Editor’s Note:  This review has been updated with the 2025 PhotoReal update.  Commentary on the 2025 re-release follows the original reviews.  If you would like to jump straight to the updated review, click HERE.

Original Review:  Chris - 04/29/2012 07:09 PM

Here’s a funny thing I’ve come to realize with the Vintage Collection.  I get more excited about releases that should have been in the original vintage line-up than the releases that have actual vintage Kenner counterparts.  Even at age 6, I realized that Dr. Evazan, whose name I did not know, was a major omission from the original Kenner line-up (along with Garindan and Governor Tarkin).  Then in 1997 when Usenet began to swirl with rumors of a cantina cinema scene with the long awaited Dr. Evazan, I wave overjoyed.  Then the figure was an utter disappointment.  It was comically bad, even by 1997 standards.  Then in 2004, a once cancelled Star Wars “Saga” Cantina Scene Dr. Evazan was reborn in an Original Trilogy Collection K-Mart exclusive Screen Scene.  Unfortunately it was just more of the same. The figure was a retool of the 1997 offering with new articulated legs.  It was only a marginal improvement.  Finally at Toy Fair 2011, the clouds parted.  The character who elicited the first ligthsaber combat in Star Wars cinema history was finally going to receive action figure justice that June.  When news came, via our very own Q&A, that the Dr. Evazan wave was bumped into 2012, I was simply inconsolable.  The despondency led me to hang out with the wrong crowd at work.  I started wearing a lot of black and listening to the Clash.  I hate the Clash.

Still with me?  So now nearly a year after the original due date, a 34 year-old itch has been scratched.  For me, Dr. Evazan has long been one of the two most prominent cantina patrons along with his partner in crime, Ponda Baba.  At last, we have the definitive version.  Buy this figure and know that at last, this particular portion of your cantina display can be called complete.  The head sculpt brilliantly captures the grotesque disfigured visage of “Doctor Death”.  The costume seems to be accurate to the few reference photos for the character. The SE-14C blaster does not easily lend iitself to a holster in the action figure scale, yet Hasbro neatly pulls it off. The 14 points of articulation pose easily.  In short:  win. 10 out of 10.

Updated Review:  Chris - 7/12/2018 07:05 AM

It’s hard for me not to rewrite the original review.  Grand Moff Tarkin.  Garindan.  Dr. Evazan.  When I was a fat little idiot, I was many things, but one thing I was not was a fat little idiot.  I knew those three figures were glaring omissions from the vintage Kenner Collection.  I was waiting my entire (conscious) life for a decent Dr. Evazan figure and the crud-tastic POTF2 Cinema Scene figure did not satisfy that demand. I was on pins and needles waiting for the Vintage Collection release in 2011.  I still remember where I was when I learned about the figure’s delay.  I was at the theater seeing Captain America: The First Avenger.  I’m polite, so I shut off my phone off as I always do.  After the house lights came up, I turned my phone back on and immediately received an e-mail notification.  It was the answers to our questions from Round 3 of 2011’s Q&A.  My heart sank.  Christmas was canceled.  There would be no Rudolph’s nose to light our way.  I’d have to wait another year for Dr. Evazan.  My melancholy didn’t last long.  In the jungles of kid-dom, the mind switches gears rapidly. When I got home, my Little Orphan Annie decoder ring had arrived.  Surely that wouldn’t disappoint!

Now six years after the figure’s release, it’s still the definitive Dr. Evazan figure.  We need this figure to do barfly things and that it does.  It has the requisite articulation to pose naturally bellying up to your Cantina bar or to foolishly draw down on a laser-sword wielding crazy old wizard.  This is all wrapped in a fantastic aesthetic.  Just look at that punim. It’s gnarly and grotesque and pock marked.  A slight wash could probably bring the details out a little better, but I’m not going to fault Hasbro for this.  The margin of error for a wash on a human head sculpt is razor thin.  Overdo it even slightly and…well…look at that Wuher figure in the background of shot 18.  It becomes distracting.  As mentioned in the original review, the SE-14C blaster pistol doesn’t lend itself to a working holster in this scale (just ask anyone who has built an entire wing of TIE Fighter Pilots), but Hasbro pulled it off with this figure.  Add in the fact that the floating trigger finger can fit inside the enclosed trigger guard and it’s like this figure was made for me.

Verdict: No Action [Caveat - maybe re-issue somewhere other than the mainline] 

As with Bom Vimdin this figure could get a round of modern articulation, but it would be a waste.  It wouldn’t add to the utility, and could potentially disrupt the finely hone aesthetic.  No.  This is the only and last Dr. Evazan figure you’ll need.  The supply on the secondary market is slim, and it carries a moderate premium.  If you need one carded, go get one now.  We’ve seen what the Sail Barge has done to the value of Jabba figures.  If HasLab ever produces a Cantina environment piece, these figures are going to go through the roof. 

Hasbro should consider re-releasing this figure, but it shouldn’t take up a slot in the mainline.  It should find a home in a multi-pack.  It feels like it’s begging to be re-released in a Vintage Collection Special Action Figure set.

Verdict Guide:
Re-sculpt = The figure is not definitive, and a new version should be developed.
Re-issue = This version is definitive (or close enough), and shows sufficient secondary market demand to warrant a straight repack.
No Action = This release does not require new attention.

PhotoReal update:  Chris - 02/12/2025 07:05 AM

This is now the third time that I’ve reviewed this figure, and I don’t mind at all.  This Doctor Evazan is one of my favorite figures in the entire 47 year history of Star Wars action figures.  I won’t belabor the reasons why here.  If you to read about my personal affection for this particular release, you can do so HERE, but that is not why we have all congregated today.  We’re here to discuss this update of the 2012 figure.  It’s announcement came somewhat out of the blue at last year’s New York Comic Con in October.  It was a welcome surprise.  The Cantina HasLab campaign had just completed a few months previous, and some fans needed to track down previously released figures to populate it when it arrives later this fall.  The 2012 Vintage Collection release of Dr. Evazan was prohibitively expensive on the secondary market coming in at over $50 prior to the annuoncement.  News of the re-release cooled those prices somewhat, but it still fetches over $40.  Getting this figure back out for MSRP is a kindness to the fans who still need one.

But what about the fans that already own the 2012 release?  Should they consider picking up this PhotoReal update?  I would say the answer is emphatically “yes.”  The PhotoReal facial paint application takes an already gnarly sculpt and makes it even gnarlier.  On the 2012 version, the (not so) good doctor’s five o’clock shadow was so faint that it was effectively unnoticeable.  The stubble is readily apparent on this new release and immediately ups the realism.  In 2012, there was a “pink scar” variant where the scar on Evazan’s right cheek was painted.  You can see in the comparison photos that my loose 2012 sample is the “no scar” variant.  For 2025 we get the scar painted, which is a nice addition to the grotesquery.  Evazan’s hair not only gets darker on the update, but there are now highlights to give it a more realistic look.  Solid color hair has been a bit of a downer on some recent releases, such as on Mae.  So it’s nice to see that trend broken here, if only temporarily.

Moving along, the light brown vest on the original becomes a darker, rich brown on the update.  This is another aesthetic upgrade in my opinion.  The figure looks more sinister.  It’s also not a solid brown. There’s slight variance in the darkness of the tones, which brings out the sculpted folds. I’m not sure how this was done (it was also done on the 2012 release).  I would assume it was done with a wash, but I’m not positive.  Regardless, as with the hair, it’s nice not to see a pristine, solid paint application here.  It’s likely a byproduct of needing to use the older tooling.  If this figure were done today, I suspect the vest would be done as an overlay that would be cast in a single color of plastic.  The last upgrade that my aging eyes can notice is that the ankle joints are color-matched now, but it wasn’t a big deal on the old release.  The dark brown of the ankle joint didn’t highly contrast with the black boots, so it wasn’t jarring like it was on some other releases.

Hasbro took some risk re-releasing a 13 (actually 14) year old sculpt but it works.  If this were a main character, or a major combatant, there would have been an uproar in the community.  If Hasbro tried to re-re-release the TVC 1.0 Bespin Luke, as en example, we’d riot.  But Dr. Evazan is the textbook example of “not every figure needs Jedi-level articulation.”  He mostly needs to do bar fly things. The flat plane hips, flat plane wrists, and standard ball joint ankles are plenty of articulation to express that.  Having said that, and no offense to anyone from the brand team if they’re reading this, but I don’t think Hasbro knows which figures do and do not need modern articulation.  I think they just have an arbitrary cut off date, and happened to get lucky in this case. Either way, I’m very happy with this update to Dr. Evazan.  It actually think it’s the second most exciting 2025 figure that I have in hand after Luke.