Original Review by Chris 8/30/2014

Credit:  Carded sample on loan from the collection of Randy S.

If you don’t love this figure, get out.  Get out right now.  We don’t serve your kind here.  I don’t even know what Myo is.  He’s some sort of cycloptic reptilian ape man.  He has a monstrous appearance, but looks like a nonthreatening Muppets monster.  He’s barely on screen, breifly visible in profile at the table with Muftak, Lirin Car’n and Djas Puhr, and then later in reaction to the Greedo crisping. But for some of us, obscure cantina aliens are at the core of Star Wars toy DNA.  The Kenner toy line did not become a cultural phenomenon because of Luke and Ben and Han.  It was because of Walrus Man, Snaggletooth, Klaatu and Yak Face.

The detailing on the figure is great.  I’m not sure that the colors used on the head are screen accurate. Considering how minuscule that screen time is, I don’t know that a definitive determination can be made either.  I suspect that the color scheme matches the aged prop as it looked the day the figure was made instead of the day it was filmed.  The lighter colors on the head don’t appear to match the actual mask.  The sculpt, however, is wonderful, capturing the cragginess and pitting of the prop in amazing detail.  Even the individual teeth are sculpted and painted.  At this scale, that’s just insane for something that wasn’t seen that well on-screen.  The hands are equally as elaborate with individually sculpted reptilian scales and light and dark paint applications to bring out the details.  I can tolerate imperfections as long as I sense a degree of care.  This figure screams care throughout the process.

The arm articulation is dated with swivels at all three joints.  However the figure can hoist a tankard of sci-fi ale, which is a bare minimum requirement for a cantina patron.  The sculpt has the desired neutral pose and is perfectly proportioned. 
It seems neither too thin, nor POTF2 huge.  I suspect that if this figure were done today, the legs would be spindly. Once again we have a rarity of a figure that lacks ankle articulation, but can still balance unassisted with the knees engaged.  If Hasbro is going to reduce articulation as threatened, they need to look at how the feet on these POTC cantina patrons were sculpted so that the figure can still balance when the foot is not flat to the surface.  The figure also features an unobtrusive working holster.  Hasbro still hadn’t fully figured out how to make a realistic working holster at this scale, but rather than sculpt a monstrously sized receptacle for the weapon, the blaster was drastically scaled down.  This is the tiniest BlasTech SE-14C blaster in the history of the line.  It’s by far the lesser of two evils, however.

I’m what I call a “get-a-lifer” as a collector.  I go to at least one store a day, every weekday.  When something precludes me from doing so, I feel like Rain Main when he misses Judge Wapner.  Despite this, Myo is one of the very few figures that I have never found in a store.  Given the minimal prominence of Myo in the cantina, that limited availability certainly seems justified.  You could easily skip this figure in your display since many are not even aware of where Myo appears.  But you’re doomed.  You’re a collector.  Every second you don’t have this wonderful figure in your cantina display is a constant irritation like a wedgie in a social situation where picking is impossible.  Despite not being super articulated, the total package of this figure is outstanding.  Earning a solid 8 out of 10 is a remarkable feat for a nine year old figure.

Updated Review by Chris 5/17/2020

Wow. My original reviews are fairly outstanding.  I should get a Pulitzer or something.  If not a Pulitzer, maybe a piece of cake.  My love for this figure has not diminished at all, but the score does need to be lowered to a 7 to reflect our updated grading scale.  Perhaps the biggest fault with the original review is that I downplay Myo’s screen time in the cantina.  He’s featured in one of the two reaction shots to blaster play between Han and Greedo.  That actually qualifies him as “prominent” when it comes to cantina characters.  Few get that kind of framing in a fixed camera shot.  I need to confess that I didn’t have the reaction shot noted in the original review, and added it at this time.  That Pulitzer is slipping away, isn’t it?  I hope the piece of cake is still on the table. [Editor’s Note:  It isn’t]

Whether or not a dated figure should be released in the Vintage Collection is currently a point of debate.  There is no rule for that decision.  It’s about like “reasonableness” standards in law speak, which makes me very nervous.  It’s as arbitrary and nebulous as a thing can get.  Let me just say that I know that it would have been wrong to release the 30th Anniversary Darth Revan in the Vintage Collection.  Likewise, I know it would be okay to release this Myo figure in TVC even though both figures have equally dated articulation.  It has to do with the quintessence of the nature of the characters.