Picture the scene.  It’s somewhere on a New England schoolyard during recess in 1979.  Still in the first grade there was no nerdish stigma surrounding Star Wars talk.  The rumor was loosed.  The Boba Fett figure offer sticker could be peeled off the back of the card to reveal the legendary rocket firing Boba Fett.  Immediately upon getting home that day I was amazed to find out the rumor was true.  An already mysterious character who intentionally oozed a Clint Eastwood mystique became even more intriguing.  I contend that the legend of the action figure plays heavily into the seemingly undeserved fan favorite status of Boba Fett.  It’s that status that makes the 6” Black Series Fett one of the most in-demand figures in the early lineup. 

The figure itself is equal parts elation and disappointment.  Every other site with photo reviews was able to critique this figure before the 2013 San Diego Comic Con when Hunter PR mailed samples to them.  Apparently Hunter lost our mailing address.  In case you are wondering, yes, feeling were hurt.  Because this figure has already been thoroughly reviewed on the web, I’m not going to focus on the positives.  I feel they are readily apparent from the pictures.  It’s a well detailed Fett with scores of articulation.  If you are willing to collect this scale, it’s a figure you need to own.  Period.

But it’s not going to earn top marks form me.  The sculpt works to hinder the articulation in many areas.  The armor components limit the range of motion at the elbows and shoulders.  Something that is starting to drive me mad with figures that are intended to interact with a long rifle is that almost none of them can achieve the most important pose you would want, and this figure is no exception.  There is no way to pose this figure with the shoulder stock of the rifle against the figure’s shoulder with the head looking down the site.  Truth be told I’m not sure if any figure at any scale or price point has achieved this pose through articulation.  Typically if this pose is achieved, it’s through pre-posed arms.

The holster gets in the way of the hip articulation which doesn’t have great range to begin with.  The ankles do not rotate upward far enough to enable some partial crouch poses.  But the rocker ankles do open up otherwise unachievable poses with tradition articulation.  My last signification gripe is in the silver paint added to the helmet to simulate wear.  It looks as if it was applied by a dot matrix printer.  I’m not kidding.  Take a look at the close-ups. 

I’m not going to give this figure a gushing score of a 9 or 10.  But I can’t bring myself to lower the score to a seven.  So a B grade it is.  8 out of 10.  But enough talk about this figure.  Lets get back to some late seventies reminiscing.  Schoolyard rumors rarely came true like the rumor of the kid who played Mikey in the Life cereal commercials dying when he ate Pop Rocks while drinking Coke and his stomach exploded.  So when the sticker pealed away, it was quite an exciting moment.  Truthfully, the Fett rumor was only half true as it followed that some kid in Sheboygan got a rocket firing Fett in the mail and promptly choked to death on the missile leading to it being banned.  The only fully true recess rumors to date are that if you play Spy Hunter long enough, your car will turn into a boat and famously that if you stick your tongue to a metal flagpole in winter, it will stick.  Well, that’s all I’m going to say about poor Flick.

8/10 Bantha Skulls