When Disney stated they were working on standalone films, one of the most compelling stories that was kicked around was You Needa ‘Pologize: A Star Wars Story.  It was to chronicle the time when a very young Lorth Needa crashed his Big Wheel into his neighbor’s parked car and scratched the paint.  Lorth blamed it on his brother, Kevin, who was severely punished and then tragically died of a broken neck when he tripped on Lorth’s Treadwell droid on his way to his room.  A guilt-ridden Lorth finally admitted the truth to his parents who told him he’d get nowhere in life without integrity and to always own up to his actions and apologize for his mistakes.  They told him that when he grew up and got a job, his bosses would respect him for it and his reputation and career would benefit.  A post credits scene would have fast-forwarded to the incident following the Battle of Hoth.  He gave up his life, but the apology was accepted, so he was very correct to do what he did.  If successful at the box office, a potential sequel was discussed which would have focused on the two Imperial Navy Troopers who dragged his corpse away from Vader.

Captain Lorth Needa is, of course, one of the many Imperial officers with memorable speaking lines, and as such, his figure was a welcome addition to the line in 2008.  These officers are certainly not the most exciting or dynamic of action figures, but they are important keys to the Star Wars tale told via 3.75” scale toys.  Needa was a character that I had wanted Hasbro to make for a while, and I was very glad when he was announced.  Imperial officers have been a struggle for Hasbro to nail down.  Over the years, they either had poor sculpts (Commtech Admiral Motti), poor articulation (none of the “Briefing” figures can sit), incorrect rank badges (“Captain” Piett had an admiral’s rank), or poor coloring (VC98 Tarkin).  There have been a lot of officers made over the years, but there is very little consistency to them, particularly among the coloring of the “grey” uniformed officers.  There’s dispute as to what color these costumes actually are, in the vein of the classic Han Solo Blue/Brown Hoth jacket debate.  Just look at that lineup of officers in the image above.  Hasbro certainly tried to hit every possible tone that the eye might see when watching across the trilogy.

As a figure, Needa isn’t terrible, but it is a far cry from great, at least by 2019 standards.  He is superarticulated, so that’s a huge plus.  But the body sculpt isn’t executed all that well (he’s got an unfortunate lean), and the articulation points are either too bulky (like the bulbous knees), or are badly restricted by the hard plastic lower tunic, or “skirt.”  On this point, perhaps the most important drawback is that Needa cannot replicate grabbing his throat as he succumbs to Vader’s Force Choke.  Basically, the figure needs to do one thing, and it cannot.

The face isn’t all that bad.  It has a passing resemblance to the actor in the film, but it could be done better today.  The paint apps are fine, as it’s not too hard to mess up a simply decorated figure like this.  But it does suffer from the mis-matched ankle syndrome, as the grey joints are obvious and stand out from the black boots.  The figure also suffers a bit (as do almost all of the officer figures over the years) from a too-wide stance.  It’s difficult, if not impossible, to get a neutral stance out of any of these figures.  Needa comes with two accessories.  One is a standard imperial blaster, which he can grip well enough.  The other is a removable officer’s cap. It’s actually done very well, as it sits firmly on Needa’s head and doesn’t fall off easily.  You actually have to make a concerted effort to remove it.  Some TVC figures, like the Gamorrean Guard, could have benefited from headgear engineered to fit this well.

One feature that was introduced with this figure is the separately sculpted rank badge.  Hasbro seems to have struggled on occasion trying to get the ranks correct for each officer, but this would allow them to reuse the same torso, but glue in the proper rank badge.  It’s a bit bulkier than it should be, but if it were to allow Hasbro to pump out more officers due to cost efficiency, I’d be all for it.  However, it seems this was the only grey-clad officer to receive this treatment. The same sculpt, with a new rank badge, was repainted twice as black-clad imperial officers, first in the TVC Death Star Scanning Crew set and then again in the Black Series battle pack, Battle on Endor.  Other than that, it seems Hasbro didn’t get a lot of mileage out of this feature. 

This is a good figure of a tertiary character, and nice to have as fodder for your Imperial dioramas.  I’m glad we have it.  It could certainly be better, and I wish Hasbro could come up with a definitive Imperial Officer sculpt, but until then, this will suffice.  I’ll give it a 6 out of 10.  The limited articulation and inability of the figure to replicate the choking motion really hurt it.  I’m recommending that Hasbro redo this figure, but not necessarily specifically Needa.  Hasbro should work on the general Imperial officer sculpt.  A new sculpt is a priority.  Again, not because of Needa per se, but definitely for the desperately needed Piett.  It would be great if we could get some modern love directed this way, and finally give collectors a consistent sculpt for the high ranking Imperials.

Build-A-Droid 

Captain Needa contains the left leg for U-3PO, who was on board the Tantive IV as it was attacked by Darth Vader’s Star Destroyer.  Source:  A New Hope.