Leesub Sirln was first shown at SDCC ‘09.  If you took one look at the pink lady wearing something that a stewardess on Austin Powers’ private jumbo jet would wear and asked, “Who?” you’re a terrible nerd.

So there I was, pouring over the Hasbro SDCC ‘09 Star Wars images on the site “Super Hero Hype”, because that’s what you did in 2009 (apparently).  I saw this figure of a pink lady with bulbous head wearing a quasi-futuristic silver one-piece bathing suit and asked, “WHO?”  I consider myself a cantina obsessive, but I was at a loss.  To be clear, I was a different kind of obsessive back then.  I didn’t care about the behind-the-scenes, and those were the depths you’d have to plumb to become very familiar with Ms. Sirln.  I didn’t want to know about the behind-the-scene minutia then.  I only cared about what I could see on-screen.  The embarrassing part is that Leesub Sirln is definitely on-screen, albeit in the background, but it’s those backgrounders that stir our collector drinks.  She appears in one of the opening shots of the cantina, but primarily with her back to the camera in the vicinity of Cantina Dude.  She appears again over Kenobi’s right shoulder as Luke is bragging about his piloting awesomeness to Indiana Jones.  I’ve grown as a nerd over these past nine years, and by “grow”, I mean I’ve tripled my powers of obsession.  That means this is one of the figures that absolutely thrills me just for the fact that it exists.

Leesub Sirln from Topps Star Wars: Card Trader series

With respect to the figure, it does a wonderful job of packing a full 14 points of articulation into a dainty figure. Some of the joints are quite noticeable due to the exposed skin on the character, but there is little that can be done about that. It’s the price to be paid to have a dynamic action figure instead of a statue.  The figure can be posed in some aggressive shooting positions that, in context of the “sci-fi western” cantina, feel like Leesub is getting the jump on some scoundrel who she busted cheating at Sabacc.  The figure’s pistol can be stowed in its ankle holster, but in this case it’s not a satisfactory implementation of a working holster.  The blaster barrel merely rests inside the plastic loop and is never really seated securely in the holster.  Furthermore, the blaster is on the flimsy side.  Trying to secure it in the holster feels like you’re flirting with breakage.  It’s been a matter of debate in the hobby for years.  Which is worse:  breaking an accessory or losing it?  Of course there’s the tragedy of Darth Nomadscout the Wise who once lost the antenna from his Saga R5-D4 for a year, found it, and then broke the tip off doing his “found accessory” celebration dance.  A true tragedy.

This figure feels like a vintage Kenner throwback in a couple of ways.  First, it’s the relatively obscure sourcing.  When the Kenner line made the big jump up from 12 to 20 figures (TWENTY!), a prominent character like Grand Moff Tarkin was bypassed in favor of more visually compelling cantina folk like Hammer Head and Snaggletooth.  That’s part of what made the vintage line so fun and why we are thrilled to have a figure like Leesub Sirln today.  The second way it reminds me of the vintage line is a negative.  The facial paint applications on the vintage figures were little more than two dots for the pupils and two arcs for eyebrows.  That’s scarcely more than was done here on this figure.  The face is fairly vague.  If you look at the reference photo (inset left), Leesub’s face deserved much more vibrant paint applications. The plain rendering we have here is a disappointment.  This plus the “meh” holster compel me to grade this figure a 9 out of 10.

Credits

Carded sample on loan from the collection of Randy S

Notes

The “Cantina Dude” figure above is a custom which can be seen HERE.  You can read about the character in our Unrpoduced Character Guide (M.I.A.F.)

Build-A-Droid 

Leesub Sirln contains the left leg for the astromech R4-P44.  This droid could possibly be seen inside ARC-170 star fighters as part of Obi-Wan’s Fifth Fleet during the battles of Coruscant and Cato Nemoidia.  Source:  Revenge of the Sith.

Verdict: Re-issue [with Photo Real] (Medium priority) 

As with seemingly most of the 2009 Lecacy Collection lineup, this figure is simply inaccessible on the secondary market due to the prices it commands.  Finding one for under $50 would certainly qualify as “well bought.”  Due to the character’s minimal on-screen time, the re-issue priority isn’t as high as a figure like Hrchek Kal Fas, but it should still be re-released, and the great news is that using the modern Photo Real (aka FACE!) technology to give the figure a more lifelike facial expression would be a huge upgrade. And since we have a Vintage Collection mock up on hand:

Click for the full sized image.

Verdict Guide:
Re-sculpt = The figure is not definitive, and a new version should be developed.
Re-issue = This version is definitive (or close enough), and shows sufficient secondary market demand to warrant a straight repack.
No Action = This release does not require new attention.