The Battle of Kashyyyk was something that most long-time fans of Star Wars were looking forward to with almost as much anticipation as the lava duel between Obi-Wan and Anakin.  There were behind the scenes info and rumors that Lucas wanted the climactic battle of the OT to feature Wookiees.  As I thought I had known, this was abandoned because the budget and/or effects capabilities prevented it from matching Lucas’s vision.  According to Wookieepedia, it is because he wanted a primitive race to help overthrow the mighty Empire, but canon had established that Wookiees were technologically advanced.  Whatever the actual reason, fans always wanted to see the Mighty Chewbacca and his people go to battle and start ripping stormtroopers’ arms out of their sockets.  Alas, we got teddy bears instead. 

We were teased by the trailers with the shot of Merumeru and his unit of ferocious Wookiees making their battle cry on the beach.  When it finally came to see the battle, we got about 13 seconds worth, and it was mostly Wookiees flying around in helicopters.  Whatever.

Nevertheless, I was eager to recreate the battle I saw in my mind’s eye with a bunch of figures.  There was a sneak preview Wookiee Warrior first, followed by Chewbacca and Tarfful.  Then we got this figure, numbered 43 in the mainline.  At the time it seemed pretty awesome.  Like Tarfful and the preview figure, it’s pretty massive and impressive looking.  It does include an action feature where you squeeze the legs and it swivels at the waist.  Like many of the ROTS figures that came later in the line, the feature is fairly well hidden, as it’s not immediately obvious it exists - which is a good thing.  But it does inhibit the usefulness of some of the articulation - which is a bad thing.  It has a swivel head which is barely movable due to the sculpt, ball jointed shoulders, and swivel elbows, wrists, waist, hips, and…knees.  The knees are swivels, but in the twisting to the left and right weird way, not the flexing back and forward as you might think.  As such, posing it is kind of a nightmare, but you can manage some two handed weapon grips with some patience.  Also, the figure is sculpted into some type of slight lunging pose, which is annoying.  The lack of meaningful articulation is supremely frustrating.

Wookiee Warrior has a double bandolier which is probably removable, but I made no effort to try due to the near certainty that I would break it in the process.  It comes with a two-part bowcaster plus a projectile, a small blaster, and a long thin shield.  I think this is more of a weapon than a shield due to the slender shape.  It doesn’t seem like it’s particularly protective.  It’s difficult, but still possible, to get the Wookiee to grip the bowcaster, while it’s easier to hold the blaster or the shield. 

This is the fifth (and final) figure in the ROTS line to have a running change.  The darker version was first, and was replaced by the light/tan/blonde version (whichever term you prefer, no judgment).  I picked up a few of each back in the day.  It looks pretty cool in the background, and the color variants plus the 3 different accessories allow for some nice variations in your display.  I’d love an update to the Wookiee Warrior at some point, but it’s pretty low on my list.

5 Stars.
5/10 Banthaskull.