You want more Cantina Aliens? Hasbro obliged with their Cantina Wave in the late days of the Original Trilogy Collection. Yes, Hasbro devoted a wave to just the Cantina, and no main characters were snuck in there! Just 3 rockin’ new sculpts of 3 obscure, drunken, freaks from everyone’s favorite watering hole in Mos Eisley!
Wrapping up the Cantina wave, today I’m going to review Feltipern Trevagg, the Gotal glutton, drinking to his heart’s content at the bar. He’s a good fuzzy guy to wrap up the Cantina wave with because he’s probably the best out of the three figures. That is no small feat since all 3 really were pretty great figures. Myo was a little duller (as far as color went) than Feltipern though, and Dannik Jerriko has his pock-marked flaws we all loathe… Feltipern isn’t without his own flaws though, and believe me I’ll lay them out for you, my fine readers! Suffice it to say though, when this Gotal’s done pounding back pints, he has to always have his nifty blaster drawn, and that’s not a good thing for any drunk alien. But we’ll let you read the review and give your own judgments on the potential downsides of this figure.
Now, on with the show!
PROS
-Sculpt: The Cantina wave’s got no shortage of astonishingly realistic sculpts. These 3 have looked like they stepped right out of the film’s background and right into your home. Dannik’s gaping holes in his face were the only sculpt negative so far. Felty here doesn’t disappoint in sculpt though, at all. He’s simply great to look at!
His body’s sculpt is top-notch, with his tunic having ribbed fabric sculpted into it, and very realistic. The “ribs” in the fabric set it apart from the sleeves which are to represent a different shirt underneath. The figure really looks like his clothes are layered on him.
Wrapped around the tunic is a nicely sculpted belt. The sculptor got details right down to the holes for the belt buckle. This is a little detail trick I’ve been noticing on more figures lately, and it’s appreciated. And of course beyond Felt’s shirt and tunic, there are his lovely designer alien pants he has, sculpted with just a HINT of a woven sort of texture to them. Very minor detail and tough to see without close inspection, but it’s there, and these little details make a figure that much more fun to my discerning eyes.
Felt has some nicely sculpted boots with little plate things on them. They’re neat, and maybe not film-accurate (you can’t see his feet though, so how do you know?) and I think Hasbro’s taken some liberties with the footwear of our Aliens at play so that they look a LITTLE more “alien” to our eyes. Rather than a plain pair of jackboots, or shoes, we get some funky boots with weird straps and pouches. Very cool. Hell, he even sports matching knee-pads, but for what purpose, nobody knows. Perhaps Feltipern does roofing on the side? *shrugs* I don’t care, they look good and make him stick out as a little less “earthy”, as if his weird head wasn’t enough.
And that brings us to, actually, his weird head… Best of the Cantina Wave, as far as accuracy. Hasbro nailed the sorta sad look on Felty’s face, his drooping eyes (that match his sad, down-turned mouth), and his fur has lots of detail to make it look very realistic. Horns atop Felt’s head have lots of detail as well, and this all complements his 4-clawed hands, adorned in fur, rough looking palms, and long/menacing claws.
Suffice it to say that Hasbro knocked one out of the park on this figure’s sculpt. It’s all the detail you’ve come to expect from them lately. I just hope this kind of quality carries over for a long time to come.
-Paint/Deco: Feltipern is one vibrantly colored Gotal, and the most visually interesting character in the Cantina wave as far as his colors go. His outfit is a mix of a blue shirt, a cream tunic, dark blue pants, brown boots, and more. He’s much cleaner looking than the other figures as well, which is a nice change. Not everyone needs to look like they just walked in from working in a coal mine or something, and it looks like Felt’s a little on the pampered side.
The colors are nicely applied where paint was needed. Felt’s belt doesn’t bleed onto his tunic really, though some silver details around the buckle are a LITTLE sloppy. I won’t hold it against him though, as it’s pretty small.
Felt’s eyes are fantastically painted, and he looks like he’s been drinking a while. His eyes are a red with black centers, but they are glossier than the rest of the figure and because of their size the gloss shows up better than it may on a human figure. They actually catch the light.
Felt’s fur also has a nice grey-ish wash into its light brown color. The wash brings out the different tufts of fuzz nicely. The grey seems to also be the color of his skin on the palms of his hand, and around his eyes/mouth where there’s less fur.
Silver highlights on his brown boots and his kneepads make for a nice contrast to the colors of his pants. As with other figures as well, Hasbro painted the soles of Felt’s boots a different shade of brown. Again, that’s a small, but welcome detail because it shows that extra bit of effort to make a realistic figure.
-Articulation: Feltipern’s articulation is a positive, and also it’s a negative to some degree. It’s not like the other two Cantina figures in this wave, in that he has a basic swiveling left bicep rather than the angle-cuts on both arms, and his right arm’s angle-cut elbow is sort of reversed compared to the other two figures in the wave.
This makes for a different array of poses you can get Felt into. Some are better suited for a Cantina. For instance, you can pose Felt drinking from a mug of something better than you can pose Dannik and Myo… That’s good. On the other hand, his right arm is not as useful as the other figures in the wave.
I’m going to say he’s good on articulation though, as he sports quite a bit, he pulls some pretty good poses, and he isn’t limited tremendously by the few drawbacks he does have with articulation.
Felt sports articulation at:
-2 standard shoulder joints
-1 swivel left bicep joint
-1 angle-cut right elbow joint
-2 standard wrist joints
-1 ball/socket neck joint
-1 standard waist joint
-2 standard hip joints
-2 ball/socket knee joints
Felt sports the 12 points of articulation that the other 2 figures of the Cantina Wave do, but just a slightly different arrangement than they had at the arms. It inhibits him in some ways, but like I said, you can get him to drink from his cup realistically while you can’t really pull that off with Dannik or Myo. That’s a plus in its own way. He’s pretty good in that regard.
-Neutral Pose: The Cantina wave’s featured neutral poses all around, and that’s music to this reviewer’s opinion. Hasbro is turning its attention towards increases in articulation and decreases in “specific” posed parts. There’s no leaning here on Feltipern, he has nothing odd about him, but if you WANT him to lean on something you can pose him that way easy enough.
That’s what action figures should be about folks! Good poseable figures that are fun to play with in many “scenes” both imagined or from the films. That’s a fun figure! It’s nice to see that this may be a trend now for the 3.75” line.
The neutral pose is the key though… You need the figure to be in a static pose in the first place for it to be useful with articulation. Feltipern is everything that the goofy leaning Outlander Club figures like Lt. Faytonni SHOULD have been. They had the good articulation, but a weird lean. That really killed a lot of their usefulness short of leaning on their table accessories. The articulation became sort of senseless.
-Accessories: Felty’s not hurting, but he has as much as Myo. Dannik’s holding the title for most accessories held by a Cantina Wave figure though. But Felt’s got some nice stuff with him.
He comes with a reused blaster from the Bespin Guard, but the gun has a very nice paintjob to make it stand out from other times it’s been used. The paint is even two-tone with it having a silver barrel and a couple silver highlights on a black “body” to the gun. That’s a nice little extra effort on Hasbro’s part to make the gun different.
Felt also comes with a cup, tinted red part of the way up to simulate the alcoholic beverage of your choice inside. I like to think he’s drinking Vodka & Cranberry, a personal favorite of mine, but whatever. It looks good, and it isn’t just a single-colored piece of plastic included. It’s an accessory that took a little effort on Hasbro’s part, so kudos to the big H!
And lastly, Felty has the rectangular “Star Wars Stand” that interlocks with others of the same ilk. It’s ok, not really necessary, but welcomed. I have a nice stack of these things going now at this point from all the figures I’ve bought that have them as extras, army builders, or custom fodder. They mount up on you if you shop like I do!
CONS
-Stiff “Skirt” Piece: What am I talking about? Well, our good Gotal has a skirt extension as part of his “outfit. His tunic hangs over his legs, and Hasbro’s given him the “skirt” piece like Admiral Ozzel has for his jacket, or any other number of figures has anymore. It’s a standard, and I like it, but this one’s rather stiff and it does inhibit Felt’s ability to sit. This is a minor gripe though.
I think that, given Hasbro’s plastic choices that are so flimsy a battledroid can’t stand on its own, that Hasbro could’ve used a more flexible plastic on Felt’s “skirt” then. A higher slit up both sides then would’ve allowed him to be able to sit quite well. Recent figures in 21st Century Toys’ military toy line have had figures in trench coats that are so flexible the figure can sit. I mean, that’s a TRENCH COAT “skirt”, and the figure can still sit, so Hasbro should maybe look into that. I still don’t hold this against the figure much though, as it’s something more minor to me really.
-Right Arm Articulation: It’s a good point in that it allows Feltipern to pull the cup accessory right to his mouth. That is very cool on his left arm; however Felt’s right arm has the angle-cut joint, but sort of in reverse. His arm is only able to really be straight at his side, or outward stretched, or it can sort of swivel out to his right like he’s got his arm open having a conversation. Doesn’t look bad, but it’s a little limiting.
I think the way Myo and Dannik Jerriko’s arms are done is superior to this. Then again I think a ball/socket elbow is the most ideal articulation and I could cite that all 3 Cantina figures lack that… It’s not a huge issue though, I’m loving these figures just the same.
-No Holster: Hmmm, so Feltipern appears to have just walked into the bar with gun in-hand, and then plopped the gun on the bar, ordered some drinks, got plastered, and walked out with the gun in-hand…
That’s dangerous drinking folks!
Felt is the only figure in the Cantina Wave to feature NO working holster for his blaster. That kinda bites considering he can’t do much with his gun but hold it in the opposite hand of his drink. It would have been nice if Hasbro snuck a holster on his calf or whatever. Just something to hide his gun when you just want to have him chilling around the bar with a drink.
This is really the only major gripe I have about the figure though, and I can’t really explain why Hasbro wouldn’t have included this with him while the other two figures in the wave each had holsters. Just doesn’t make a lot of sense to me.
OVERALL
So there you have it. The Cantina Wave in its entirety, and a nice wave it is! Feltipern Trevagg is absolutely NO exception too. The figure is pretty outstanding to me, and he fits right into the Cantina that’s slowly filled up over the years of the modern line. The figures of this wave (Dannik Jerriko, Myo, and Feltipern Trevagg) have really made the others in the Cantina look like chumps though. They can sit, they have drinks at the ready, blasters galore, they look fantastic in both sculpt and paint. They’re simply great.
Feltipern’s an easy figure to recommend that you buy. Some say, though my review is a little late, that his wave is still showing at some Wal-Mart stores here and there but he’s gone from the stores in my neck of the woods. Some of the Cantina Wave in my area was even found on clearance when Wal-Mart was clearing old OTC/VOTC product out to make way for new items. I found some of these fabled deals myself.
They’re great figures, and Felt’s the best in my opinion. I say pick them up any way you can, as they’re must-haves for the die-hard collectors in this hobby. These are the figures we put up with 20 Cantina Han’s for, so relish these moments everyone! And hope for more quality like this too. Hasbro done did good for us with these 3, save for those ugly holes in Dannik’s face (can’t stress how bad those are, really).
Now, drink up in your Cantina! Mine anxiously awaits its Gotal, so I’m going to go put him next to my Curious George figure that snuck in there I do believe.
