And back to the thrill-a-minute rollercoaster ride that is our ROTS20 Retrospective!  Yep, it’s an ROTS review.  Here’s the clickah.  No one will blame you.  Seriously, my apologies, but I didn’t have time to do a full gallery of the next TVC figure from the recent wave, so we’re stuck with what we already had on deck.  The Neimoidian Commander!

This guy is a straight up Hasbro concept.  While we saw the Neimoidian warriors/guards/sentries on screen briefly in the Mustafar command center, this guy was seen in exactly zero frames of film.  I don’t believe he was even a thing in the EU - comics, video games, whatever.  As we’ve discussed, Hasbro was fast-tracking a bunch of repaints to fill the gap between the planned ROTS figure line and the subsequent TSC line.  The other figures we’ve reviewed up to this point were all variants of existing figures that were seen on screen in ROTS.  This one is the first that I believe was an intentional concept from Hasbro itself. 

While he was never seen anywhere in media, it does seem that he kinda fits.  He’s the same sculpt as his fellow soldiers, but he’s got distinctive ceremonial paint apps, along with the CIS insignia.  I’m kind of a sucker for the insignia thing, for some reason, so I thought it was a cool touch.  The problem isn’t the fact that it’s nowhere in the film.  The problems are the same as discussed in the ROTS 42 Neimoidian Warrior review.  He’s got relatively poor articulation and also sports the ubiquitous Leggy Squeezy action feature.  Also, the helmet falls off way too easily.

Most importantly, I just feel the figure is a strange design, and something about the block aesthetic seems particularly artificial in a way that doesn’t fit in the Star Wars universe.  Obviously Hasbro was using LFL designs as an inspiration, but the execution on the figure just falls short, and isn’t very fun.

Aside from the change in paint coloring, the other difference is the accessory.  While the basic warrior figure came with a huge and nonsensical spring loaded cannon, this figure’s included weapon is even more of a puzzle.  It comes with the main part of the staff that was first seen a few figures ago with the ROTS 56 Mustafar Sentry, but repainted and lacking the electro effect.  It’s almost like this guy showed up, and in order to assert is dominance, he killed a Mustafarian and claimed his weird stick.  Whatever.

I gave the basic warrior figure a 5/10.  I summed up the review with this:

I love that this figure exists, but I don’t like the figure itself.  That may not make any sense, but here we are.

In this case, I’m not sure I’m even remotely sure I’m happy this figure exists, and I still don’t like the figure itself.  Nevertheless, I’ll give it the same score.

5 stars
5/10 Banthaskulls