Bail Organa was one of the more confusing names in the saga, due to the whole Captain Antilles, Wedge Antilles, Bail Antilles, Bail Organa thing.  It was like Lucas was confusing himself in the process, and then just wrote it off that “Antilles” was a common name like “Smith.”  But then why make it worse by naming an Alderaanian senator Bail Antilles from Alderaan?  So Bail is common as a first name, too, apparently.  From Wookieepedia, “At some point following his political defeat to Palpatine, Antilles was succeeded by Bail Organa, his relative by marriage.”  Even better.  They’re related.  The shenanigans go way back to early scripts of the original Star Wars.  Wookieepedia explains it all.  But bottom line is that by the time the prequels were filmed, the character of Bail Antilles had his scene cut from TPM, and by AOTC, Jimmy Smits was cast as Leia’s father.  The names were altered slightly.  But this is something that shouldn’t happen in movies. It’s too confusing for the audience.  When I first heard Captain Panaka mention that Bail Antilles from Alderaan was nominated for Chancellor, I was thoroughly confused.  But whatever.  At least I knew that Palpatine was Palpatine the whole time!

Bail Organa has had a few figures released prior to this one.  One of them was his senate outfit (rather Nabooian, if you ask me) complete with a turtleneck shirt.  He was then released twice in an outfit that he sported near the end of ROTS, once with a plastic cape and once with soft goods. This is the first time he is wearing these duds.  He wore the full outfit when he and other senators met with the just-rescued Chancellor Palpatine, including a brief aside with Anakin.  Later, while on board the Sundered Heart (no, it wasn’t the Tantive IV, you terrible nerds!) and then again while with Breha and baby Leia, he wore the tunic that is represented underneath the figure’s robes.  You get a two-for here.

The figure has a decent sculpt.  The upper body is fully articulated, while the lower body lacks knees.  The lower part of the tunic is sculpted in somewhat soft plastic, including a slit, but none of this matters, as the lack of knees prohibits any meaningful movement.  He comes with a blaster (even though Alderaan is peaceful and has no weapons) which he can hold nicely in his hand.  Unfortunately, he doesn’t have a holster to place it, although this seems screen accurate.  The paint is simple, but includes some tiny insignia on the tunic collar.  The face is painted decently, although there are a few sloppy points.  Personally, I think the AOTC version has a better likeness to Jimmy Smits.  The soft goods coat is somewhat bulky, but still seems to be true to the look in the film.  There is a large plastic collar, which is also screen-accurate.  I believe that the mix of soft goods and plastic works pretty well here, so it was a good choice. 

This is another excellent example of Hasbro bringing us a relatively dull character into action figure form.  This is obviously not meant as a dig.  It’s part of the world-building.  Look at that dio shot in the the gallery with the large gathering of senators.  That’s the type of thing that will never happen in any other scale.  Hasbro did collectors one better by turning this figure into a two-fer, since he’s effectively able to be displayed wearing two different outfits.  You need this figure if you want to recreate the scene where Captain Antilles (sigh) is ordered to give Threepio a mind-wipe.

It’s a nice figure.  It could be improved with articulated knees, and a better face, and maybe a small holster (or just ditch the unnecessary blaster).  But I’d actually rather see a figure made of Bail Organa in the outfit he wore when he drove his car to the platform at the Jedi Temple and was confronted by the 501st clone troopers.  In fact, I want the car too.  Man, things used to be good!  There was a time not too long ago that this would be a completely feasible wish.  Anyway, I give this a decent 6. 

Build-A-Droid 

Bail Organa contains the right arm for MB-RA-7.  The droid seems to have been inspired by the original Kenner Death Star droid (actually 3B6-RA-7), but the name indicates that it is a specific Expanded Universe droid that served as an instructor during the final days of the Republic.  Source:  Legends.