In a line that was thoroughly terrible, here is one of the few gems in the Black Series.  It ended up being the 20th and final figure in the blue phase II part of the line.  So it represents the final figure(s) to be released to date before the dark times - before Walmart.  Fortunately, the story doesn’t end on that tragic note, as the Vintage Collection is returning any minute now.  Hooray!

Hey R2, look out!  Beep-Boop-Beep!  Neeboo Jawa! Neeboo neeboo!  Blammo!

When I was a kid, that was my film accurate action figure re-enactment of that time the Jawas ambushed R2.  I’m not sure who told R2 to look out, but I guess I was narrating for anyone that might have been listening. Inexplicably, rather than saying “utinni” when I was playing with my Jawa action figure, I somehow attributed “neeboo” as legit jawaese, and was the only thing the figure ever say.  Whatever.  Kids are ridiculous, which is why I don’t have one.  In retrospect, though, it did make me feel prescient when TPM came out and we were introduced to the planet Naboo.  I feel that Lucas chose this name as a homage to my kid-dom. 

I’ve been partial to jawas ever since I was a wee lad.  No idea why, really.  I remember it being one of my favorite figures, and I played with it so much that the robe was completely worn through in several places, kind of like a kid would rip the knees on a pair of jeans.  I turned that fabric robe into a real shmata long before shmatas became cool.  Also, my parents bought me a second one at some point, and then a third.  I remember that one was completely robeless, another had the robe severely worn, while the third was in good shape.  Having 3 of the same figure was insane.  I had a second stormtrooper, and a second Death Squad Commander.  But 3 jawas was a veritable army.  I was proud of it, and today, my affinity for jawas manifests itself in my avatars across various platforms.  Even my fantasy football team is called the Tatooine Filthy Jawas.

So how about the figures?  Well, they’re damn good, and as I said, better than most figures in the Black Series line.  The two-pack also comes across as a great value in a penny pinching era for the line.  The figures are different from each other, which is awesome.  The sculpts are tremendous.  The plastic sculpted robes look great, and look very natural, including some excellent textures.  The tattered sleeves give a sense of filthiness.  The paint applications are very simple, but are fairly effective, especially in the eyes.  Each jawa comes with a separately sculpted cross-body bandolier/harness, but I opted not to bother trying to remove them.  Each Jawa comes with two guns:  a pistol and an ion blaster.  The jawas are able to grip each weapon (while missing the separate trigger finger), but one has a large holster for an ion blaster, while the other has a small holster for the pistol.  The jawas have ball jointed heads, but movement is limited by the sculpted hoods.  The arms are super-articulated.  Each figure has a waist as well, but below the waist there is no articulation, as Hasbro opted for something resembling the salt-shaker approach.  This actually works pretty well here and I have no complaints about the less-than-fully-super-articulated figures here.

These really are terrific figures, and a quality 2-pack, to boot.  Many of us are looking for Hasbro to release a vintage-style, full soft-goods robe/hood outfit.  This seems unlikely, and I’m not sure it would work as well as this set, but it would be cool for the nostalgia.  Whatever happens, I wouldn’t mind if Hasbro released these figures, or frankly, just one of them, on a TVC cardback.  Also, once we’re done with the Sail Barge campaign, I wouldn’t mind seeing Hasbro offer up an appropriately scaled sandcrawler, with fully sculpted interior compartments, working tank treads, and remote control with lights and sounds.  Oh, and this should be offered for no more than $79.99 and ship worldwide, with a campaign goal of 10 units.

I digress.  This is a great set, and I believe are the best jawas to date, even with limited articulation.  8.  Utinni!

[Editor’s note 3/26/19: With Hasbro’s newly revealed offerings of carded TVC figures within the packaging of other sets (Han and Ree-Yees inside the Jabba’s Palace Adventure Set; Yak Face inside the Khetanna), perhaps an option for Hasbro would be to re-release this figure with a soft goods cloak, and put it inside, say a newly scaled Sandcrawler.]