The Set

Cinema Scenes were a 3-pack product that existed for POTF2 Phases 2 and 3, and the TPM line.  The Phase 2 offerings were a little dubious, often including unnecessary rehashes of figures already in the line and horribly low quality renditions of the all new sculpts.  By Phase 3, the Cinema Scenes started to include entirely new figures.  Can you even imagine that today?  Multipacks will all new figures?  We can’t even get a mainline with all new sculpts.  That is the case here.  We got three first-time-ever characters, so this was pretty special at the time.  (Remember that the vintage Snaggletooth was based on the character Zutmore from The Holiday Special.)  Additionally, these sets came with removable plastic bases which could hold the cut out cardboard background.  That’s kind of neat.  Unfortunately for this set, two of the figures suffer from “don’t-stand-so-good-itis”. 

Labria

I thought it was odd that we didn’t get a Labria figure back in the vintage Kenner era.  He’s certainly one of the more identifiable characters from the cantina scene courtesy of a solo glam shot early in the sequence.  Getting Labria in 1998 definitely scratched a two-decade itch, but the effort is only mediocre.  The massive plastic cape saps the action figure of much of its action.  Thank goodness that plastic capes aren’t a thing anymore (sarcasm mode off).  Limited articulation isn’t ideal, but if a figure can stand well, it can be passable.  This wants to tip over backwards.  You can normally remedy this by moving one of the feet slightly back, but the aforementioned plastic “wall of capery” precludes this.  Additionally, the sculpt is quite anemic looking, whereas on-screen, the character has a reddish complexion.  The mouth also received unfortunate paint applications.  It’s looks like Labria’s gums are bleeding worse than someone with raging gingivitis.

In The Saga Collection, Hasbro repainted the figure to greatly improve the issues with the skin tone and paint applications around the mouth, but at the same time changed the tunic from black to gray.  There isn’t a ton of reference material for Labria, but the gray tunic does not seem accurate:

(click for the full sized photo)

I presume Hasbro made this design decision to give the figure a little more depth, but it appears to have been done at the sake of accuracy.  Despite this, the other improvements to the paint applications make the TSC figure the better of the two, in my opinion.  I’m fairly certain that Labria did not wear a cape in the movie, but rather a tunic over another shirt, but if you choose to display your figure without the cape, you loose that layering aesthetic.  Neither display option feels right.  The poor paint applications, standing issues, and ridiculous cape have this figure fall to a lowly 3 out of 10.

Nabrun Leids

Nabrun Leids is the four-armed Morseerian smuggler who takes up residence right at the front of the bar.  The character is male, but it was actually played by a woman, Janice Burchette.  The reason I mention this is that the character has a decidedly womanly shape, and I have a habit of referring to Narbun Leids as “she.”  Getting such a prominent cantina alien for the first time ever was a big deal, but fans questioned Hasbro’s design decisions, specifically the bright white costume.  There is no question that the actual wardrobe is a pearlescent white, but in the darkened interior cantina shots, it looks gray or silver.  Even in some behind the scenes still shots, the character looks light gray:

(click for the full sized photo)

Hasbro did a good job of capturing that pearlescent white appearance, but inaccurately carried that through to the hands.  As you can see from the reference photo above, the character is not wearing white gloves, so that is a decidedly inaccurate aspect of this release.  Likewise for the white boots, as the on-set costume used silver boots. When Hasbro updated this figure for The Saga Collection, they decided to err on the side of the on-screen appearance and paint the figure silver as can be seen in the comparison photo above.  They also corrected the color of the hands, but the boots are still the wrong color.  For display purposes, you’d have to decide which you prefer, either accurate to the actual wardrobe, or accurate to what your eye perceives on-screen.  I personally prefer the latter, but of course I’m also a “blue coat Han Hoth” guy, so there’s that.

Out of all the limited articulation cantina aliens, this Narbun Leids figure does the best job of sitting, which is ironic because she he is never seen on screen sitting.  Meanwhile, the figure isn’t very easy to stand.  Awesome.  Hasbro, you did the opposite thing!  The included blaster is quite silly.  It has two grips, each of which are intended to fit into the upper and lower hands on the figure’s right side.  Technically, this is one of the first two handed weapon grip (THWG) figures in the history of the line, but that is really violating the spirit of THWG.  Moreover, the hands doesn’t really hold that weapon well.

There are a host of problems with Nabrun Leids from the aforementioned inaccuracies, the difficulty standing, and the poor interaction with the ridiculous accessory.  This should compel me to lower the score below the base score of 4 for a limited articulation figure, but I won’t.  It stays a 4 out of 10 due to the two extra points of articulation courtesy of the extra pair of arms.

Takeel

You’re going to have to bear with me on this.  This figure is based on the Snivvian species.  There are two Snivvians shown in the Cantina in A New Hope.  One is named Takeel.  The other is named Zutton.  But which is which has been a perpetual source of confusion (at least for me).  First let’s look at the reference material to see what distinguishes the two characters (if anything).  On this reference photo, I have labeled the two Snivvians as “Snivvian #1” and “Snivvian #2”.

(click for the full sized photo)

Snivvian #1 has patchy auburn colored hair.  Snivvian #2 has a full head of dark brown hair.  They are easily distinguishable, and this figure is clearly supposed to be Snivvian #1.  The hair is an auburn color, and the paint applications on the top of the head are clearly meant to be a crude attempt to relay partial baldness.  So what is the name of Snivvian #1?  In the Rogue’s Gallery feature from Star Wars Insider 130 (December 13, 2011), a black and white version of the above photo was featured and it named all the characters:

(click for the full sized photo)

Based on that photo, we can see that the patchy haired Snivvian is named Zutton, and this figure is incorrectly named, right?  That is the naming I have been going with on Bantha Skull for a while now, but not so fast.  While very far from canonical, Wookieepedia identifies the patchy auburn haired Snivvian as Takeel, and the dark haired Snivvian as Zutton.  On the official site, I can find supporting articles for either naming convention.  This is my personal nightmare.  Barring something definitive form Pablo Hidalgo, or the official site, I’m going to go with the Wookieepedia designations.  Going forward, this figure is Takeel, and the Snivvian released in the Vintage Collection Special Action Figure Villain Set is Zutton as far as Bantha Skull is concerned.

If any reader can provide official confirmation that this naming is incorrect, we will happily amend.

Okay, all that about the name.  What about the figure?  Just like everything else in this set it’s classic POTF2ness.  It features only six points of articulation with prodigious c-grip hands.  The plastic tunic prevents any semblance of realistic sitting, which is the character’s primary on-screen vocation.  Neither the burgundy boots nor the fancy cravat are accurate to either of the two Snivvians in the cantina.  On the plus side, the head sculpt is decidedly Snivvian, especially in profile, and the figure definitely enlivens your cantina display.  This gets your standard 4 out of 10 score for a limited articulation figure.  Takeel definitely needs to be resculpted.