The officially unnamed line that we all call “Saga” or “Blue Saga” represents a period of identity crisis for Hasbro Star Wars, particularly “phase 1.”  It didn’t know what it wanted to be.  It didn’t want to be tied to a specific piece of media; hence the namelessness.  It was a pan-Star Wars line which is why the fans nicknamed it the “saga.”  At this point, it was also struggling for direction.  Were the figures meant to be pre-posed, dynamic display pieces (sort of a 3.75” version of Unleashed) with artistic license taken for the sake of such dynamism?  Or were they supposed to be posable action figures equally capable of both neutral and dynamic poses while staying as true to their on-screen representations as possible?  During this period of time, many releases leaned toward the former and included forced action poses, reinterpreted aesthetics, and Unleashed-esque attachable action effects.  Here is where Djas Puhr finds himself.

This packaging was the official line look for the Attack of the Clones product, but, as mentioned above, the line included characters from throughout Star Wars.  Djas Puhr is sourced to Episode IV, and is perhaps the most overlooked cantina alien.  Appearing only briefly at the edge of the frame, I’m willing to bet most casual fans would be unable to identify the source for this figure.  The primary job of most cantina patron figures is to sit, which Djas Puhr can do, but it’s the silliest of knee-less sitting poses.  The legs are completely outstretched as if in some sort of abdominal exercise.  Since posing the figure in such a ridiculous seated position would serve to break the fantasy of your cantina display, you may be inclined to pose it standing, and therein lies one of the problems.  The legs are preposed in an action shooting stance.  When both feet are flat, the back foot is slightly to the rear and rotated toward the outside.  It’s not a very well balanced position, and if you to pose the figure with the arms forward in a shooting pose, you have to rotate the torso so that the center of gravity is over the forward foot.  It’s not the most natural looking pose.

Djas Puhr comes with blast effects that can be attached to the barrels of the included blasters.  As this is an optional display choice, there’s nothing wrong with it, and I might even say it looks neat.  If that’s not your thing, it’s fine as you can just remove them.  The blasters, however, are a piece of work, and I mean that in the most sarcastic Northeast way possible.  If I said they had the durability and rigidity of a cocktail stirrer, it would be an insult to cocktail stirrers.  The blasters have more in common with the elastic bands that hold them in place inside the bubble than they do with a true accessory.  They are also both tiny and float inside the figure’s hands.  The hand grips are so tenuous on the blasters that they easily rotate like a pair of dowsing rods. One saving grace to mitigate this extremely loose grip is the swivel wrist articulation, which wasn’t common in 2002.  If you’re having a problem posing the figure with the blaster pointing straight due to the fact that the blaster grips are freely rotating in the figure’s palms, you can rotate the wrists until gravity keeps them straight.  Not ideal, but at least it will stay that way long enough to snap a photo (and thank the maker for that).  The hands also have extended pinky fingers as if Djas Puhr is a tea sipping dandy.  This seems to be an arbitrary design choice made by Hasbro.  Why, I have no idea.

The reason the blasters are so tiny is likely because of the working holsters.  Hasbro seemed to have two avenues for executing a working 3.75” scale holster at this time.  One was the oversized “mailbox” holster with a normal sized blaster accessory, while the other was a normal sized holster with an undersized blaster.  Hasbro clearly went with the latter here, and it’s the right choice for a cantina patron.  For “set dressing” characters, such as cantina patrons, the design choices need to err on the side of being as inconspicuous as possible.  So the normal sized holsters were the right call.  Those holsters and accompanying belt are nicely executed as a separately sculpted piece which includes the lower portion of the tunic.  I don’t know if we’ve even seen this technique employed before, but it achieves nice depth and realism.  The problem is that the sculpted costume is not what Djas Puhr was actually wearing in the cantina.  The real costume was more of a dark gray vest over a white shirt:

(click for the full sized image)

My guess is that the figure’s costume is meant to represent the now Legends relegated status of Djas Puhr as a bounty hunter for Jabba the Hutt.  I’m not sure if there is an actual visual reference for these design choices, or if they are entirely Hasbro’s invention.  The myriad of problems means this figure scores a 4 out of 10.  If the aesthetic were closer to the Episode IV appearance, and the pose were more neutral, this easily would have scored a 5 or 6.  As much as I view this figure as a “miss”, I’m not eager to see Hasbro put resources toward updating it.  It’s too low of a priority character considering there are more visible cantina patrons who have never received a figure at all, such as Puhr’s table-mate, Lirin Car’n.