Admiral Ozzel was a bit of a putz, and that irritates.  Not the fact that he was a putz.  That’s fine.  He proved useful to demonstrate that Vader was off the leash in the new post-Tarkin Star Wars universe.  Admiral Motti should be thankful he blew up on the Death Star because you know Vader would be gunning for him now that Tarkin isn’t in the picture to protect him.  No, the reason it irritates me is that his name is Ozzel, and that lends itself to all sorts of cool nickames.  Oz.  Wizard of Oz.  Blizzard of Oz.  Ozymandias.  Putz characters need putz names.  He should have been Admiral Crumdingle.

This figure is purpose built to recreate the scene where Vader Force Chokes Ozzel for choosing surprise over stealth.  The left hand reaches up to grab the Admiral’s neck as he’s telekinetically strangled. This is actually facilitated via the dreaded swivel elbows.  The sharp angle of the cut allows the elbow to “bend” well past forty five degrees.  No manner of modern ball-jointery would accommodate this.  It also facilitates a rudimentary two-handed-weapon-grip (THWG). It’s not a shooting pose, but the figure can hold the included E-11 blaster across its body.  The downside is that neutral poses are nearly impossible.  When not placed in either of the two aforementioned poses, the left arm looks like it’s doing something silly.  It’s almost like Ozzel is doing a Paul Lynde impersonation.

Another issue with the figure is the sculpt of the fabric.  This was an overcorrection from the Power of the Force “2” (POTF2) days where fabric details were an afterthought, and all the clothes were sculpted like spandex jumpsuits.  There’s a series of random crossing lines sculpted on to the uniform.  This is presumably to simulate a coarse woolen military uniform.  It doesn’t work.  The end result looks more like pachyderm skin. Side bar:  I feel like “pachyderm skin” is redundant, but since “pachydermatic” isn’t a word, and “pachydermatous” is a medical condition, I didn’t know what to do.  Back on subject, I don’t like it, and never have.  This isn’t a hindsight thing.  I thought it looked odd in 2004.

Despite its faults, it’s amazing that this figure even exists.  Ozzel is highly memorable for being the first Imperial murdered by Vader, but he’s only on screen for around a minute, and he’s dead before the 24 minute mark of The Empire Strikes Back, but we can imagine a deeper back story.  He failed Vader for the last time when he came out of hyperspace too early.  Vader is too important to make lame jokes, so it surely wasn’t also the first time.  Ozzel was clearly clutzing around before the events of Empire.  It’s great that the 3.75” scale brought us a minor yet memorable character like this.  Because of the extra articulation that provides the “choking” pose, this figure gets a 5 out or 10, but an update would be appreciated.

Finally, I can’t believe I haven’t reviewed the CommTech Admiral Motti yet.  Guess which review you all are getting next Sunday.  Maybe.