Imperial Officer - SW [S - P1] - 12 Inch Figures

Three years after the destruction of the Death Star, the Rebel Alliance continues the fight against the Imperial forces and suffers a defeat on the ice planet Hoth. Luke Skywalker journeys to the planet Dagobah to train with Jedi Master Yoda, who has lived in hiding since the fall of the Republic. In an attempt to convert Luke to the dark side, the evil Sith Lord, Darth Vader, lures Luke into a trap in the Cloud City of Bespin. In the midst of a fierce lightsaber duel with Vader, Luke faces the startling revelation that the Sith Lord is in fact his father, Anakin Skywalker.

Imperial Officers are raised to the level of officers through experience and loyalty to the Empire. When not in combat, they wear distinctive grey tunics and caps. They gain access to secure areas and computer systems with code cylinders.

Hasbro stretched their wings for the 2002 Star Wars “Saga” [PhaseI] 12 Inch Figure line. It’s true that as you continue to make more and more new characters for any line, that your choices diminish. But with a rich and diverse property like Star Wars, Hasbro can easily manage this because collectors want most character represented produced for the toy line. For the Star Wars “Saga” line, Hasbro reached a little farther into the background of the Original Trilogy and produced figures of characters we believed would never see the light of day. One character that fits this description and surprises us to see made is the Imperial Officer. What makes the 12 Inch Figure version of this character especially unique is that this figure doesn’t represent any single character in The Empire Strikes Back (in our opinion at least). And interestingly, we feel rather strongly that this 12 Inch Figure has an uncanny likeness to a young version of Chief Bast from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope (minus the gray uniform). The Imperial Officer 12 Inch Figure also has a more streamlined body that previous 12 Inch Figures in the Star Wars “Saga” line, and while not perfect, we feel this figure shows Hasbro has made progress in this format.

Unlike Dengar from the same wave, the Imperial Officer comes across as having an athletic and leaner body type. That’s fitting for the character since Dengar has a much stockier stature in the film that any Imperial Officer. We’re thankful for the little nods like this that Hasbro implements into the toy line, especially the 12 Inch Figure line where things can go awry rather quickly. The Imperial Officer is wearing a gray uniform, something prevalent in Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, made up a shirt and pants. And then he also comes with a cap, belt, and boots to complete the uniform. Hasbro designed the pants in a way where they can be tucked into the tops of his boots rather easily. Even more, the pants have a baggy appearance at the top of the boot, just as we see in The Empire Strikes Back. We’re also thrilled to report that his cap fits perfectly on top of his head and sits right as his brow line, making it a bit difficult to read his facial expression. Hasbro did a fantastic job on the head sculpt of the figure too. This character has a vertically elongated head shape, which is why we think he mimics the look of Chief Base quite well. The skin tone is garishly pale, but it’s something we can overlook because the sculpt looks fantastic.

The Imperial Officer has a decent range of articulation. Often not used with human characters, and the first time in the Star Wars “Saga” line, Hasbro added the hands that come with articulated fingers. The figure comes with articulated fingers, but not individually. They move together at the knuckles and the design allows you to recreate a “cupping” pose. It makes holding accessories all the easier. The figure comes with a blaster pistol, and the design of the hands helps to recreate natural human “holding” movement and he look great doing so. Overall, we’re impressed with the Imperial Officer 12 Inch Figure. We wish, however, he represented a specific character in The Empire Strikes Back instead of being a generic character instead. It would be effortless for Hasbro to produce variations of this character with different head sculpts. It would enable Hasbro to release retail exclusives utilizing all of the other parts of this figure to create new characters. And they also designed the rank badge in a way where different one could be tooled and sewn onto the uniform shirt very easily. Simply put, there are many things Hasbro can create from this base of the Imperial Officer. It looks like the 12 Inch Figure line is getting better and better. We hope the trend continues.