Rounding out the last of the all-new sculpts in the new “Carkoon Wave” is Princess Leia (Boushh Disguise), and what a tremendous difference this figure is from its previous sculpt. It’s really night and day when you compare the two Leia’s and the Saga 06 resculpt is really a nice improvement Also Hasbro sees to it that this new Leia Boushh has little features that the POTF2 figure just didn’t have going for it, but that any collector greatly appreciates when they get it.
So yes, Leia Boushh is something new, something nice... Hasbro hits a lot of positive marks with me on this figure, but there’s some really less than stellar work with her too. Mostly just bad decisions on the figure’s design more than sculpt or anything, as I think most will find that her pictures haven’t done her justice, but she’s still a likeness that’s eluding Hasbro sculptors some.
Anyway, so far Leia’s one of my favorite figures from The Saga Collection, and actually makes for a fun figure. She’s got the articulation going for her, so that alone has my opinion leaning towards positive, but Leia also comes with plenty of other positives and a couple little weak aspects we’ll touch on. Read on and see what they are.
PROS
-Sculpt: Hasbro does it again with another nicely resculpted figure. Obviously the POTF2 Leia Boushh was in desperate need of an update, and Hasbro saw to it that attention was paid to details like Leia’s very short stature, her tiny build, and really the very ornate costume of the Boushh character. I don’t know who Boushh was, but he was decked out like the best of the Fett’s with gear, so that makes for a very interesting figure to look at and Hasbro caught the details well.
The outfit itself is a mix of fabric sculpts, armor bits, gear/equipment, and other little items. The pants for instance have a heavy vertical ribbing sculpted into them that make them look thick and heavy on the character. The boots are nicely sculpted because they show Leia’s dainty little feet, but they’re covered by shoe leggings that are sculpted so they drape and sort of fold with the foot. It’s nice though that you can see the actual sole of the tiny shoe underneath as that’s a neat little detail you could easily have overlooked.
Leia’s tunic and arms are sculpted with lots of folds and wrinkles, and the bunched up undershirt is seen on Leia’s arms and hands and has a lot of wrinkles giving the impression of a loose fitting shirt very convincingly. The gloves feature the trademark spikes on them too, a little detail on the costume that I think makes it stand out a bit for coolness and Hasbro nailed the detail perfectly.
I’ve taken note that a lot of people aren’t too happy with her likeness but honestly I think the pictures just made her look far worse, so my expectations were low and yet I’m surprisingly happy with what I got. Unfortunately my sample has a noticeable factory flaw down her left cheek. It looks like she has a massive scar actually, but it’s nothing too major and just bad luck on my choice of figure. The hair’s sculpted well though and while I don’t recall her long ponytail hanging down like it is I think it looks very nice like it is. Also of note is that Leia’s cape and belt/bandolier are actually separately sculpted pieces that are put on the figure during production. You can’t seem to remove them without dismantling the figure, but they look great and add depth to the figure.
I’m not totally happy with Leia’s oddly sculpted right forearm, as it is at a very sharp angle and can’t be posed too neutrally. It’s meant mostly to hold her pike at her side or hold Chewbacca’s leash specifically, and not a whole lot else. I think a more neutral right forearm could have been done. I also believe that Leia’s likeness isn’t bad, but could be better. That could be said for near every Leia figure in the modern line though by my estimation. Overall I’m pleased with this figure’s looks though, and I’m done wanting a new Boushh figure for certain.
-Articulation: It’s nice to be listing articulation as something positive for a new figure from The Saga Collection finally. Having reviewed Bib Fortuna and Han in Carbonite so far, I’m not ashamed to say I was disappointed in the poseability with both. Less so with Bib due to just the type of character he was, but Han was a huge disappointment to me and I see some future unhappiness with some of the “Hoth Wave” that is shipping. Articulation is quite simply an important aspect of any action figure, and with Boushh Leia I’m really happy to see that Hasbro gave her pretty good articulation. Not perfect, not super articulated, and that right forearm sculpt takes something away from her poseability, but Hasbro did do much better with this figure than any other in the wave by far.
Princess Leia in Boushh Disguise has articulation at:
- 2 ball/socket shoulder 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
So Leia’s chiming in at a total of 12 points of articulation. It’s my personal “minimum” that I think the line should be striving for with ALMOST every figure. Yeah, not Bib since articulation at his legs is useless, but Han in Carbonite, this Leia, aliens, and most every figure should have at least this much articulation. This is what makes an action figure an action figure. You have to be able to pose a toy at this point. When a figure’s legs pose no better now than they did in 1982 or 83, then I think we’ve got a major problem in quality, don’t you? So yes Han flopped there but Leia’s excelling in quality here.
So far I’ve had Leia in some cool action poses with her pike, and a couple cool standing poses walking a Chewbacca around. She looks good kneeling with the Han figure too though it’s tough to pose her that way. It’s a little rough to pose her right arm as well, so that’s becoming a sticking point with me. Leia’s pretty good though for articulation, and when I look at the rest of this wave and how under whelmed I was, I’m simply happy to mess around with a figure that has poseable legs and such. Good work Hasbro! Now just make this a minimum standard for more figures rather than less.
-Paint Aps/Deco: Leia’s got, overall, very nice and diverse paint applications that work well for all the details with the figure’s sculpt. I would say the face/head have the weakest paint application however and I haven’t seen a Leia yet that didn’t, so I’ll note more on that later. On the figure overall though, she looks pretty great.
Leia’s costume is colorful to begin with. There are a number of browns and tans that make the figure stand out, but also there’s little metallic bits all over the Boushh costume that make every bounty hunter the badass he/she is. I mean you can’t go hunting down the scum of the galaxy without your gear right? And Hasbro painted it all on Boushh.
Leia’s pants are painted brown with a light wash on them to make them stand out a little bit and look more worn and realistic. Leia’s forearms are a light brown with the spikes on her hands (I assume some intergalactic brass knuckles for punching out your prey?) painted one by one a silver color. There’s a grey belt, gunmetal colored “gear” on her belt and bandolier as well as her small backpack thing on her back. Leia’s face is painted evenly but there’s something just not quite right about it. Leia’s hair is nicely painted with a number of washes to highlight the hair’s sculpt though, so that’s nice.
In general, there are quite a number of colors used on this figure, and the costume really is more complex than just a couple shades of brown and that’s it. With her helmet on the costume looks even more complex for paint aps so it really looks nice displayed, and stands out more than the old figure did.
-Accessories: Leia Boushh comes sporting a lot of really cool accessories that not only enhance the figure’s value overall, but they also interact well with the figure, which often is an aspect to accessories that is greatly overlooked. For example, sometimes people overlook the weather vane that the Bespin Luke figure came with a while back. It not only added value, but you could hang your Luke off it by his legs or whatnot, and it really enhanced the “fun” of the toy… not that I like the Bespin Luke figure terribly, but that’s a whole other story filled with my hatred of pre-posed sculpts and ugly action features. 
Leia though sports some small accessories, but ones that enhance her as a toy. For instance Leia comes with her force pike/rifle, her removable helmet, and for the first time ever a removable thermal detonator you can have her hold (securely) or have her clip it to her belt (securely). These are great pieces, but of course you get the standard character-specific stand and the holographic mini-figure as well. So you’re really getting quite a bit packed in with a single figure.
Leia’s rifle/pike (nobody seems to know what the hell it actually is) is an all-new sculpt even though I probably would have been content to get the POTF2 weapon again. It’s a little flimsy, falling prey to Hasbro’s use of cheap plastic on accessories, so in that light it’s actually somewhat a downgrade, but it’s not too terribly flimsy, and I don’t think it will sag over time up on your display shelf. The new pike though is fantastically sculpted and does look a lot more detailed (and accurate now that I observe it) than the old weapon. It’s cast in a nice gunmetal metallic color as well which makes it look more realistic than the old accessory did.
Leia’s helmet is a fantastic piece that fits the figure’s noggin’ just flawlessly. It’s got lots of impressive paint details to ogle too, and they really make the sculpt pop. There’s great differences in detail between this helmet and the first POTF2 sculpt, so that’s nice to see that all aspects of the costume were captured perfectly. The paint applications are fantastic though as there’s some nice metallic bronze colors on the top metal portions, brown leather for the face, silver details on the “mouth”, black lenses on the eye areas, and a strange blue wash that is over mostly the metallic parts that shows age and weathering on the helmet quite nicely. As a single accessory this helmet stands out great.
Lastly there’s Leia’s little tiny thermal detonator accessory. Hasbro sculptors saw fit to design the detonator with a pin on it so that it snaps to a hole in Leia’s hand, or one on her belt, and that way you (or the kiddies) shouldn’t theoretically lose this incredibly small accessory. I for one have feared dropping it down my register vents every time I’ve handled the accessory. It’s practically the size of a pinhead, but yet it still sports some of the details you could make out on the explosive in the films and is cast in a metallic color similar to the pike. It looks great, and it’s so minor that some may not think much of it but after having a figure with the detonator molded into the hand for so long, I now greatly appreciate this separate accessory.
As noted, you also get the standard duo of a holographic mini-figure (randomly packed), and a personalized stand that features the character’s name in silver paint and the film they are from embossed on the base. They’re cool accessories, I like them, I just hope they’re not cutting into the quality of the figures we’re getting, as I could care less about stands and mini-figures unless the holograph was actually in the movie (IE: Veers coming with Vader, Cody coming with Palpatine, etc.).
-Packaging: The Saga Collection packaging for each figure is an interesting mix of styles. You can definitely see some elements of the ROTS line mixed with elements of the OTC line, and that makes for a unique package on the shelves. I really enjoy the black cardback with silver lettering, and I hope it’s something Hasbro is willing to stick with for a long time to come.
I also highly enjoy the unique backgrounds for each figure. Pulling an element from the OTC line, the new Saga Collection packaging uses a film shot that pertains to each unique character, and really individualizes the figures. This is drool-worthy for the carded collector and it makes even the die-hard openers want a figure here and there to keep carded just because of how special the backgrounds are.
The bubble is a little closer to the ROTS line in its overall size and shape, but should lend itself more to staying mint for the carded guys. There’s also an insert depicting the specific character and the character’s name, packaged into the bottom of the package just as the Revenge of the Sith figures had. The insert features the bold blocky silver lettering of the Saga, and lets fans know that this is the universal collection of figures encompassing the entire Star Wars universe.
There’s a lot to like with this packaging so I hope it stays as the standard for a while. I would say that The Saga Collection and Original Trilogy Collection will go down as some of the most liked packaging by collectors for quite some time if Hasbro gives it a while, and this is coming from a guy that rips almost everything off its card at some point or another.
CONS
-Right Forearm Sculpt: As noted in the sculpt area, the right forearm of the Leia Boushh figure is less than ideal for posing. It’s sculpted in such a sharp, upward angle that you can only turn the arm so far to the left or right before it looks awkwardly impossible for any human to turn their arm that way.
The ideal “angle-cut” articulation in my opinion is when Hasbro makes an arm that can bend at a 45 degree angle, or be turned completely around so the arm is straight and neutral. Usually there’s somewhere between those two poses then that you can pose the arm and it looks “normal”, and you have the right angle pose for the arm and such. The angle-cut joint isn’t a bad point of articulation is the point, it’s just that the sculpt of the arm dictates how useful that articulation is, and unfortunately Leia’s right forearm renders the articulation less useful.
This is a fairly minor gripe though admittedly. The arm is not great, but it doesn’t ruin the figure by any means, and I think people may make more of a gripe out of the figure’s likeness which itself didn’t bother me terribly. I just hope Hasbro sees fit to not sculpt an arm so pre-posed in the future that it really actually hinders the articulation as with this figure.
-Head Sculpt and Paint Aps: As noted, these were some weaker points for the figure that I think should have some mention here, but the head region in general was maybe not the most accurate “hit” in Hasbro’s history. Leia’s likeness just seems to escape the big H’s sculptors, but that’s just the way it seems to go. What doubled up on this one was that the paint applications didn’t do a lot to help Leia Boushh out to look better.
Something about the eyes looks like they’re bug-eyed. Her eyebrows look thick and too pronounced. Also the hair that hangs down around her ears looks like giant sideburns the way it’s painted more than strands of Leia’s hair falling down her face. There just seems like something is off here, and it takes away from the figure without her helmet on. Fortunately I’ll have her posed with Chewie in chains instead of helping Solo, so that’s not too big a deal for me.
-Price Hike: Star Wars figures have taken a jump in price at some retailers, and while we paid $5 - $6 for most of our ROTS figures throughout most of 2005, figures are up to $7 at most retailers with only Wal-Mart sticking to a $6 or less price point right now. Hopefully Hasbro and Retail will see the light that price increases in this day and age means that people may become more tight with their spending.
I know a price hike will affect my buying habits, and I’ll buy fewer extras of any figure I maybe wanted extras of. I’ll cut back on army building, custom fodder buying, and other areas that I otherwise maybe would have spent more freely. That $1 or $2 starts to add up over 60 or so figures though. Hopefully at least Target will adjust to compete with Wal-Mart in the near future, if nothing else, and we all maybe will have more to spend on more figures.
OVERALL
Well, I’ve found the “Carkoon Wave” as it’s being called, and I’m so far partly happy to have so many figures we’ve needed resculpted that are now finally done and out of the way… But at the same time, I don’t necessarily like the direction the modern line seems to be taking. Princess Leia (Boushh Disguise) seems to be somewhat of a counterbalance to that fear, as she turned out quite well compared to the other two figures I’ve reviewed.
Leia has the articulation to make people who pose or play with their figures happy, she’s got lots of great accessories that function with the figure on some level, and with a great sculpt and paint applications backing her up she turned out to be a pretty nice figure. There’s some small flaws I’d have liked changed, but really the only thing that struck me as a “problem” was that right forearm’s sculpt. It’s just a little annoying when you want to pose Leia a specific way but you just can’t due to her arm. Ironically if you happened to have 2 Leia’s you actually can transplant a 2nd Boushh’s left forearm onto your 1st figure and it works perfectly. Who wants to buy more than one $6.99 figure unless you have to though?
My opinion on Leia is pretty bright though. I think you need this figure. She’s tiny as she should be, she looks great with a scaled Chewbacca, and she replaces your old Boushh Leia just perfectly. She’s also easily the best figure of the first wave of The Saga Collection. I wish I could be this happy with Han in Carbonite but unfortunately Hasbro decided to skimp on him for some inexplicable reason. Leia Boushh is very cool though and definitely a must-have for your Jabba’s Palace diorama. Buy maybe even 2 so you can have Jabba snugglin’ up to one without her helmet on.
