Wookiee Rage! 

10/10.

I’d leave it there, but my paycheck would be garnished by Old Man Chris.

The ROTS line was known for many things:  An almost overwhelming amount of releases; curved bubbles that require specialized NASA equipment to photograph; craptastic action features; and solid deep background characters.  But perhaps above all, it is remembered for ditching the classic figure name and subtitle/parenthetical in favor of a cartoonish big font exclamatory label on the bubble.  No single descriptor caught the collectors’ imagination more than “Wookiee Rage!”  I assume this was inspired by the “iconic” moment when Merumeru and a large contingent of rather large (compared to Chewbacca) Wookiee warriors jump up on the beaches of Kachirho and unleash battle cries aimed at the approaching Separatist droid forces.

Of course, Chewbacca wasn’t on the beach, and at no point during the Battle of Kashyyyk did he express “rage.”  But that’s a minor detail.  We all know that Chewbacca could rage with the best of them.  In fact, “Rage” was Chewbacca’s middle name:  Chewbacca Rage Yacht. 

The figure was cool because it was fun that Chewbacca was going to make an appearance in the prequels. He had a small part, most notably giving Yoda a playful piggyback ride, a bunch of noogies, and a raspberry on his little green belly button.

The figure is actually not a terrible Chewbacca sculpt for 2005.  He looks pretty good, and was passable for an OT Chewbacca if that’s what floated your boat.  He had 11POA, which was pretty solid for the day, although the knees weren’t particularly helpful, and the lower body articulation in general was useless.  The crossbow didn’t quite fit well in his trigger hand, but it could be posed nicely when supported in a two-handed weapon grip.  The strap was a giant hoop, and didn’t look right if Chewie held the weapon at any angle other than parallel to the ground.  It also didn’t work as a way to sling the weapon over his back. 

The defining feature of the figure is the ability to squeeze the legs together, with results in the arms and head going back in an attempt to howl into the air.  It actually works okay.  Unfortunately, the biggest problem for the figure standing there is that it leans forward awkwardly.  I suspect the center of gravity was designed to assist with the rage feature.  Of course, it can only be activated if you are holding it, so maybe that theory makes no sense.  Whatever the reason, you can see in the side angle images above that Chewie looks like he’s performing Michael Jackson’s anti-gravity lean from Smooth Criminal. 

HOW DID HE DO THAT?

It’s not the worst figure in the ROTS line, and was obviously designed with the action feature taking center stage.  The fact is that the VOTC Chewbacca was already in circulation, so that would have been your go-to at the time, probably even for an ROTS display.  Of course, that figure was one of the longest-lived in the history of he 3.75” line, seeing multiple releases and minor updates up through mid 2023. It is finally about to be retired(?) with the soon-to-be-shown figure that was pipelined about 38 years ago.

Anyway, this guy is fun, and has “Wookiee Rage!” on the package.  It gets a 5/10.