There have been many Jawas in the modern line, and most of them are quite good.  Even the POTF2 versions, with the light up eyes aren’t the worst things to ever be offered on a card.  Personally, I believe that because of those eyes, and the decent (no, not even close to great) sculpt allow you to throw a few of the into the backgrounds of your various Tatooine displays.  Later versions of Jawas have steadily improved the sculpts, accessories, and articulation.  Probably the best Jawas to date were offered in the Black Series line.  Those, however, along with every other jawa offering, are not perfect.

The Thirtieth Anniversary Collection (TAC) of 2007 was one of the best lines for collectors.  Besides what may be regarded as the coming of age of super articulated figures, the character selection was outstanding, the card shape and artwork were always striking (if not classic), the value was great, and the included coins were highly collectible.  In this particular case, we got an all new Jawa, with an all new look, and an all new droid as a two-pack, instead of a second jawa, as had been tradition.

This jawa has a really nice sculpt, with the plastic robes having nice textures and folds.  You can see the head wrappings under the hood, although, of course, there’s no real evidence of what these little guys actually look like.  The eyes are bright painted, and look nice coming out of the darkness of the “face.”  The upper arms are super articulated, and the figure also has a swivel waist and a ball jointed head (which is greatly restricted by the sculpt.). The lower body has no articulation, and has the effect of a salt shaker approach, but the legs are sculpted separately from the robes.  For added depth, this jawa comes with a light colored vest.  At first sight when the figure was revealed, I thought this was ridiculous, but sure enough some of the Jawas are wearing vests.  I don’t wear vests myself, but this little guy rocks it. The double bandolier and holster is removable, should you be inclined to try.  As with many of my figures, I wasn’t really interested in forcing it off the figure for fear of breakage, but it can be removed if you want.  The bandolier has two working holsters.  The one on the left side holds a small blaster, which the Jawa can grip tightly in either hand.  But more interestingly, he also comes with a tiny droid caller, which fits snugly in its little holster, as well as the jawa’s hands.  It is the first time this accessory has ever been offered.  It’s great, just be careful not to lose it.  It goes well with TLC’s BD29 R2-D2, the one with the restraining bolt.

The LIN Droid is a really nice addition to the line, and proved that Hasbro was serious about eventually offering all of the droids from the jawa sale scene in A New Hope.  The droid is most definitely undersized, but I really don’t care.  It’s got an articulated arm, a translucent dome, and it looks great. It might have been very slightly improved if it was bigger and had working wheels (I doubt working treads would have been feasible at this scale and price.). This set is a must have.

Grading this set is tough.  It may not be the best Jawa ever, but it’s still really good.  While others are better, they have not come close to rendering this one obsolete.  It can definitely be included in your jawa displays.  I think that Hasbro might want to take a stab at a full soft goods cloak on a TVC card, for nostalgia purposes.  If not viable at retail (I think it would be) maybe it could work as a pack in for that crazy BMF Sandcrawler that the whole world is begging for.*  As for the LIN Droid, it’s never going to get better, even though it’s not quite perfect.  As a 2-pack that includes a pair of desirable figures that remain excellent over 10 years later, it’s a great value.  I’ll give the set a very solid 8, and I’ll call it “close” to definitive, so as not to understate the quality of the figure, even though other Jawas might be better.

*There is no data to support this statement.