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Evolutions – The Fett Legacy review
“Boba Fett” – few names conjure up more about Star Wars, and Star Wars marketing. From his cartoon debut to a handful of lines and some attitude, to a mockable death, Boba Fett has certainly been a noteworthy creation. The Evolutions line is meant as a higher-quality collectible line in the same vein as Hasbro’s vintage-style line, and here Boba Fett and his kin get realized.
Packaging: 3/5
The original Evolutions packaging was a bit over the top and wasteful, this is a more slimmed down, smiple affair but with creative shapes that fit with the current design styling. This box doesn’t show off the additional accessories inside, despite an arrow pointing out they’re there, kind of a cheat. The graphics are Jango-centric, but bold. The figure trays look a little plain though, the images behind them are totally lost. Once you buy the set, you can slide the tray out to view the 3 underwhelming additional accessories – why they hid the 2 figures’ jetpacks behind them instead of putting them here, I don’t get.The packaging is fairly collector-friendly in that nothing has to be damaged beyond tape to get it out, and it can all be put back in with minimal fuss. It’s a bit convoluted but if you study and cut in the right places, it works out. Each figure is held in with clearbands which need to be cut, they’re troublesome. Boba’s blaster is fairly bent by the positioning but the rest of the accessories come out fine.
Sculpt-Design: 4/5 (Mandalore); 4/5 (Jango Fett); 4.5/5 (Boba Fett)
Mandalore the Indomitable has that “pre-Prequel” look, it’s a very flowing, wrinkled sculpt, it doesn’t look all that exciting but there is actually enough going on. The shoulders are surrounded by armor (it appears that it could be removable, I don’t care to try though) which has a good sculpt and accepts the head’s 2 hoses, and is also pliable enough for the figure to raise his arms. The head is a little small, it’d be ok from the front but the sides say it’s very pin-headed, maybe they were going for a head lower on the neck but it doesn’t quite translate, I do like the look and the hoses though. There’s a fabric cape which is the biggest downside, it’s just too much of a mismatch to the rest of the figure and too see-through.Jango’s finally got the sculpt we’ve been looking for, the armor’s very accurate and tightly detailed. Jango’s got separate hoses for his gauntlets, and a very nice separate gunbelt which is unusual as it’s a midway plate between the torso and waist and kind of looks like a belly. The helmet is a little narrow and too tall, but does a fair job hiding the head. The head beneath is somewhat recognizable, but I’ve seen Hasbro deliver better, and this doesn’t even have his scars. I really wish they’d have included a second helmet-only head with the accessories. My biggest issues are the hands, very pre-posed for a specific pistol pose which is a little frustrating; and the figure is way too tall for the character, he’s noticeably taller than stormtrooper and clonetrooper figures.
Boba’s look was already cemented with the vintage-style VOTC figure from 4 years ago, but that was the ROTJ version, this Evo figure is the ESB version and there are differences. This Evo body upps the detail ante quite a bit upon close inspection, yet some aspects on the VOTC like the gauntlets are a little better. A big design change is the shoulders, which are now slotted into the shoulder armor for increased range of motion; one design that stayed the same is the collar armor being a separate piece, it still doesn’t quite integrate here either. I love the simple yet incredibly effective hip holster for the pistol, very clever. This is the first Boba with a removable helmet, and underath is a scarred Jango clone helmet wearing the “sock” which I love that they did, my only frustration is that the sock doesn’t cover the chin!!! What’s the point of having that yet leaving the most important aspect out? Boba’s helmet is a fair representation and covers the head ok, though if you angle it wrong his nose will bulge the visor. The helmet’s design seem more like the ROTJ version, odd since the VOTC figure’s seems more like the ESB version (the old switcheroo?). Again, I wish they had included a second helmet-only head. One unusual aspect about this Boba is the fabric cape, this one is very long, actually touching the ground, it’s not accurate that way and it does kinda push the jetpack out, but the length lets him wear it in front of him like early Boba promotional photos which is very cool.
Articulation: 5/5 (Mandalore); 4.5/5 (Jango Fett); 5/5 (Boba Fett)
Mandalore is pretty much “super articulated” to current quality, though his mid-torso is a standard swivel waist rather than a more complex affair. Despite his shoulder armor and plastic skirt, he’s not particularly limited in range of motion. The ball-jointed head can’t look down, but otherwise is par for the course with this style of articulation.Jango’s got super-articulation as well, including a mid-torso joint that lets him lean forward or back as well as swivel around. Thee’s nothing really getting in the way of articulation, though his hands’ design limits some kinds of poses. The head moves ok, nothing spectacular but decent. I’m taking the score down a little though for the mid-torso, which cannot lean side-to-side for what appears to be an entirely arbitrary reason, it’s some of the most emotive body articulation a figure could have and they didn’t include it. I also feel that the legs are a little too close together, it’s fine for standing at attention but a bit lacking for more dynamic posing.
Boba’s got super articulation, and also has the enhanced mid-torso jointing, only here they got it right and he can lean side-to-side! Weird! The shoulder articulation design here has better range than the VOTC Boba, but affects the deco so it’s a mixed blessing. Like Jango, the legs are a little too close together, but Boba’s not the action man his pop was, so it’s not as big a deal. The head articulation can’t look downward at all, which is a shame since that’s one of the ESB signature looks for Boba – still, it’s a relatively small nit so I’m not lowering the score.
Paint-Deco: 3/5 (Mandalore); 4/5 (Jango Fett); 3.5/5 (Boba Fett)
Mandalore has a fairly one-note coloring, he’s dark burgandy with black accents and a black paint wash. He comes off plain, the character’s a little more lively of red but comics characters don’t always translate well here; the black wash really brings out the sculpting well. His visor adds a dull bronze tone, but it’s not much of a standout and not entirely accurate. The character has small gold circle designs on either forearm, the paint they put in to emulate it seems a tad last-minute.Jango has some stuff that’s very right, and some stuff that’s very wrong, and the head’s deco comes somewhere in between. The very right is the silver armor elements which look amazingly sharp, although not quite as bright as the real McCoy, still very metallic and slick. There’s also the brown gunbelt with black wash and silver elements, this looks great. Unfortunately, the big failure of this figure is that the jumpsuit’s coloring is purple like Zam Wesell rather than the faded blue it should have been. This isn’t even close to right, it’s really lavender in color! Still, despite this bad choice, the paint is very cleanly applied and has plenty going on which somewhat salvages the botched lavender jumpsuit.
Boba’s deco is the ESB design, muted and less colorful than the ROTJ design. The jumpsuit is a light olive drab, the shoulder armor’s yellow is quieter than the VOTC figure, the gauntlets and backpack green rather than red. There’s a really keen subtle metallic dry-brushing across the chest armor which officially raises the deco bar for all other armored figures out there. The white paint on the hoses and gloves is a little sloppy, but most white elements have a gray wash with helps them out a lot. Frustratingly, the new shoulder armor design has the bantha skull logo on the left shoulder shrunken and moved down from center. The wookiee braids over the right arm are still sloppy as ever. And while the red lights are painted in the chest armor, the logo on the opposite side is notoriously missing. Like the others, a lot works and some stuff doesn’t.
Accessories: 3.5/5 (Mandalore); 4/5 (Jango Fett); 4.5/5 (Boba Fett)
Mandalore comes with an axe, a pike, and a small leather-looking shield. The axe is cool and well-painted. The pike has a weird top, it’s not quite comic-accurate but gets the idea across. The shield is a tad underwhelming, but it does have a handle and a plastic armstrap. There’s a hole in the back of the shoulder armor which I believe the shield is supposed to plug into, but it doesn’t quite fit – the handle and strap are just the right distance to wedge around the armor though so it looks the same.Jango comes with the removable helmet, like I said, it’s a little too long, and the rangefinder is not movable and way too long. I don’t know if this is a reuse of a previous helmet, Hasbro did a lot of them back in the 2002 Saga line, but I put them all away since none really delivered. Jango’s also got his pistols, pretty sure they’re reuses but they’re good enough, and they fit in the holsters well. Oddly, the pistols are cast in gray but the upper parts are painted silver, it’s a good idea but these guns weren’t 2-tone. He’s also got a jetpack, the one with the shorter missile, this appears to be a new sculpt and is hollow on the inside, but fits well on the figure. My favorite accessory is his removable pilot headset, this thing looks GREAT on the head, it’s perfect and fits so well, a simple little thing but very nifty. Still, he could have had more stuff like a second, helmet-only head, the other jetpack, blast flames, the whip cord, fire, etc, which impacts the score.
Boba Fett does next to nothing in ESB. The figure has a removable helmet which is quite different from dad’s, it has a more accurate shape and pretty decent weathered paint. He’s also sporting a new pistol, one which supposedly is accurate to the one he carried in ESB and differs from the one in pre-production photos, it’s a little big but it has a little silver paint to liven it, and fits in the hip holster well. He’s also got the standard Fett jetpack, it’s alright but nothing stellar, paint is underwhelming but accurate, and it doesn’t stay in his back all that well (again!). Finally, the big deal, an all-new, ESB-accurate blaster with primo sculpting and fantastic paint, they knocked it out of the park with this one. Unlike Jango, there’s not much else this figure could have used, just the second helmet-only head really, but he too feels a tad light.
Overall: B+
The whole set gets a B+, as each individual figure pretty much goes there. Mandalore is a fine execution of a figure I didn’t really want, it’s got the small head and plain deco, but is adequate to hang with my Star Wars guys. Jango has a lot going right for him that previous versions didn’t get, but he also has the lavender jumpsuit, excess height, and low accessory count, I dig him and he’s probably the best we’ll ever get, but not quite as awesome as he could be. Evo Boba is like the flip side to the VOTC figure which is a very good thing, and in some ways outdoes that figure, but in others underperforms it, and another Boba figure with missing deco elements is a tragedy after 13 years of this crap. Still, Boba chiefly works for what he’s supposed to be. -
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