Hasbro’s support of The Force Unleashed wasn’t limited to just simple action figures.  In 2008, the TAC line saw release of this Battle Rancor with Felucian Rider.  In the game, Starkiller was given a mission by Darth Vader to go to Felucia, a planet with which we already were familiar due to its brief appearance in Revenge of the Sith.  But here we got a much closer look at the place.  Starkiller’s mission was to find and eliminate Shaak Ti, who survived ROTS and Order 66, despite several aborted attempts by Lucas to off her in multiple canon sources.  Starkiller’s arrival was met with a planetary defense made up of the Force-sensitive natives and plants of Felucia.  The Felucian Warriors use the Force to help tame and control the rancors on the planet, and the pairings pose a dangerous threat to Starkiller.  Eventually, he fights his way through it all and faces off against Shaak Ti, and officially kills her.  Of course, that was the old canon.  In the new canon, one of her perviously non-canon death scenes was canonized.  Officially, Shaak Ti was killed by Darth Vader during his attack on the Jedi Temple at the onset of Order 66.  It’s all pretty wacky. 

The Felucian Rider/Warrior (depending on which piece of text on the box you believe), is a bizarre design, but generally pretty true to the video game character.  Their outlandish appearance works when you see how the crazy plant and animal life evolved on Felucia.  The figure has a wild headsculpt. At first glance it seems to be a mask, but it isn’t.  They have arms with two forearms that branch off; one thin with a tiny hand, and the other thick with a large webbed hand.  These warriors are skilled at using their boneskull weapons.  The figure is mostly super articulated, although it lacks a neck joint and ankles.  Still, the figure can be posed decently, and with some variety.  The coloring is very bright, and was generally toned down when the figure was repainted and included in the TFU figure pack 2 of 2.  For the record, these “jungle Felucians” were de-canonized in the purge (along with all of The Force Unleashed).  “Regular” Felucians, who looked like turtle people, were introduced in the Filoni The Clone Wars series.

The battle rancor, amazingly, was an all new sculpt at the time of this release set in 2008.  Obviously Hasbro had the intention of repainting it for re-release as Jabba’s pet, which they did in the TLC line about a year later (with a bit of new tooling).  But this was almost a “BMF” version of the creature when compared the the POTF2 version.  At the time, I probably didn’t think we needed an updated rancor, but once this came out, it was pretty clear that an awesome Jabba’s rancor was something we simply could not live without.  The sculpt is outstanding.  The head rotates and the jaws open.  The shoulders are sorta-kinda ball jointed. There are swivel joints for the forearms and the wrists. The hips are swivel, while the ankles are ball jointed.  This articulation gives you plenty of opportunity to pose the rancor.  He can be hunched forward, low to the ground, as he hunts for his prey, or he can stand pretty tall on his back legs.

Also included is a large saddle, which plugs into the separately-sculpted body harness.  The saddle has two foot pegs to accommodate the Felucian rider.  Reins can be gripped by the Felucian’s tiny hands, while large hooks connect to the rancor’s nostrils, giving the rider physical control, in addition to using the Force.  The saddle is a little loose, but overall, it has a great effect.  When the rancor and rider are grouped with other Felucian warriors, it makes a formidable display.

It’s a really nice set, and would likely have been impossible for Hasbro to pull off were it not for the fact that the rancor sculpt could be re-used for Jabba’s rancor.  The warpaint and saddle are a nice addition, and the figure interacts well with it.  If you’re a fan of the video game, or just fond of rancors, you should have this in your collection.