Hasbro’s Original Trilogy Collection took a major turn for the collectors when it went from almost pure repackaged rehashes to the transition waves of completely new sculpts. Some aren’t the swiftest looking product that Hasbro has delivered to us, but there was one wave that Hasbro gave us that really was a curve ball… The Cantina Wave!
These 3 nobody’s from the darkest depths of the Star Wars Cantina fulfilled many a geek’s fantasy, and to this reviewer they not only fill the role of obscure wish-lists everywhere, but they also make for 3 of the best figures I’ve ever seen in the basic line, period. Yes, I said it, 3 absolutely fantastic figures in most every respect. Not perfect, but definitely must-haves for every collector. What Cantina alien isn’t?
This review focus is on Myo, the Cyclops with mutton-chop sideburns seen lurking about in the in the Mos Eisley Cantina, and this guy doesn’t disappoint. With nice articulation, a holster, a great sculpt and pretty good paintjob, this guy’s a standout in any Cantina diorama that slowly but steadily keeps filling up.
Hasbro’s taken some turns for the better throughout 2004, and this figure’s representative of that, so this makes for a fun figure to pick apart. Sure I’ll find flaws, but he’s still gold in my eyes. Read on and enjoy!
PROS
Sculpt: First and foremost, this guy’s a knock-out sculpt. A 1-2 punch from Hasbro of amazing likeness with neat little “creative license” moments taken on giving him a holster and some little details that you maybe couldn’t see on him in the film.
The headsculpt is absolutely spot-on, with his mouth slightly open to see his gnarly looking teeth beneath his protruding lower lip. The detail is incredible. His hair hangs well and hides his articulation even. His skin has texture to it, and his single eye is sculpted to actually have depth to it. Whoever did this headsculpt deserves a medal. This is museum quality work here!
The body doesn’t disappoint either! The tunic, for instance has separate texturing on its various layers. For example, his shoulder area sports a rough looking texture while his belly of his body shows a more smooth and lined texture to it. The end result is a body sculpt that looks like real fabric rather than sculpted plastic.
Along with the outfit itself, I’m also incredibly pleased with the way they sculpted the belt he wears. What with his gun slinging holster high on his hip, the pockets sculpted on it, and other little details sculpted in there, it’s just another set of details that the figure’s creator really seemed to go the extra mile on. The boots also sport a couple little leather belts on them like his waist belt, and while not necessary, they’re that “creative license” Hasbro had that made the figure a little less bland looking, and a little more realistic. It’s like this guy really has seen some travels in his days.
Sculpt quality is something Hasbro has turned a positive corner on (for the most part), and one they deserve some credit on when they really knock your socks off. Unfortunately it means you have to come down harder on them when they drop the ball then though. The whole Cantina wave has high quality like Myo here though, so my hat is off to the big H for these improvements.
Articulation: Is he VOTC Han Solo? Nope, not by a long shot, but he still is a vast improvement over almost every basic figure in the modern line. With 12 points of articulation, and some ball/socket joints, you really can’t fault me for the praise. Plus, it’s nice to see Hasbro give the figure EVEN articulation. They kept a balance here, and when they articulated one wrist, they did the other as well. I like that and consider it important in and of itself. If Hasbro skimps on one point, it can throw an entire figure’s “fun factor” off.
Myo sports the following articulation:
-2 standard 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
With a total of 12 points of articulation there, I have little room for complaint. I will say that ball/socket elbows and shoulders are superior to angle-cut elbows and standard shoulder joints. They allow for obviously a wider range of motion, but the figure still is quite poseable. I’m not going to hold that minor point against him at this stage.
Neutral Pose: This is possibly something that should go into the sculpt area, but I’m just happy to see NEUTRAL posed figures anymore. As bad as action features, I find action poses, or even wonky “leaning” poses (Lt. Faytonni, I’m looking at your goofy stance), extremely inhibiting to a figure’s aesthetic appeal, as well as how much fun the actual toy is to play with. Combined with the nice articulation, I can actually make Myo “lean” on something on my own if I want. To me that is the direction Hasbro should always go in. Neutral poses and articulation, all the way!
Saga was plagued with awkwardly posed figures, some extremely so, and some with just that slight goofy lean (Faytonni, Clone Pilot, etc.), and that really hurt a lot of them to the point that it really ruined an otherwise great figure. Not these Cantina guys though, they’re all great, all neutral, and all articulated well enough for great action poses or to just have them pounding back pints at the bar. That’s action figure bliss to me folks!
Accessories: Not exactly overflowing with accessories, he does come with some nice ones… Particularly his brew-ha-ha he’s got there.
Myo sports a nice reuse of the Bo Shek blaster pistol. Those of you may recognize it also as the blaster that Dr. Evazan pulls on Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Cantina as well. It’s a great sculpt and fits in his holster perfectly (despite our photo).
Myo also comes with a nice frothy drink of something blue. The drink is a rehash of the cup used on some of the Outlander Club wave of figures, and features a translucent cup tinted blue to simulate a blue drink, with a white top that looks like it has a frothy head on it like intergalactic beer. Very cool effect and it’s that kind of little detail that makes an accessory that much better than just a plain, single colored mug.
And lastly, Myo has the rectangular “Star Wars” stand that has become semi-standard since the end of the Saga line. These seem to be going away after the OTC is over, but perhaps they’ll come back. Of course, like all the others, this stand interlocks with others of its kind to form a nice uniform row for figure display.
Paint/Deco: Another outstanding feature on Myo is the fact that, out of every example of him that I ever saw on the pegs (mostly at Wal-Mart), Hasbro didn’t seem to really mess the paint up at all. Not only that, but he’s also relatively intricately painted and features multiple colors and washes. He’s pretty top-notch overall then!
My example features some great 2-tone skin with a light green base that has a darker green wash on it that highlights the sculpt tremendously. His fingernails on both hands feature some very dark colored paint applications that didn’t stray though they were relatively small details to add. Myo’s teeth and eye are crisp white, and neither bled onto the skin surrounding them either, and his sideburns /hair is a nice white with grey highlights to enhance it. That’s a lot of work right there, but it’s not all by a long shot!
Myo’s uniform is actually 3 shades of green. His uniform’s top/arms are an olive drab color, and are very clean. I guess he does laundry often? And his lower torso and legs are a much darker green color. Myo’s pants also feature a stripe pattern that runs down each on the side, it’s a very light green, almost tan colored, and that makes for one multi-colored outfit with lots of detailed painting that has very few paint marks bleeding onto places they shouldn’t be.
To top that off though, Myo’s boots are a dark grey with a brown-grey color painted on the sole of them and silver highlights in the center. I love it when Hasbro paints the bottom of the boot a separate color because, once again, it gives that extra level of realism to the figure that you just don’t always expect, but when you get it you sometimes take it for granted. It’s a great extra effort on their part. And not to mention Myo’s boots, but also his belt/holster is a well painted brown with silver highlights, as are the straps/pouches on the tops of his boots.
There is a lot of color to this guy, despite what you may think at first glance. You can’t argue with Hasbro’s effort here I don’t believe.
CONS
No Trigger Finger: A little bit of an irritant with Myo is the lack of a separately sculpted trigger finger on him. Is this a minor gripe? Sure is, but there is still a part of me that finds it irritating because Myo now has a little trouble keeping his pistol in his hand, as it is sculpted with a trigger guard and such. Seeing as how it’s just a little extra effort to add that detail, I think it could’ve been snuck in there and it wouldn’t have really caused much of a fuss.
Still, this is a minor issue of course. If worse came to worse, it’s possible to make the trigger finger separate, but I’m not in the mood to take my X-Acto Knife to the Myo just yet. ;)
Dull Accessories: I know I said the cup is neat, and it is, and his pistol with a working holster is a great feature as we all know, but at the same time the entire Cantina Wave is nothing but rehashed accessories from past figures. Something new or different would’ve been nice. For instance, I’d have liked the stool from the Outlander Wave included with these figures perhaps. Especially since that accessory wasn’t exactly common to get extras of it for your Outlander dioramas.
Still though, Hasbro could’ve even sculpted something new for us… Like what if they’d made a Cantina chair, and a Cantina table, and packed a chair with 2 of the Cantina Wave figures and the table with the third? There you have chairs and tables to entice multiple purchases right? Or to repackage with later Cantina figures even.
Just a little thought on those out there who like having a Cantina diorama but who are living in a chair-less/table-less galaxy. Anyway, it’s just a thought and another minor gripe as I do enjoy getting cups, and each figure coming with a blaster is always a major plus to me. Hell, I even think senators should come with a gun!
OVERALL
What can I say? I was stretching for gripes on Myo there, actually. I like to have something in the Cons though. I can find problems even with the best of the VOTC figures, so the Cantina Wave isn’t going to escape my discerning eye. I will say though, that Myo flat out rocks. He’s a great figure, a fun figure, and a must-buy figure for all classic trilogy fans. He actually makes me long for resculpts of some of the Cantina figures I once thought were good… I mean, he makes Labria look kinda sad now.
Somehow I even lucked into Cantina wave on clearance, though these didn’t last long around my neck of the woods. Cantina figures came and went at Wal-Mart and just seemed to get caught in their clearance blitz some places. If you find these, buy a set because you’ll want all 3 for your collection. They’re fantastic and worth the price.
If Hasbro can keep this level of quality going, then I’ve got a resculpt list a mile long that I’d like to submit. I know lots of old figures I’d like to have been this nice the first time around, and now they just look kinda sloppy next to old One Eye here.
