Original Review by Chris in 2014

This has no impact on the figure, but it’s worth noting.  This is the only unnamed line since Star Wars figures returned from hiatus in 1995.  It was used to usher in Episode II, but unlike the other two episodes, Attack of the Clones did not get a dedicated action figure line.  Soon after the launch, figures from the entire Saga were being introduced to the line, and for that reason fans adorned it with the moniker “The Saga Collection”.  Hasbro would ultimately use that name for the 2006 collection, so the blue card era, which spans three years, has become commonly know as the Star Wars “Saga” line to avoid confusion with the later offering. 

By 2001 Hasbro had started to figure things out.  The disproportional early POTF2 figures were long gone and properly scaled naturally posed figures were largely the standard for the Power of the Jedi line.  Then in 2002, Hasbro took a hard right turn into a brick wall for some reason.  Dramatic dynamic poses crept back into the line, but without the articulation to undo that pre-posing.  Some figures employed the collector dreaded action features which sometimes greatly impacted the aesthetic of the figure.  Fortunately this Boba Fett was spared the action features.  The last novelty this line introduced was blaster effects for either a laser bolt exiting the muzzle of a weapon or being deflected off a lightsaber.  As these effects could be removed, they were a positive, but they seem to be the baby thrown out with the bath water when Hasbro fully returned to its senses by 2004.

This Boba Fett figure is likely the only prequel era Boba Fett figure we will ever see.  Despite being fairly inferior to current figures, not many collectors will be crying in their Cheerios over this as hardly anyone is pining for a “baby Boba” in their collection.  The figure is saddled with a dramatic and wide leg stance.  In order to have the figure stand flat footed, the right foot needs to be positioned forward as if young Boba is stepping forward into the action.  In the movie, Boba Fett is mostly a spectator save for that one time he tried to incinerate Obi-Wan Kenobi.  So this dramatic sculpt does not work well for recreating any of the movie scenes unless he gut punched Taun We when she rang the Fett family doorbell and I missed it.  He was a little bit of a jerk, so maybe he did this “just off camera”.  This action oriented pose does work well when donning Jango Fett’s helmet and jet pack, but that’s something we never see young Master Fett do on film. 

The figure comes packed with the twin Jango Fett blasters which are secured to the figure’s hands with clear plastic bands.  Out of package the need for this fastening becomes readily apparent.  The figure’s left hand is sculpted in a wide open grasp which could never hold a blaster without assistance.  This is a shame because if we’re forced into an action stance, a double fisted draw down would have been a decent pose. The right arm has a extra point of articulation in the form of an upper arm swivel.  This seems completely arbitrary and I can’t figure out why this seemingly random joint was added.  The arm has a posed ninety degree bend to it. So the only purpose of this articulation seems to be for young Boba to thumb a ride to Geonosis.  The only thing I can figure is that this articulation was added so that Boba could hold his father’s severed head (you know, for kids), but if true, it’s a pretty weak approximation of that pose.  The figure sports the aforementioned blaster effects which can double as exhaust flames on the jet pack.  This is a nifty reuse of am accessory.

The other accessories are a plastic poncho and Jango’s helmet and jet pack.  The figure interacts well with all three.  I’m not a fan of plastic capes, etc., but Hasbro did a good job sculpting dynamism into the poncho which works well for the rain and wind swept Kamino landing pad.  When wearing the helmet and jet pack, the action pose of the figure actually works.  The figure looks like it is ready to take flight.  I have to admit that if I were a kid, I’d really like the play options the accessories give me.  As frustrated as I would have been by the left hand that can not hold the blaster, I would have gotten a kick out of the helmet and jet pack.  Absent of these accessories, the figure is at best a 2, but they compel me to give it a slight upgrade to a 3.

Updated review by Bret

As Chris pointed out back in 2014, it’s a shame this will likely be our only AOTC Boba Fett figure.  I’m not a huge Cheerios fan, so I’ll shed my tears in a bowl of Crispix.  Young Boba Fett had a reasonably prominent role in Filoni’s The Clone Wars.  As such, Hasbro released a supporting product in the Rise of Boba Fett Ultimate Battle Pack.  While I railed on about the shortcomings of the Slave I in that old review, the set goes for quite the mint on the secondary market these days.  Not being a collector of the cartoony cartoon Clone Wars figures, I got rid of the ones that came in that set, including Baby Boba.  But you can see (maybe) from the (terrible) images that the TCW Boba Fett is an outstanding action figure, suffering (in my view) only from the animated sculpting.  With a realistic sculpt, that figure is a winner.

But we are left with this woefully articulated, pre-posed version of Boba Fett, which is a shame.  It’s awkward in almost any film-inspired display, except for maybe running across the rain-soaked platform on Kamino, and up the ramp of the ship.  Any other attempt at a pose is awkward.  He does fit into the cockpit fo the ship, but that’s were we really need the Boba Fett (Jerk) version of the figure.

The accessories are what gives this figure some value.  As Chris discussed, they generally interact well with the figure (the hands don’t grip both blasters well), and the dual-purpose blast effects were a nice touch.  You get some good value out of the figure when you look at it as a total package, but standalone, it’s pretty terrible and we really need a new one.

We’ll adjust the original grade to a 4, based on our current grading scale.  The figure is pretty poor, even for a 5POA-ish effort, but gets credit for the accessories.