Jar Jar Binks (Electronic Talking) - EI - 12 Inch Figures

An amphibious Gungan, Jar Jar Binks hails from the underwater city of Otoh Gunga. Jar Jar leads Queen Amidala and the Jedi to the secret hiding place of the Gungans, where an alliance is formed between the Gungans and the Naboo to fight the invading Trade Federation.

The Episode I will likely go down as one of Hasbro’s most progressive in their history of holding the Star Wars brand license. Not only did they develop a large toy line filled with the standard 3.75” figures, 12” figures, and vehicles, they also added a ton of new sub-lines to help augment what was already a fantastic Star Wars line. The Action Collection line are for adult collectors (mostly). So, to make the 12 Inch Figures more appealing to a younger generation of Star Wars fans, Hasbro produced a line of figures in 12” scale for the Episode I line that included electronics and action features. Interestingly, these figures necessitated all-new sculpts. Hasbro couldn’t rely on the standard bucks they used in years past because the figure included electronics and action features. And instead of using a generic buck with a new portrait and scene-specific soft-goods costume, Hasbro set aside a budget for the Electronic Talking line of Episode I figures to receive all-new tooling. Jar Jar Binks (Electronic Talking) was one figure in the first wave of these new 12 Inch Figures, and it’s better than you might think it is. It’s quite excellent, actually.

The Action Collection is a fantastic line for longtime collectors, but Hasbro is limited with what they can do with the line because they utilize the same buck for almost every figure in the line. But with the Jar Jar Binks (Electronic Talking) figure, they were able to revisit the character’s height among and get the figure the right size when compared to the other 12 Inch Figures. In our opinion, this is the most perfectly-scaled Jar Jar Binks one-sixth scale figure in the entire Episode I line. And the details from the head to the limbs perfectly capture the unique characteristics to the Gungan, who provided comedy relief in Episode I. Jar Jar Binks (Electronic Talking) comes with sound effects, speaks phrases, and comes with a couple of action features. The user presses the buttons on the back of the figure to make it talk. Like the CommTech basic figures, it's an actor reciting lines from the film or talking “Star Wars” things. These back buttons also activate the battle sounds. Unfortunately, Jar Jar Binks (Electronic Talking) comes with a permanently molded atlatl in its right hand as the arm has a spring-loaded action feature. Jar Jar Binks (Electronic Talking) also comes with an energy ball projectile, and you can “fling” it with the spring-loaded arm.

Yes, Hasbro designed the Jar Jar Binks (Electronic Talking) figure with features for kids to engage them. Collectors will likely have no interest in them. But we do have to comment that if they bothered to add electronics, we wish they would have added them to the lightsaber to have the blades light up. That feels like a missed opportunity here. However, it seems as if kids will thoroughly enjoy the play features Hasbro added here. The figure is fun, and that’s the point of this line. As explained, the height of Jar Jar Binks (Electronic Talking) is accurate to the on-screen character. Hasbro put all four figures in the “Electronic Talking” line in a perfect scale with each other. And they look amazing next to each other. However, the figure’s most-impressive feature is the head sculpt. Never has Jar Jar Binks looked so good. He looks playful, determined, silly, and goofy, yet still looks like he’s ready to battle the Separatist Droid Army when needed. Also, the detail throughout the figure’s body is impressive as well. Also of note, Hasbro developed a beautiful plush soft-goods skirt for Jar Jar Binks (Electronic Talking). It brings depth and dimension to an already excellent figure. Once again, not everyone will be interested in the figures in this exclusive line of “Electronic Talking” figures, but you cannot discount the quality of them one bit.