'Star Wars' Collectibles and Toys Review: Hasbro's 'Star Wars Saga' Wampa (with Ice Cave) Ultra Figure

-
(C) 2004 Hasbro, Inc. and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL)

 The bone-chilling cold is not the only danger that awaits a traveler on the Hoth plains. Despite standing over two meters in height, the Wampa ice creature is nonetheless a stealthy predator. Camouflaged by its white fur and the howling Hoth winds, a Wampa surprised Luke Skywalker while he was on patrol and dragged him to its cave as his next meal. When the Jedi freed himself, the Wampa fought him - and lost an arm in the struggle. – Product blurb, Wampa (Hoth Attack)

I've been collecting Star Wars figures for 40 years, and even though my collection is far from being even close to complete, I own enough of the small action figures to know that the quality of the figures has improved over the past two and a half decades. Not only are the 21st Century Hasbro figures more detailed than their 1978-1985 Kenner Toys counterparts, but they also now include little "extras" that make them more attractive to adult collectors.


The Wampa, that carnivorous beast that menaces Luke Skywalker at the beginning of The Empire Strikes Back, is a fine example of how Hasbro has improved the Star Wars action figure line.
The original 1982 Wampa from Kenner's The Empire Strikes Back collection. Photo Credit: www.rebelscum.com. (C) 1982 Kenner Toys/Hasbro, Inc. and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) 


Although Kenner (the original action figure manufacturer before Hasbro acquired it in the 1990s) produced a first-generation Wampa Ice Creature figure in 1982 for its The Empire Strikes Back collection, the 2004 Star Wars Saga Wampa (with Ice Cave) Ultra figure is far better. It looks exactly like the one that appears in the 1997 Special Edition of Star Wars – Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back. 

The figure comes in a carded bubble package, complete with a hunk of raw tauntaun leg and an "ice cave" base that connects with the Luke Skywalker (Hoth Attack) action figure. This allows collectors to recreate the scenes where the young would-be Jedi Knight escapes from the Wampa's lair. The right arm detaches to simulate the effects of Luke's lightsaber, and if you examine the Wampa's facial fur, you'll see that he's not exactly a neat eater, as there are drops of blood matted onto the white fur. (Yuck!)


Although the Wampa (with Ice Cave) Ultra figure is sturdy-looking and seems durable enough, I recommend it for collectors who are interested in displaying it along with its Luke Skywalker (Hoth Attack) companion figure (sold separately).



           

Film Source: The Empire Strikes Back

 Year: 2004

 Assortment: Ultra Hoth

 Retail: $9.99



Weapons and Accessories:

  •  Hoth Cave
  • Tauntaun Leg
  • Removable Arm

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How many movies have been made based on Stephen King's 'It'?

-
Image
How many movies have been made based on Stephen King's It ? It  has been adapted twice for filmed audio-visual media. The first filmed version of  It was a TV limited series; the second was a duology of theatrically-released movies.  The first adaptation of Stephen King’s 1986 doorstop of a novel was a 1990 adaptation made as a two-part ABC miniseries for television. Among the cast members: Tim Reid, Harry Anderson, Annette O’Toole, John Ritter, and Richard Thomas. The miniseries also featured Tim Curry as the evil Pennywise the Clown. Adapted for television by director Tommy Lee Wallace and Lawrence D. Cohen (who also adapted King’s  Carrie  for director Brian De Palma in 1976),  It  was okay but a watered-down take on the scary novel about a group of friends who must face off against a monstrous entity known as “It” twice. Once as kids in 1960, then again as adults in 1990. (Like  11,22.63,  the TV version of It avoids the year ...
Read more

Talking About 'Band of Brothers' (HBO Miniseries): Why were there no black soldiers in the Band of Brothers TV miniseries?

-
Image
Band of Brothers,  sadly, reflects one of the sad realities of American society in the 1940s - racial segregation in the armed forces. Although there  were  a few all-Negro (as blacks were referred to in those days) units in the U.S. Army and the Army Air Forces that served with distinction in the European Theater of Operations, most black servicemen were assigned to non-combat units in Supply of Services and other support forces. Most of these soldiers were truck drivers, anti-aircraft gunners, barrage balloon handlers, engineers, stevedores, clerks, cooks, corpsmen, and so on. Only late in the war (fall of 1944 and winter/spring 1945) did large numbers of black infantrymen see combat against German forces, and even then they served in all-black units commanded by white officers. © 2001 Home Box Office, Dreamworks SKG, and Play-Tone Pictures The 101st Airborne Division was an all-American unit made up of individuals from many different groups - Easy Company’...
Read more

Bolero: The One Movie I Have Seen That I Wish Could Be Erased From My Memory

-
Image
If you could have 1 movie that you’ve seen in the past erased from your memory, what movie would that be and why? That’s easy.  Bolero. © 1984 Cannon Film Group Now, I have seen more than my fair share of movies that, for one reason or another, I don’t enjoy at all or once liked but have changed my mind about as I have grown older.  Me Before You  is an example of the former;  Avatar  and  Midway  are exemplars of the latter. But writer-director John Derek’s softcore porn movie disguised as an “adventure in ecstasy” is still the dumbest, most boring film I ever paid a movie ticket to go see in an actual multiplex. It’s so bad, in fact, that my friends (yes, I went with a coed group of buds from college) and I decided, collectively, that as spectacular as Bo Derek looks naked, she was way too old to play a nubile if naive girl in her 20s. The story was just a barely-there plot woven together around a series of nude scenes (including the...
Read more