Everyone loves Bounty Hunters in the Star Wars figure line… unless they’re Greedo. Greedo is a character who people just haven’t gone nuts over seeing in the line again, and again, and again, and again, so why not make him one more time and in the premium “Vintage” line at a premium price!? 
That’s the question Hasbro asked itself and they ran with the idea.
After so many figures of Greedo making their way to the pegs though, do fans really need or want yet another? Well, in true Hasbro fashion they’ve done nothing perfect with Greedo in the past. The original POTF2 figure looks comical next to his commtech brother. Later re-releases of the commtech Greedo resulted in fans having a small Rodian army who all looked a little different from each other, be it the color of their vest or weathering, and the good news for collectors is that Hasbro never TRULY perfected the character’s likeness and in the Star Wars films, Rodians are a dime-a-dozen thug that all seem to shop at the same clothing stores. Just look around the Jabba The Hutt scenes added back into the special edition of A New Hope. There’s more than a couple of Greedo Clones standing around in the same basic duds. Weird.
That’s a plus then to buying yet another Greedo. But do you want to pay $10+ for your new Vintage Saga Collection Greedo? I think you will after my review, because this is as good as Hasbro’s ever going to do old “Broccoli Man” as I used to call him as a child. They even innovate on the costume some, with a little creative license. Read on and check out the finer points of poor Greedo.
PROS
-Sculpt: As you should come to expect out of Hasbro, the sculpting is on-par with the best you’ll find in any toy line for the price. While Hasbro struggles from time to time with a human character’s likeness, they pretty well nail down anything non-human without much question. Then again, with Vintage Greedo here we actually see that even the past can be improved upon slightly. Sure the Commtech Greedo’s nice, but yes it can be even better and that’s nice to see since you are paying a premium for these figures.
Starting with Greedo’s spiffy space suit, we see Hasbro go away from the coarse look to a Jedi’s fabric or some such to a smoother look for some outfit that one would only hope helps Greedo if he is lost in a vacuum because it’s hardly stylish. The outfit has a leathery look to it, and while other figures may have a texture sculpted into their shirt, this outfit is smoove as a buttah… ahem. There are a lot of wrinkles and folds sculpted into it though to give it life and look as though someone real and rather lean/slender is living inside the outfit. There are creases and folds to show the outfit bunching up at various points on the character’s body and it looks very realistic and detailed overall. There are horizontal piping/ribbing sculpted into the seams of Greedo’s trousers and sleeves as well. The details are smooth and even, and contrast well on the otherwise plain duds. Also, Hasbro actually took a little extra effort to sculpt horizontal lines on the pins in his shoulder joints too, so they are better hidden on the figure’s arms. It’s a nice extra touch.
Greedo’s got a couple little details in two belts. One is a separately sculpted pistol holster, which Hasbro is taking some liberties with the Greedo character I think. At least I’ve never seen any costume of Greedo with a pistol belt anyway. The effort is greatly appreciated by the big H though, because they ultimately could’ve left the green menace without this nice little feature. The belt’s great too, and features all the buckles rivets and other details you’ve come to expect on intergalactic gunslinger gear.
Greedo’s headsculpt is the best to-date. It’s not too large, it’s not too small, and it has a little character to it that other Rodian headsculpts haven’t. It looks unique compared with past Greedo figures, and to me that means my past Greedo’s now become a nameless army of Rodian thugs.
Greedo’s got his trademark mohawk thing, his concave ears and antenna on his noggin have a lot of depth to them, his eyes look as though they actually do rest in sockets, and there’s lots of bumps on his skin giving it a unique texture. Likewise to his headsculpt, Greedo’s hands are equally nice and feature the concave suction-cup tips that are trademark to the species. The end result is a head that stands out when compared to others of his species, and yet you sort of actually recognize this as the best rendition of this character ever to be made.
-Paint Aps/Deco: Paint application to Greedo isn’t too varied, but that’s not a bad thing since Greedo was just a whole lot of green. The horizontal ribbing/piping on Greedo’s suit is the most noticeable paint application, as it’s a bright green-yellow on the darker green background. It’s painted well and even on my sample and features a wash to highlight the sculpt.
Greedo’s costume overall though also features a paint wash of a darker green color that really gives the illusion of depth and shadow to all the folds in the smooth jumpsuit. It’s a very nice touch to make a bland single-color outfit stand out a bit more and look special.
To hold up his pants, Greedo has the two belts mentioned in the sculpt. Both are different colors of each other as well as the outfit overall. The belt for his pants is a grey color with a silver buckle and while it’s plain, it doesn’t need to be special really and seems quite nice to me. Greedo’s pistol holster features silver rivets and buckles all along it, and it looks pretty nice on its dark brown leathery base color. Very realistic, and I do greatly appreciate Hasbro putting a holster on this figure. Greedo’s feet are clad in his little brown boots, and they have a wash on them as well that helps them stand out a little bit.
The last real major paint application then is Greedo’s stark blue-black eyeballs. The species has just big bulbous dark eyes, and Hasbro painted these with ease. The paint used is neat because it has almost a metallic quality to it and really looks strangely alien to human eyes. It’s very nicely done by Hasbro and better than just big black dots since they used an off-black color for more life and realism.
-Accessories: Greedo doesn’t come packing a lot of gear. He didn’t really have much in the movies anyway though. But since this Vintage Premium Line concept came about with Hasbro, accessories haven’t ever been high on the priority list it’s seemed. In the first waves of Vintage in 2004’s line, you were lucky to get two accessories really, much less something that required a new sculpt.
With Greedo though you get a nice cloth vest despite early reservations towards Hasbro using softgoods on this figure, and you get a brand new sculpt of Greedo’s blaster he stupidly pulled on the scoundrel Han Solo. It’s the first truly accurate incarnation of Greedo’s gun from the films as well, which is really quite nice. Past Greedo’s have all been packed with the same sub-par sculpted pistol, so it’s high time we got the right weapon with this figure.
Greedo’s vest is fairly simple for softgoods and that’s how it should be. Anything too complex and it would undoubtedly bunch up or look awkward. Greedo’s vest is a brown fuzzy material. It’s thick but lays nicely on the figure since it’s just a vest with minimal stitching to it. Early shots had people questioning the choice of making a cloth vest over a plastic sculpted one (especially when a plastic vest exists with the Commtech Greedo figure that is really nice as it is). I think fans will enjoy the cloth though, and if not I’m sure they have a Greedo readily available to swap out the plastic vest with easily enough.
Greedo’s blaster is, as noted, brand new in every way. It’s a to-scale and accurately sculpted representation of the unique looking pistol Greedo drew on Han Solo in the Cantina. It’s nice to have, and hopefully it’s a gun we see re-used with other Cantina denizens so Hasbro gets their mileage out of the tooling. It’s nice and generic looking, and a good way to get away from the other sculpts for a while.
While this is only two accessories with this figure, I find the inclusion of the NEW pistol a great feature. Others may have more, but few have something truly new packed in with them. The Vintage Premium Line has seen a lot of re-used molds but not a whole lot of new gear so this is a really nice surprise.
-Articulation: As with his VTSC case-mates, Greedo features some of the best articulation we’ve seen in either the VTSC or VOTC. He’s as super articulated as one can be without a ball/socket torso joint, and that’s fine by me. If you’d asked me 5 years ago if I thought we’d ever get a super articulated Greedo in the line, I’d have said you’re nuts… Here we are in 2006, and we have it, and I have to say it’s impressive.
Greedo features articulation at:
- 2 ball/socket shoulder joints
- 2 ball/socket elbow joints
- 2 standard wrist joints
- 2 standard hip joints
- 2 ball/socket knee joints
- 2 ball/socket ankle joints
- 1 ball/socket neck joint
- 1 standard waist joint
That’s a whopping total of 14 points of articulation total on Mr. Greedo here, and that’s not to shabby for even the best of army builders much less a lowly Cantina patron blasted after a couple lines. Do you need to put Greedo in 90 different action poses? Hell no, but you CAN, and that’s what a good action figure should be all about - using your imagination to play (pose, whatever you want to call it) with your toys and not just relegate them to the few scenes they maybe appeared in.
I’ve had Greedo sitting in my Cantina diorama, running, gunning, dying, dead, fist-fighting, crouching. I’ve found a ton of poses for Greedo here and I’m still counting. The figure’s ability to fit into any diorama I want is really nice and I’m happy Hasbro didn’t skimp on articulation at all with him despite his background status.
Anyway, this is THE Greedo you’ll want on your display shelf. Past sculpts will suffice for Jabba’s random Rodian cronies though no doubt, but this is the poseable Greedo everyone didn’t want but should be happy to pick up.
-Working Holster: As noted, Hasbro took a little creative license with Greedo’s costume as we have come to know it. In most photos I’ve seen of the character, you really can’t see him from the torso down. In the film you certainly can’t see much of Greedo’s lower half… so where does his pistol go?
Hasbro answered this puzzle by giving Greedo a pistol holster for the first time ever. The holster works as well to hold the newly sculpted blaster pistol, and is full of little details in it’s sculpt to boot. Hasbro went the extra mile with a holster though, it’s an extremely appreciated feature by this reviewer, and it really improved the figure in my eyes and made it stand out that much more from other Rodian figures we already have. So again, big thumbs up to Hasbro for that.
-Packaging: The packaging on the Vintage Saga Collection figures is probably the most ornate and eye-catching package for a Star Wars figure since the VOTC line. While the basic Saga Collection line that ships alongside the VTSC figures is nice, the VTSC definitely draws your attention as something special.
A downside to the dazzling packaging is the cost, which like other features I’ll touch on that shortly in the “Cons” portion, however it was a cost a lot of people were willing to bite for “ultimate” versions of various figures with the VOTC line, and they’ll do so again with the VTSC line I’m sure.
The packaging is a recreation of the original vintage Kenner action figure cardbacks from the 1970’s and 1980’s. If you were like me, and can recall these figures adorning your local toy store (Ah, Children’s Palace… the days when a trip to the toy store meant something), then you no doubt have a feeling of nostalgia, just as Hasbro intended. The old style cardbacks are nice to see on the pegs, and they really do catch the eye like no modern packaging has been able to do.
While Hasbro went to great lengths to recreate the front of the packaging, the back of the packaging was a modern style displaying other figures from the line. The waves system used for the VOTC line is gone though, and all 5 VTSC figures are pictured on the cardback of any given figure in this wave. No more ESB/SW/ROTJ waves, at least not that anyone is aware of at this point, and not for these 5 figures shipping now.
Hasbro’s work to recreate the cardbacks was nicely done, and appreciated. This has so far been the only packaging I’ve wanted to save really. While the VOTC packaging was easy to save though, the VTSC figures are heat-sealed and prone to being basically mangled when trying to open them. If you have extra clamshells from the VOTC line lying about though, you’ll still be able to display your cards on a clamshell with your loose figure standing by it quite nicely.
Either way though, the end result is some nicely displayed toy on the pegs, and that’s what really is helping to up much of the costs unfortunately. A full set of the 12 VOTC and the 5 new VTSC cardbacks looks really nice displayed amongst your figure collection though. It’s very eye-catching overall.
-Give-Away Promotion: Along with all these other fantastic features, Hasbro’s dusting off the old “give-away” gimmick with the VTSC figures. For the second time ever, a promotion for a George Lucas figure is taking place. This time, there is a catch to getting the figure that ties into the “Collect Them All!” mentality.
With the Luke Skywalker (X-Wing Pilot) figure there is a promotional slip. Each figure in the VTSC line then has a little tab you stick to the promotional slip from the Luke figure. You NEED each figure’s tab to mail it in, so you can’t just send 5 Biker Scouts or whatnot and get this figure. You must buy all 5 figures in the series, put their tabs on the slip, and mail the slip plus $4.95 s/h to Hasbro, and god knows when you’ll get a carded George Lucas in Stormtrooper Disguise figure, or “GeorgeTrooper” in the mail.
Really, when you think about it, it at least helps ease some of the cost incurred in buying figures that cost you upwards of $13 a piece. I know my first set of VTSC cost about that much actually, so getting a semi-free figure in the mail is a nice extra, even if the sculpt on said “free” figure is a somewhat bogus cop-out sculpt... and who honestly wanted a George Lucas in Stormtrooper disguise for that matter? That’s neither here nor there though.
CONS
-Tight Grip: Hasbro’s struggled on exactly what to do with Greedo’s right “firing” hand for holding blasters. His long digits have always seemed a little difficult to use when firing a pistol. The idea Hasbro ran with then is to wrap the 4 fingers and thumb around the blaster in a circle… Unfortunately Greedo’s grip on his pistol is a bit tight and tough to put his weapon into his hand and removing it is equally difficult at times.
Of course, this gripe is as minor as can be in my opinion, but the problem is still there irregardless. When trying to put in, or remove, the blaster pistol, the hole in Greedo’s right hand seems a little too small and you must force the pistol into his hand. My suggestion is to be careful or you’ll wear the details on the pistol off if you try forcing the gun into his hands. It’s a little word of warning. This still is a tremendously minor gripe on my part. I’ve been very pleased with Greedo otherwise.
-Retail Cost: Without a doubt, and probably the worst aspect of the VTSC line, is the cost that came with each figure. The figures in my first set cost me around $12 or so per figure, which isn’t the best price for buying multiples that’s for sure. They’re the kinds of figures you want more than one of too for certain.
Why the increased costs? It’s tough to say exactly. The packaging is more ornate and created by hand, that’s for certain. The clamshells over the cardbacks for instance, the chrome plated cardboard inserts, the cardbacks that are recreated by hand to be exact replicas of the original vintage figures (in the front), and the coffin-style blisters to mimic vintage looking packaging - these all come into play when factoring in costs.
The figures are ornate, and the use of cloth inevitably increases the cost a little as well. The poseability and whatnot is arguable though, and with the VTSC building on the VOTC line’s costs for packaging, you’d think that at some point the packaging would become a little less “special” financially and cost us less.
The real debate though is whether or not, packaging aside, these figures are “better” than basic figures or not. To me, after what we got in 2005’s ROTS line, I feel that Hasbro can deliver the VOTC/VTSC quality on basic cards for basic prices. Super articulation isn’t out of their grasp. Hasbro simply choose not to give it to us routinely in the basic line. The line deserves it though, no doubt.
For my money, the VTSC level of quality is nice, but I’d surely be putting more money into more figures if the basic line was on par with the Vintage remakes. Unfortunately Hasbro doesn’t seem to have that kind of plan in mind… At least not any time soon, so we’re stuck with $12 when we want decent toys.
OVERALL
So my opinion is hardly a mystery at this point about Vintage Saga Collection Greedo. I must say that this is more than worth having one of. I think it’s not even a bad idea to pick up a second Greedo and so far he and Han seem to be easier to find than the others. At least in my neck of the woods that’s been the case.
The Rodian species is seen throughout A New Hope in basically the same outfit. When Jabba confronts Han at the Millenium Falcon you can notice as many as 3 Rodian thugs following him that all appear to look exactly like Greedo. To me that means my old Greedo figures are less obsolete and now filter into the background more believably. Even the first “buff” Greedo is still a worthy filler figure.
The VTSC Greedo though is hands down your ultimate incarnation of Han’s inept nemesis on Mos Eisley. The painting with all its washes for weathering effects, the improved sculpt, the improved likeness, and obviously the improved accessories and articulation are all reasons to own this figure as your one and only Greedo. No other looks better in the Cantina booth. Of course you’ll need at least one to mail away for old George too.
Pick up a 2nd or 3rd Greedo figure though if you have the means and want some better muscle for your slug crime lord. It’s a great figure; if not a little “background” for the premium prices you are forced to pay for this level of quality. It’s a shame Hasbro doesn’t deliver these kinds of figures in the basic line though because I know I’d be buying a lot more of any given character at $5 or $6 a pop if they were like this Greedo. Finding this bounty hunter shouldn’t be too hard for you though, so go nab one if you can find him, you won’t be sorry.
