Ask Aak was a senator representing Malastare, home planet of both the Gran and the Dugs.  Aak became a Senator when he replaced his predecessor, Aks Moe, who appeared in TPM.  Aak was a member of the Loyalist Committee, which was set up by Palpatine as an advisory panel, and included Bail Organa and Padmé Amidala.  Committee members made multiple brief appearances in both AOTC and ROTS.  He’s a great deep backgrounder,  bringing back an OT alien species, and placing them in the days of the PT.  If there was a Gran in the ST, he probably had 4 eyes, just to make you mad.

The sculpt for Ask Aak is fantastic, with tremendous detail in the clothing.  The alien skin is also highly detailed, and the entire figure is painted beautifully.  It’s colorful, but not overly so, and seems pretty faithful to the on screen character.  Of special note are the painting highlights and details that provide tremendous depth to the figure.  The face sculpt is top notch, and the hands and feet are painted very well.  It’s an outstanding looking figure.

The articulation, of course, is limited.  The neck is the only ball jointed POA.  The shoulders, biceps, forearms, waist, hips, and feet are all swivel.  Interestingly, it’s the bicep and forearms that are articulated, not the elbows and wrists.  This seems to be an accommodation to the sleeve sculpting.  It doesn’t negatively affect the aesthetic, but the joints don’t give you much in the way of posability.  The lower body is slightly less articulated than most ROTS figures.  Instead of knees, it has ankle articulation, but of the almost useless side to side swivel variety.  You can get the figure to stand and hold his arms like his gesturing during a Senate speech, so that’s about the bare minimum we should expect.  He doesn’t do much else.

Oddly, he comes with a large rifle.  He can’t perform a THWG in the least but he can sling it over his shoulder.  It’s an odd accessory for a Senator, but Kenner/Hasbro always seemed to have a goal of making sure as many figures as possible included a deadly weapon.  You know, for the kids.  He also comes with the common “ship floor” base that definitely doesn’t connect to another base.

Overall, it’s a really nicely sculpted and detailed figure.  It lacks anything but the most rudimentary articulation.  The “He just stands there” crowd would be pleased, but someday we need to have that crew wiped out.  (All of them.)  Since we don’t live in a world where Hasbro has unlimited funds to remake every figure, this one will have to do.  It’s certainly not bad, and looks nice in a Senate diorama.

5 Stars.
6/10 Banthaskulls.