Revenge of the Sith got a shot in the arm with its basic figure line, proving that articulation and accuracy would be a dominant feature in the basic line overall. The Preview Wave gave us the early glimpses at great things to come, and the last figure in the Preview Wave is easily my favorite out of them all. He’s simply a fantastic figure no matter what line he’s in, and that’s no small accomplishment given that the modern line took 10 years to really kick it into overdrive with quality figures (in my opinion).
Today we take a look at the Preview Wookiee Warrior. He may have some counterparts in the ROTS basic line, but he’s had no equal in quality short of the VOTC Chewbacca. He’s easily the best figure out of the Preview Wave itself though, packed with articulation, accessories, and a sculpt that looks like it could be the proverbial “monkey’s uncle”. Read the full review to get my complete opinion on this figure. He’s not perfect but he’s pretty darn close!
PROS
-Articulation: Gotta give props to Hasbro for doing an army builder in the basic line some justice. Really the only basic line army builder to shine up to this point was the SA Clone, and he was no picnic for many people to find… The ROTS line is seeing a shift to the opposite though, with army builder figures getting much attention where they need it! The Wookiee Warrior is indeed a fine sign of things to come then.
With articulation at:
-2 ball/socket joints
-2 angle-cut elbow joints
-2 standard wrist joints
-2 standard hip joints
-2 ball/socket knee joints
-1 ball/socket neck joint
-1 standard waist joint
This is one poseable Wookiee… I mean, the walking carpet features 12 points of articulation total, and pretty much any pose you could want is achievable with this guy. From holding the rifle accessory with 2 hands, to standing “at ease”, to howling with “Wookiee Rage” with his arms in the air, to running… You get the idea.
Hasbro’s Wookiee Warrior is the kind of figure that shows what the BARE MINIMUM should be in articulation for the line overall. Most every figure in the line should have these 12 points of articulation (if not more) in this reviewer’s opinion. I definitely feel that army builders deserve this much just for posing diversity. It kills the urge to buy more figures if you can’t make them look different in a diorama through posing, so kudos to Hasbro for making one fine Wookiee!
And did I mention he can hold a rifle with 2 hands? Yes, he does something most of the army builders in the modern line CAN’T do. I just hope Hasbro keeps army builders up to this standard (at least) because this is a dream come true in my book.
-Accessories: Another area in which Hasbro can be stingey at times is with accessories. Not with the Wookiee Warrior however, as he comes with a whopping 5 pack-in items, albeit somewhat small ones here and there. It’s the thought that counts though.
Hasbro arms its Wookiee Warrior to the teeth with 2 shin armor pieces, a nice helmet, a rifle, and an armor body piece as well.
All of the accessories are quite nicely sculpted and decorated. The helmet and rifle in particular have a lot of color. The helmet features a green painted crest on it with a nice metallic bronze “mail” type covering. There’s a great wash on the helmet to highlight the rings of mail and the leather it’s fixed to is also painted brown to separate it from the metal of the helmet.
The Wookiee’s rifle is also a nice accessory, sporting lots of sculpting detail. The grips/triggers are sculpted to be wrapped with some kind of fabric, and that fabric detail is painted a flat brown color to separate it from the metallic gold color of the gun. The gun’s muzzle is painted a metallic bronze/brown color as well, separate of the gold stock area, giving the weapon a lot of color and detail. It’s almost a better paintjob than some figures have received in the past.
The armor leg and body pieces are admittedly less interesting, but they’re there and they fit the figure nicely. I’ve found that the leg guards come off with a little too much ease for my taste, but they’re nice to have nonetheless. They can make nice arm guards too, and with a little sticky tack they will stay right in place. The body armor features a little paint application on one piece to make it stand out as “metal”, but overall the pieces of armor are all fairly simple. They look great though, and 5 accessories (despite what they are) isn’t much to turn your nose at. Nice work!
-Sculpt: Hasbro really set some standards for Wookiee figures with the VOTC Chewbacca, or POTC Yarua figures. This generic Wookiee soldier features some of the “overlapping fur” sculpt techniques that Hasbro have now seemingly perfected. It hides some of the articulation and improves the overall look of the figure to carded and loose collectors.
First thing one notices when they see the figure though is his sheer size. He’s HUGE! I mean, he even dwarfs Chewbacca. I’m still not sure (even having seen ROTS now) that it’s entirely accurate in its height, but it’s impressive. The preview Wookiee makes for one of the largest basic figures in the modern line, falling shy only to behemoths like the Darktrooper or Ephant Mon figures. He’s really impressive as a $5-$6 figure.
The Wookiee’s sculpt isn’t much more than fur, but Hasbro’s technique of layering and the fine work on keeping the fur in a “pattern” and realistic is all very nice. It’s probably not the complexity of some figures, but it’s still great for what it is so you can’t really knock it at all. The details of the pads on the Wookiee’s feet and hands though (and his claws/toes/fingers) are really the only details that stand out of the fur patterns. They look like the pads on a cat or dog’s paws, and are a nice extra bit of work for realism.
The head probably has more depth and detail to it than the rest of the figure overall. He’s sculpted with a bit of a growling face, but not too much of a gaping jaw that you can’t have your Wookiee in a nice calm situation as well as in fierce combat. The sculptor took the time to give the Wookiee some braids that encircle the head as well, and while they hinder the neck articulation somewhat, they look great and set the figure apart from previous Wookiee’s like Chewbacca. They give him some character.
At the end of the day, you have a Wookiee that looks great, but again the sculpt isn’t the intricacy that some figures require. It’s still fantastic for what it is though and works just fine.
-Paint Aps/Deco: Like the sculpt, the paint application isn’t anything ornate, but it’s pretty nice nonetheless. My figure I have here has a bit more color to him than one may think… For instance, the browns are mixed with some grey highlights to bring out the fur’s sculpt and make it appear layered and detailed. The faded darker brown over the lighter brown of the plastic also is a great application of paint to me.
The fingers, palms, and toes of my figure are also nicely painted a grey-brown color to highlight the pads on his extremities. The color chosen for the hands/feet stands out realistically from the color of the fur, just as it would on a real animal like a cat or dog. I like that little bit of attention to detail myself. The claws also got a little paint to just show that they’re there, ready to come out and hack up some battledroids (or Clones?) at will.
The figure’s head features paint detail on the Wookiee’s braids around his neck, as well as his teeth, the inside of his mouth, his nose, and the recessed eyes. The figure looks savage and vicious with his snarling teeth and the dark eyes, and my figure doesn’t have any paint bleeds anywhere that I can see, nor have I noticed the infamous Hasbro “cross-eye” curse that befalls some of their figures. My Wookiees are all shooting straight if their eyes are any indication!
-Great Hype Builder: This figure is part of the Preview Wave, which to me implies that these figures were meant partly to tease you with early character glimpses of Revenge of the Sith (throwing fans a bone, basically), but also the idea was to build some early hype for the basic line supporting the film. The cardback changed, the line’s colors were changing, and the figures are meant to build some mystery and interest I think.
The Wookiee does that well. Far better than R4-G9 or Tion Medon can pull off. An army builder makes an ideal preview figure to build that hype I think, and a preview Wookiee army builder does that job even better. So I think that’s a plus about this figure. I know I saw the Wookiee and thought how cool they must be in the film. I wasn’t really let down either! Grievous and the Wookiee fit the “Preview” title very nicely.
CONS
-Paint Mismatches: A minor gripe on the paint application I’ve read, but which didn’t bother me too much personally, is the way the paint becomes a mismatch as you pose the figure. The brown faded paint is applied so that it only lines up on the Wookiees arms if they are posed in one specific way. The forearm must line up to the upper arm/shoulder, and the wrist must line up to the forearm. If they don’t, then there’s often a contrast of paint applications that does stand out.
I don’t personally find this too bothersome, and I like the paint applications as they are, but this paint issue is noticeable. I’ve seen some repaints of Wookiee Warriors by customizers that give the same basic fur color pattern all over, and so no matter how you pose him, the paint lines up pretty well. That’s probably the paint application Hasbro should’ve considered running with.
-Steroid Wookiee?: Now that I’ve seen Revenge of the Sith, I’m just not sure what to make of this Wookiee Warrior. In the film, to me, they all look to be the same size. I personally felt that VOTC Chewbacca was ideal height, and while I could see a little “thicker” build for other random Wookiee figures, or a slight height difference (stressing slight), this Wookiee just TOWERS over all the Chewbacca figures I have.
He really looks to be twice as thick as Chewbacca and a good head taller than my VOTC Chewie. That’s a pretty damn big difference. In the film, the Wookiees didn’t really look all that different in height to me, and their build differences seemed negligible (with some being bigger than others, but not this big).
I like the figure, but a new Wookiee that’s in-between VOTC Chewbacca and this figure would maybe be nice. There’s a new Wookiee in the basic ROTS line, but right now he’s not cutting the mustard in my eyes so I’d like to see yet a 3rd warrior crop up in the line at some point. You know you’d buy it!
-No Variants: To me, logic says paint variations… To-date, there are no planned variations for this figure, but I hope this changes. The Wookiee in the ROTS basic line has one, but it’s a substantially inferior figure to this Preview Wookiee, so I hope Hasbro breaks this figure’s mold out and whips up some variants.
Some dark (black) furred Wookiees may do well, maybe some accessory variations (a new bowcaster for him perhaps), and if Hasbro were nice, they could maybe even do head variations. To me though, this figure deserves some variety, even if he is a bit beefy.
OVERALL
So that wraps up the Preview Wave on my end… They’re a fun wave of figures, and really they do tend to build the hype for the last installment of Star Wars I think. Really only Tion Medon was a “dud”, and even he was a nice figure for what he was. He just was dull.
The Wookiee Warrior takes the cake though. To me, he’s borderline perfect even… My gripes above were minor in my own eyes, and ones I overlook. I actually have amassed a nice 15 troop squad of Wookiees so far, and I’d buy another 15+ if I could find/afford them. I think you should too, as it’s one of the finest figures in the basic line in this reviewer’s eyes. Hasbro made a winner right here, and I hope we see him down the road at some point, but with a nice new paintjob (and/or head sculpt).
And a big thanks should go to Hasbro for a nice wave of figures leading into Revenge of the Sith. The ROTS preview wave certainly was superior to the AOTC preview wave. Pick this Wookiee up for sure, if you haven’t already. If you don’t get a single other figure out of this wave, this is the one you definitely should own!
