At the Star Wars, Star Wars Cantina, there were wonderful alien designs all over the place, and that scene cemented Star Wars into the very fabric of our culture.  The aliens throughout the cantina were brought to life in their charming low budget kind of way.  Some of the rubber masks were corny, but we didn’t care at the time.  It was all mesmerizing.  One of the oddball aliens that can be seen briefly is Pons Limbic, often called “Brainiac” by some as a term of endearment.  The rubber mask used for the film was definitely a little silly, and I always think of Mars Attacks! when I see this guy.  While Pons Limbic is the only member of his species we have so far seen in film, there were a few instances of Sinitieen (according to Wookieepedia, this is purposely an anagram of “Einstein”) elsewhere in Star Wars media.  Perhaps most notably, Bric was a bounty hunter hired by the Grand Army of the Republic to serve as a trainer of clones, and was given the rank of Master Chief.

Pons can be seen briefly in the cantina, most notably in the opening shot, just before the Arcona pops in and hogs the camera.  So he’s almost the first alien you see, except it was hard to focus so quickly on him before Ham Dazon (get it?) stole the shot.  According to the old EU, Pons Limbic was nicknamed “Brainiac” by Bo Shek, because he was able to calculate hyperspace routes without the help of a computer.  Just to be clear, he was not nicknamed “Brainiac” by Bo Shek because his head was shaped like a giant brain, because that would be ridiculous.  He may or may not have maintained his status in canon after he was mentioned in a 2015 publication Everything You Need to Know about Star Wars.  That book has a disclaimer that said most of the info was drawn from old EU sources and also contains some specific information that was declared non-canon by Pablo Hidalgo, so whatever for that noise.  Canon or not canon, we still love him.

The figure is great.  It’s got a tremendous sculpt with a lot of details that appear to be screen accurate.  The outfit with the diamond shaped pattern on the chest and the fuzzy gloves are accurate.  Pons has standard super-articulation, which is excellent, especially for a blink-and-you’ll-miss-him character.  He can be posed in a number of ways, even sitting, which is probably the most important.  The headsculpt is awesome.  It’s very brainy.  The paint on my sample makes him look a bit paler than I would expect him to be, and he lacks a wash that would really bring out the details of his scalp.  The eyes are sufficiently creepy, with no pupils. 

Pons Limbic comes with a blaster that he can grip well.  He also has a place to stow the blaster, while it’s such a slim holster that it barely affects his silhouette, which is a nice touch.  No mailbox holster for this guy.  He’s way too smart for that nonsense!  But, as with the Obi-Wan Kenobi figure we reviewed yesterday, he comes with an amazing accessory.  Included in the package is a cantina table!  It’s just like the ones seen throughout Chalmun’s.  You get a good look at one toppled on its side after Luke gets tossed aside like a rag doll by Cornelius Evazan.  It’s amazing that Hasbro was able to get this into the final package.  It does arrive in two parts, but once put together, that’s it.  It’s an awesome accessory, and harkens back to the days when you could get an awesome SA figure with no shortcuts and a huge environmental accessory for about 7 or 8 bucks.  Now due to the perfect storm that was the simultaneous triple threats of the Mongolian Emu Massacre, the Icelandic Papaya Riots, and the Grand Tortilla Famine of 2009, we can’t have nice things anymore.  Except for the Sail Barge.  That was a very nice thing.

This figure is a required member of your Cantina display.  It’s just about perfect in every way possible.  I’ll give it a 9, just because a 10 is reserved for truly epic figures.  You can probably find one on Ebay for about $30 shipped.  It’s not outrageous, especially since it’s got the table accessory, but it certainly isn’t cheap. If Hasbro gets around to doing up the Cantina in some future year like they have been doing for Jabba this year, then Pons would probably deserve consideration for a re-release in some format.  For now, Hasbro has much to do elsewhere in the line.

Build-A-Droid 

Pons Limbic contains right leg for the astromech R2-L3, who could be seen rolling in the background in Mos Espa when Anakin and Padmé are looking to meet with Watto in an attempt to find Shmi Skywalker.  Source:  Attack of the Clones.