Welcome to your Sunday Funday review.  If you’re a regular reader you know that the point of these reviews is not to heavily dissect these typically older figures.  Belaboring the pros and cons of an obsolete, often comically bad. figure is a waste of time.  Instead, the purpose is to discuss about an interesting story as it relates to the history of the line.

At first blush, this Hoth Princess Leia seems pretty unremarkable for this purpose.  Considering its age, it’s actually N.T.S.  That stands for “not too shabby”.  If you recognize that as a Cedar Rapids reference, you may be me.  I think I’m the only person on the planet that talks about that movie (and I’ve seen it at least 20 times).  Since you’re me, don’t forget to pay the insurance bill.

The reason this Hoth Princess Leia has a story to tell has little to do with the figure itself.  You may have noticed it while scrolling though page.  This figure is notorious to me.  Behold, this Hoth Leia is the reason I quit collecting for the first of three times.  Look at it.  LOOK AT IT.  Direct all your scorn toward it.  This was part of what was known as the “Fan Club Four.”  Those figures are this Hoth Leia, the Death Star Droid, Pote Snitkin, and AT-AT Driver. (I had to look up what the fourth figure was.  The memory is staring to go.  You guys may need to take my car keys away soon.) At this point in the line, Hoth Leia’s absence from POTF2 was getting ridiculous.  It was clearly one of the highest priority figures.  We had an Ishi Tibb, and at the time I had NO idea where that character was in the movie.  We also had Ewok Village Leia, but no Hoth Leia.  It was the only “Original 96” main character that did not have a modern counterpoint to this point.

When Hoth Leia was finally, and at long last, announced, it was released as a Fan Club exclusive for the then outrageous price of $10.  Furthermore, you had to pay shipping which brought the price to over twice the going rate of $6 per figure.  I was outraged.  Having to pay a two-times premium to get the first version of a core character didn’t sit well with me at all. I almost felt like it was a violation, and I quit collecting (breifly).  Well, I quit buying.  I was still going to stores, and I was seeing things that would eventually end up being “rare”, such as the POTF2 Han Solo and Tauntaun and Mynock Hunt cinema scene.  Never, ever quit collecting, kids.  You will be back someday, and you’ll spend a fortune buying all the items you missed.

What added additional insult for me was the fact that you had to buy all four figures.  If you know my obsessions today, this is sort of crazy, but I had no idea who Pote Snitkin was at the time, and didn’t like being “forced” to buy a figure I didn’t care about.  My focus in the late nineties was completing the Original 96 Kenner figures.  Today, figures like Pote Snitkin are what float my boat.  If Hasbro announced an update to Snitkin at a cost of $30, I’d throw my wallet at them to buy three and feel as exhilarated as I would if I personally threw a Super Bowl winning touchdown (as long at the win did not come at the expense of the dreamy Tom Brady).  It’s wild for me to think about how my priorities have evolved after 26 years of collecting the modern line (with a few unfortunate pauses).

Some of you may be confused because you remember seeing the four previously mentioned figures at Toys R Us.  You are correct.  Presumably because of the ridiculous price, the “Fan Club Four” did not sell well. The extra stock ended up getting dumped at Toys R Us a year or two later.

As for the figure, it’s really not bad for the time, as mentioned above. The scaling and likeness are much better than a lot of other POTF2 Princess Leias.  For that reason it gets a 4 out of 10, which is one point higher than our base score for limited articulation figures.