Editor’s Note:  This review has been updated (again) due to the release of the 2022 Fan Channel figure with the updated headsculpt and PhotoReal application…

Original Review:  Chris - 7/20/2012 1:54 AM

All I know about Shae Vizla comes from the Old Republic trailers I’ve seen online.  In those short clips, she seems pretty damned cool.  She’s a female bounty hunter who flies around with a jet pack and sports twin flame throwers.  Honestly, what’s not to like?  With the figure, there is likewise not a lot to complain about.  The negatives I can come up with are not significant.  The waist on the figure is impossibly thin.  So much so that Hasbro must be convinced that Shae Vizla is related to Han Solo.  When the flame effects are inserted into the flame thrower nozzles, the figure is difficult to stand as it constantly wants to tip in the direction they are pointing.  A certain agitator over at Jedi Temple Archives named Paul commented on the potty mouths over here.  Well he would have loved the tapestry of cuss words that was weaved as I’d repeatedly pose the figure and then look through the camera’s view finder only to find the figure toppled over.  Plus it was 98 degrees with 102% humidity when I was taking these pictures.  I was sweating more than a wire puller on the equator.  I eventually had to strip to my underwear to keep cool.  So the pictures you’ve just looked at were taken by a half naked man.  And now you have that to deal with. 

Okay, so I’m indulging my desire to be silly instead of talking about the figure. Aside from those minor negatives, the figure is just cool.  If Hasbro ever goes back to selling individual figures at brick and mortar retail stores, I’ll definitely get a second to display with the alternate head.  AND HASBRO FINALLY LISTENED.  A removable helmet would have been disastrous on this figure.  We’ve been asking for swappable heads instead of removable helmets ever since the oversized bucket on the Evolutions Star Corps clone.  They delivered and it’s great.  The articulation is all there.  It’s a great figure.  If Halley’s Comet comes around and this figure shows up in a store, buy it!  9 out of 10 with the deduction coming from the toppling issue.

Oh and since alternate heads are clearly in the budget, how ‘bout throwing them in with non-helmeted army builders?

Updated Review #1:  Bret - 9/18/2018 07:05 AM

After the recently reviewed Darth Malgus, this is Hasbro’s second figure sourced from Star Wars: The Old Republic MMORPG.  Shae Vizla started out in the storyline as a fierce bounty hunter, whose skills were formidable enough to earn the respect of Malgus, who enlisted her to assist him during some of his campaigns.  Shae eventually was chosen to be protector of her people, and took on the mantle of Mandalore the Avenger.  If you were wondering, there seems to be no connection between her Vizla clan from over 3600 years BBY, and the Clone Wars-era Vizsla clan depicted in the animated series. 

The figure itself, is pretty awesome.  At first glance, it’s an ancient Mandalorian bounty hunter-warrior, so what could be bad?  The answer is:  not much.  The figure has an outstanding amount of articulation, although as usual, for a character this dynamic, ball-jointed hips should be included.  The armor is impressively sculpted, detailed, and painted.  It’s one of the more complex looking sculpts Hasbro has made, but it was executed almost perfectly.  Her waist, as Chris mentioned, is perhaps a bit unnaturally narrow, which may have been an attempt at a sexier sculpt, but it is a bit off putting.  The articulation points all have a pretty nice range of motion, allowing for some excellent posability.  My only real complaint with the figure, and it’s not a small one, is that face sculpt.  Now, it could be excused that it doesn’t look much like the character’s artwork.  Perhaps it looks a little more like the actual gameplay version, but in the end, she’s just…not attractive.  This is the opposite of how she is depicted, especially in the artwork and cutscenes.  In fact, the face on this figure is flat out hideous.  Bad job, Hasbro, bad job!

Um, the figure’s face looks nothing like this.

But if you get past the face, the rest of the figure is outstanding, especially the accessories, which make it an incredible value.  You get two nicely painted blaster pistols, which Shae grips fairly well, and can be stowed away in her belt straps.  She comes with two fireball blasts which interact with her flamethrower gauntlets.  This just reminds us of how poor recent offerings have been, as such a fiery effect should have been a no brainer for the First Order Flametrooper figures.  Even though they were only 5POA, they would have been a lot more appealing with this accessory.  And Hasbro had not ONE, not TWO, but THREE shots to get that right.  But I digress.  In addition to the flames and pistols, Shae also comes with a removable backpack and hose connector, which adds to the display options.  And finally, a standing ovation for the inclusion of alternate heads.  You get the regular head with the long red hair, and you get the helmeted portrait.  Chris has been beating the drum for Hasbro to ditch the removable helmets and replace them with alternate head sculpts.  Without such an option, this figure would simply not be possible, given Shae’s hairstyle.  The helmet actually looks a little like Ant-Man’s to me, but maybe I just wish we had a Paul Rudd Star Wars figure.

I didn’t have too much trouble posing the figure with the fiery effects, although I cheated by having her lean back as if she’s hovering.  Standing fully upright would be a bit of a challenge.  Otherwise, this figure is tremendous.  Even though it could be upgraded with better hip and wrist articulation, along with a prettier head sculpt, these negatives aren’t enough to change the score from a 9.  It’s an outstanding figure, that everyone should own.  We’re calling this the definitive Shae Vizla.  It’s a figure that would likely never get made in today’s environment, especially considering we never got an Iden Versio from BF2, especially knowing how much hype came with that release.

This is a definitive figure, and it was hard to find.  Ebay prices for unpunched carded samples have recently gone for well over $100, and asking prices on current auctions are absurd.  Loose samples can still go for almost $100.  But due to the somewhat obscure nature of the source material (My opinion is that KOTOR was a MUCH bigger fan favorite game than TOR) and the fact that the character and source are no longer canon, it would seem that we shouldn’t want to take up a rare TVC slot on this figure.  However, Hasbro certainly did announce plans to release the under-articulated TAC Darth Revan as a straight repack, so anything is possible.  Maybe it wouldn’t be a terrible thing for Hasbro to have offered an exclusive “greatest hits” video game multi-pack, to include popular figures from across the spectrum.  Revan, HK-47, TFU Shaak Ti, Shae Vizla, and maybe that BAD DarkTrooper would have made a nice multi-pack, instead of re-issuing the old Revan in the main line.  Whatever, Hasbro.  WHATEVER!

[Editor’s Note]: Score for the 2012 figure has been reduced to 7/10 based on current (2022) figure quality.

Updated Review #2:  Bret - 8/09/2022 07:05 AM

A lot has changed in the 4 years since we did our second take on this TVC figure back in September of 2018, and it occasionally amuses me to re-read our reviews as time passes.  First of all, the general quality of TVC figures has advanced by orders of magnitude over this time period.  Both Chris (in 2012) and I (in 2018), praised the awesomeness of this figure.  There is no doubt that it holds up decently today and is certainly still worthy of display.  But it benefits from being from a relatively obscure, and no longer canon, source material.  If it were redesigned today, it would be tremendous.  In my 2018 review, I said that while the figure could be improved, or even just straight up re-released due to secondary market demand, it would be a shame to do so at the expense of a valuable main line slot.  Well, Hasbro has adjusted course a bit, and we are getting Shae Vizla (and other repacks), in a separate Fan Channel line (basically a “greatest hits” sub-line) that does not negatively impact main line releases.  Furthermore, Hasbro has even more recently started another sub-line of store exclusives (again, which don’t impact the main line) under the “Gaming Greats” banner.  So we now have more opportunities to either revisit, or repaint/retool, figures from video game source materials. 

Another noteworthy step from Hasbro is that they do continue to take fan input to heart.  At the time of our 2018 review, I mocked Hasbro for their announcement of the re-release of 2007’s Darth Revan in the main line.  Hasbro acknowledged the protestations from across the community, and that idea was nixed.  It remains to be seen if Revan is ever resculpted to modern standards.  Personally, I’m not really interested in a mainline update to a figure from non-canon source material, so I hope it never happens.  Not every character needs a re-issue or re-sculpt.  In my opinion, Revan falls firmly within that category.  Give us a Fallen Order Cal Kestis instead.  Hasbro’s logic (understandable) for the sequel version of Kestis was that the figure would be matching contemporary source material.  Got it.  But if Hasbro ever decided it was a good time to revisit Revan, they should consider Original Cal Kestis (and Iden Versio, and any number of other characters from JFO and BFII) before Revan.  I’ve already got a Darth Revan.  But I don’t have the other characters I mentioned.  Wait, I forgot to talk about Shae Vizla…

Shae Vizla is a great figure!  Well, again, not super great by 2022 standards, but still pretty great.  As far as I can tell, Hasbro made 2 significant changes here.  The lesser of the two was a nice surprise, as it seems we now have a more metallic paint finish than the original release.  This time the silver and bronze armor plating “pops” more.  It’s not vac-metal, of course, but it’s a really nice touch, as metallic paint apps have improved nicely recently.  Speaking of vac-metal, if Hasbro decides to apply this technique to TVC, I hope they don’t mess with R2-D2.  R2 has a definite metallic dome - but it’s not a mirror finish like, say, C-3PO’s plating.  It’s more like a brushed nickel.  Just because Kenner did it on the original R2 doesn’t make it right.  There’s no need to continually replicate Kenner’s nonsense from 1978 for the sake of nostalgia.  For the millionth time, THESE FIGURES ARE NOSTALGIA ON THEIR OWN MERIT!  Nostalgia on top of nostalgia just makes a mockery of things.  I don’t need a terrible figure recast in 2022 because that’s how it was in 1978!  Our figure quality should constantly be moving forward, not devolving into something from 40 years ago.  It’s like those wackaloons who wish they’d release the original Star Wars cut.  Be careful what you wish for.  It would be unwatchable in its original form.  Just like Retro figures.  You’re a bad person if you buy them.

Anyway, While the metallic paint improvement is nice, the headsculpt upgrade is magnificent.  The original face looked like it got run over by an eopie.  Collectors immediately complained when the figure was released, and for good reason.  Well, Hasbro did Shae (and collectors) right by completely resculpting the head and hair, and along with the PhotoReal application, we now have a beautiful figure. 

Shae Vizla is barely a tertiary character in the grand scheme of Star Wars - if even that.  As such, top notch articulation in the style we are getting here in 2022 just isn’t necessary.  The lack of rocker ankles, ball jointed wrists, “GI Joe” hips, and double barbell neck is not something that needs to be corrected.  Nevertheless, this can’t maintain its score of 9 that we originally gave it (and doubled down later).  So I have lowered the 2012 release to a 7, and I’m giving this one an 8.  It’s a really nice figure, with a bunch of accessories and some tremendous upgrades, but given the incredible releases we’ve gotten over the past year, it just isn’t in that 9 or 10 range.