods line and how you can play a game with them online. Other than that, you get a whole lot less for a higher MSRP. Things are just totally heading in the wrong direction. $10+ is a lot of money to pay for an inferior action figure, especially when that MSRP is about double the cost when compared to the figure’s original release. We’re not so sure what’s going on with the team at Hasbro. They’re making sophomoric errors that will result in the ultimate demise of this hobby. If tooling is such a cost prohibitive problem today, there are cheap things they can do to keep the line alive while cutting back on costs. But releasing incomplete and inferior figures like Yoda isn’t the answer to any problem Hasbro has. You really have to wonder sometimes if Hasbro enjoys shooting themselves in the foot like this.