Captain Panaka served as Queen Amidala’s head of security on Naboo.  He was loyal to the queen and was constantly giving her advice that, in his estimation, would keep her safe.  He seemed particularly dubious of the queen’s decision join Qui-Gon’s expedition into Mos Espa while disguised as the handmaiden, Padmé.  He was a capable fighter and leader, and helped Amidala during the infiltration of the royal palace in order to apprehend Nute Gunray and Rune Haako.  Following the liberation of Naboo and the election of Senator Palpatine to the office of Chancellor, Panaka continued to serve Amidala until her term as queen was over.  He then left the security services, allowing his nephew, Typho, to take the position.  Following the Clone Wars and the establishment of the Galactic Empire, Palpatine named Panaka as Moff of his home sector.  He remained loyal to the Empire until he was assassinated by Saw Gerrera’s partisans.

Hugh Quarshie, the actor who played Captain Quarsh (that’s right) Panaka, was apparently set to reprise the role in Attack of the Clones.  According to his Wookiepedia page, he turned down the role after some frustration because he was only allowed to see pieces of the AOTC script that contained his lines, and not the whole script.  The fuss was apparently enough for LFL to write off the character and replace him with Captain Typho (Panaka’s nephew, in canon).  I guess you don’t mess with LFL, or they make your character disappear.

The figure is a nice looking sculpt, before analyzing too deeply.  The outfit is done nicely, although by modern standards, there would probably be something separate to add depth, like the belt or the vest.  The skirt-like portion of the coat is made of a fairly flexible plastic, which, unlike most of the Episode I figures that we’ve reviewed so far, does allow for a nice range of motion of the hip articulation. This, at a minimum, allows the figure to sit in vehicles.  With no other lower body articulation, however, any other poses are limited.  To compensate for this, the figure is pre-posed with the left leg lunging forward.  Not a fan of this approach, as it is impossible to get the figure to have a neutral stance.  The arm articulation is a bit odd.  The right arm has a swivel just above the elbow, while the left arm has a swivel below the elbow (where the gauntlet ends, actually).  Panaka is sort of semi-preposed to perform a pretty convincing THWG (Two Handed Weapon Grip), but almost any other aiming pose is difficult to achieve.  The head has a swivel neck, but there is very little range of motion here.  I don’t know if my 20-year-old figure just has the head stuck in place, or if it really is meant to be almost immovable.  I’m not going to try too hard.  The face sculpt isn’t bad.  As is often the case, the face looks nice, but isn’t necessarily recognizable as the actor. 

Panaka comes with two weapons.  The standard issue Naboo blaster, and also a droid blaster.  At one point in the movie he does wield one of these after picking it up from a fallen droid during the escape from Naboo.  While the THWG is admirable, it only really works for the larger droid blaster rifle.  Even then, the left hand isn’t sculpted wide open enough to accommodate the thick barrel of the droid blaster, so it kind of just floats there.  He can, however, grip it in either hand, while he is only able to securely grip the Naboo blaster in his left hand.  Again, I’m afraid to force it.  I’ve already broken like 6 figures over the past year or so taking photographs for these galleries.  I don’t need Panaka joining that exclusive group!  Besides a holster of some sort, Hasbro had another big miss here.  It should have been a no brainer to include a removable cap.  This one is glued right onto Panaka’s head.  He seems to spend almost an equal time in TPM wearing the hat and not wearing it.  It’s a bit frustrating, actually.

The figure looks nice, with action oriented sculpting and solid paint apps.    But the odd articulation, the pre-posed stance, and the fixed hat make this a tough figure to like.  These are things that would be easily tackled by an update.  This is essentially the only figure available of Captain Panaka.  He definitely deserves consideration for an update.