You are in command now, Admiral Piett - Darth Vader

Captain Piett

Captain Piett earned a battlefield promotion of sorts when Admiral Ozzel flubbed his way to a summary execution via teleconference.  It’s not wise to disagree with Lord Vader.  Apparently the Kenner division of Hasbro heeds this advice because, while the packaging is titled “Captain Piett”, the figure is sculpted with the rank badge of the admiralty.  “Captain” Piett would have the six square rank badge (see inset left).  This figure has the twelve square rank badge (six red and six blue) designating an Admiral.  This actually provides for a more useful figure as Firmus Piett was that rank for the bulk of The Empire Strikes Back and all of Return of the Jedi.  Ole Ozzle kicked the bucket pretty early on.

The reason for this review today is that, after twenty three years, it’s incredulous that we haven’t received an update to this figure.  We are stuck with a still POTF-esque 1998 figure for one of the more prominent Imperial Officers.  I’m not going to belabor the pros and cons of a Power of the Force “2” figure because you know them all too well.  The cons are limited articulation, questionable proportions, vague sculpting, questionable likeness, and oversized accessories.  Look at the size of that baton, which the bubble sticker mistakenly calls a blaster rifle.  Were the officer grades in the Empire also responsible for riot control?  That doesn’t seem likely.  Officers don’t do stuff.  The pro is merely that it exists. If it weren’t for this slightly preposed figure with lobster crushing hands, we wouldn’t have a Piett figure at all

Considering the tooling re-use that it would offer, it’s amazing that Hasbro hasn’t prioritized an Admiral Piett update thus far. Creating one Imperial Officer super tool could be used to bring us many figures which would only require a new head sculpt and rank badge.  The aforementioned Ozzel, General Veers, Admiral Motti, Colonel Yularen, etc., etc.  This figure should have been updated for the 40th Anniversary of The Empire Strikes Back (also known as the year that the Vintage Collection forgot).  Piett ranked NUMBER ONE in our unofficially official Empire Strikes Back Readers’ Choice Poll.  The 40th anniversary of Return of the Jedi is coming up in two years. Perhaps Hasbro can make up for that sin of omission then.