I’m probably going to be labeled insane by certain readers for what you are about to read. I decided I’d take a look at what has been one of the reigning supreme pegwarmers of the Revenge of the Sith line, the Neimoidian Warrior… And I kinda dig him.
Yes, you read it right folks… I like a figure that most of you dread at this point because his frowny face stares back at you from every retail store you go to. K-Mart to KB Toys… Wal-Mart to Toys R Us… He’s like fly dirt people. He’s everywhere.
I’ve had a lot of experience in debating, argumentative writing/discussion, and I’m thinking I’ll have to put that to the test if I expect anyone to appreciate this guy at this point, but I’m going to give it a shot. I’ll just kick off the review now though, let you read it, and see if you think the points are good or not with this poor guy.
PROS
-Sculpt: All things considered, this figure sports quite a bit of detail that you maybe wouldn’t notice because his colors are so dark and plain. It makes for a nice figure to examine closely, but because the character was so dull and obscure he’s gone by the wayside.
Actually, Hasbro pulled something off with the Neimoidian Warrior’s sculpt that other figures with this same action feature don’t have… Fairly well hidden shoulder joints! That alone warrants some praise on this guy.
Overall though, the Neimoidian has a nice sculpt on his uniform… There are lots of sharp ridges, “armor plating”, and other details to be noticed, as well as the ribbing of his cloth under-suit hidden beneath the armor. The detail in the armor is really intricate though, and has a very uniform and structured look. This guy makes a very believable frontline soldier for the Neimoidians, even if we really don’t ever see the Neimoidians field an army that isn’t a droid one.
The head, neck, and hands are the only parts of the figure that show anything really “lifelike” to them though since he’s covered in that armor. The head has a lot of lines, and wrinkles that give the character, well, uhm, character. He doesn’t look like a cookie-cutter figure by the angry expression on his face, yet you can have a nice little army of him and they don’t look out of place together. There’s lots of detail to the face, and neck features ridges and detail to make it stand out and look lizard-like as well.
From head-to-toe, the Neimoidian is a sharp looking figure, and so he’s meeting Hasbro’s par they have set for themselves for good sculpts. That’s what he should be.
-Paint Aps/Decoration: The good Neimoidian isn’t the most complex paintjob you’ll see on any Star Wars figure, but what did get painted got some nice detail work. Most of the work is just painting to separate armor from the under-suit, or paint applications to the head/hands (or anywhere his green skin shows).
The overall color of the armor, while not a paint application itself, is going to appeal to collectors just because it’s a nice metallic tinted plastic. Hasbro’s used this before, but it really stands out on the Gunner. It makes his armor look very bronze by having the bronze powder mixed into the plastic. There’s not much “marbling”, which is often a problem when you try this technique with plastic, so it really looks great and smooth. The armor has a very realistic look because of that, however I think a wash on the figure overall would’ve helped it look a little more realistic.
The brown under-suit is painted to separate it from the bronze-ish armor at various points, and mine has absolutely no paint bleeding onto the armor, which is great. There is also brown paint applied to the belt then, which is a different color all together, and there’s small gold-ish buttons painted onto the pockets of the belt.
The skin areas that are showing are green with a darker green or grey wash, which really makes them look good. The Neimoidian’s head features the most detailed paint aps on the figure with its odd yellow eyes. My sample features perfectly placed eyes, no bleeding, and with a nice red slit through the middle. Also there’s a black line that runs through the red of the eye, making it that much more detailed. All that, coupled with the wash over the skin, and it makes for a nice realistic looking character.
-Articulation: The Neimoidian’s not the perfect figure for articulation, not by a long-shot. If anything, the Neimoidian Warrior’s wave of figures were a noticeable decline in the overall quality that figures had through the ROTS line up to that point. The Wookiee Warrior, for instance, was a decline in articulation as well, but also his sculpt is pretty weak compared to other figures.
The Neimoidian isn’t a failure in articulation though he’s just a step down for an army builder. His knees are his biggest flaws, and honestly I’d trade his ankle articulation for ball/socket knees. We’ll touch on that in the “Cons” portion though. For now we’ll look at the good articulation he does have.
The Neimoidian has articulation at:
- 2 ball/socket shoulder joints
- 2 angle-cut elbow joints
- 2 standard wrist joints
- 2 ball/socket shoulder joints
- 2 standard hip joints
- 1 ball/socket neck joint
- 1 standard waist joint
With 12 total points of articulation, he’s a fairly poseable figure. As I mentioned previously though, the knees aren’t articulated and they’d be appreciated more than the ankles. Really, I’m not sure why they would even bother articulating the ankles since it really doesn’t help you pose the figure a lot, but at least you know this guy isn’t going to be tough to stand up.
And with the articulation he does have, I can get my figure to hold a rifle with 2 hands pretty good, or stand at attention, or stand in a number of fighting poses. Even the ankle joints help you get him in some walking poses and such as well, he just really could’ve used the knees to make him really fun to pose.
-Removable Helmet: I can’t say I’m happy with the figure’s accessories overall (this gun SUCKS), but I do love his helmet. I like removable headgear on any figure really, but it was nice to get it on such an obscure little background alien like the Neimoidian Warrior.
The helmet fits the figure fairly well, though it can fall off easily if you tap it, but if you wedge it on there it fits snugly and it’s contoured to the headsculpt pretty perfectly. Like I said, this is a feature I think should be standard in the line at this point. Any figure with a hat/helmet should have it as a removable accessory. While not all figures get that great treatment from Hasbro, it’s neat to see it on such a weird figure as this.
CONS
-BFG (The Gun): Fans of the “Doom” games will know what BFG means. Anyway, one of the drawbacks to the Neimoidian Warrior is that he’s not just a “Warrior”, he’s a walking weapon of mass destruction judging by the HUGE rifle he has. Hasbro decided to slip an action feature into the gun he comes with, and while the overall sculpt is close to what the actual gun looked like in the movie. It’s horribly oversized.
The gun is made with a spring-loaded feature and fires the front of it out as a missile of some sort. In the movie the weapon was simply a long, thin, rifle… nothing more, nothing less. It was fairly small/thin and looked like any random rifle in Star Wars really. This is a prime example of Hasbro taking an action feature and ruining what they put the feature into. Usually we are talking about a whole figure here though, not an accessory. It sucks either way you slice it though.
Ideally, Hasbro would’ve included a normal rifle as well, but they chose not to. I’d have been completely content with that.
-No Knee Articulation: While the figure sports some good articulation in the upper body, his legs could’ve used ball/socket knees for sure. He’s an army builder and I personally think that certain points of articulation are minimal requirements for any army builder at this point.
The figure’s arms are pretty great… He can hold a rifle with 2 hands at least, just as he should be able to do, but he still looks nice and neutral if you want to pose his arms that way as well. His legs though are just stiff, straight, and only his ankles feature any useful articulation.
Some knee joints for kneeling, running, or lunging poses would be pretty neat, and would’ve made him a more appealing figure to army builders at least.
-Action Feature: I’m not a fan of action features in general. I find the feature on the Neimoidian Warrior to be useless overall, especially for such a secondary character. The inevitable complexity it took to make the feature function could’ve been applied to better articulation or paint aps perhaps as well.
The action feature is a simple one where you squeeze the legs, and he swivels at his waist. It doesn’t apply to much of anything the character did in the film, and it hasn’t seemingly made this figure appeal to kids in the slightest (see the pegwarmer status that has already been established). As such, the feature is a bit of a waste. If the feature is why he doesn’t have knee articulation, it’s easy to list this one as a “Con” for sure. Yeah, I’m still harping on the knee articulation.
-King Pegwarmer: Why is he a pegwarmer? This is really anyone’s guess at this point. Hasbro tended to reship him a lot at one point, treating him like he was as appealing as a Clone figure. Yet, you don’t find too many Clones (except pilots) on the pegs these days, but I can almost guarantee that anyone reading this review can still find a Neimoidian. Hell, Hasbro’s even repainting him already, and re-releasing him! I don’t know how smart that is on the Big H’s part, but whatever.
The character is a bit dull, and obscure. These reasons probably hurt him the most. I’m very happy to have the figure myself, and I’ve even been building a small army actually. I just can’t help but note that he is not a figure that should be reshipping (repainted or not) at this stage of the game.
OVERALL
The figure looks good and he’s sort of poseable… He’s easy to find too, right? OK, my sense of humor isn’t funny to those who are clogged with this figure right now and can’t get new stuff because of him. But to me, he’s a good army builder if you can look beyond the films.
That’s the key though… To the guys that only like the films, and to whom EU does not apply, the Neimoidian Warrior is a really annoying figure for you. It’s choking at retail, and you don’t want an army. For me, I’ve picked one up here and there when I’m at the store just to build up that Neimodia defense force. Someone has to do it!
The Neimoidian military made a little appearance in the old Holo-News stories that were in the Fan Club magazine for a while. It was brief but it made me want a nice army of these guys, so at least I’m out here in Pittsburgh doing my army building duty to help my fellow collectors. If a sale would hit I’d buy even more.
The figure though isn’t bad at all. He’s fairly poseable, and short of the knee articulation and a normal gun I’m pretty happy with him. He’s got a good paint application, a great sculpt, he can hold a rifle with the best army builder figures, and his helmet pops off to show his shiny green dome! That’s a lot of good things about this figure ultimately. My opinion then is a big thumbs-up.
Adopt a Neimoidian today though, just because you can. Have a couple flank your Nute Gunray figure, or have some hang out in the Cantina. Just do something to unclog the pegs folks. Think of the children.
