Figures That Make Me Happy:  Wioslea

As stated in the front page lead in, this is a new series that I'm trying. It's for the figures that make me happy. It will be a look back on modern line figures that simply give me a little lift whenever I look at them in my collection. I feel a general sense of contentment merely from the fact that they exist. They don't necessarily have to be outstanding figures. They might not be up to 2024 standards, but they are the straws that stir the drink in my collection. They are the reason I keep collecting to this day.

Be forewarned, that most of the figures that meet this criteria have one thing in common: they are characters that captivated me as a kid. That means this series is going to tilt heavily to the Original Trilogy. Right now I can only think of two non-OT figures that will get featured as part of this. So if you don't dig the OT, these articles won't be for you. With that established, let's lead things off with:





As I've mentioned 100 times previously (and on every livestream), I grew up before the "movies at home" era. A New Hope couldn't be rented for home viewing until 1982. I still remember the day we rented it. I was mildly in disbelief. I couldn't believe that we were going to be able to watch Star Wars from the comfort of our couch. I even remember where we rented it. It was a stereo store called Leiser Sound. Leiser Sound is long gone. Stereo stores are long gone. Video rental stores are long gone. Everything now stinks. Well, maybe not the part about video rental stores being gone. They always kind of sucked. New releases were exclusively for the friends and family of the clerks, and if you brought the tapes back five seconds late, they charged you three times the rental fee. Good riddance.

Anywho, this five year window of theater-only exhibitions of A New Hope meant that pausing the movie to obsessively pour over every character in the background was impossible (note: and even with the early 2-head VCR's, you still couldn't pause the movie). The only backgrounders that registered with me as a kid were the ones I could take in moving by on the silver screen. Almost immediately, I latched onto Wioslea. I was mesmerized by the character, and there was another part of my childhood that would feed this fascination with the giant bug lady to whom Luke sold his speeder.

Up until 1977 aliens served almost exclusively one role in entertainment: monsters. Alien creatures were the stars of the UHF station's "Creature Double Feature" on many a Saturday afternoon. They terrified me, but here was Luke engaging in commerce with a nightmarish creation. As a five year old this absolutely fascinated me. I was captivated by this transaction in a Mos Eisely back alley in that galaxy far, far away. Everything in life to that point taught me that Luke was about to be eaten, but instead he scored his cab fare to Alderaan. I wanted a figure of Wioslea for as long as I can remember. Kenner probably would have called her "Ten Eyes". Thirty one years later, during a magical little period in the hobby, I got one. I am so thankful because there is exactly 0.0 percent chance we would ever see a figure like that today.

I get a little smile inside every time I see my Wioslea figure peering over Luke's landspeeder outside my Mos Eisely Cantina display. It's the first of the "figures that make me happy".

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