Original Review by Chris: 10/28/14

The Yavin Ceremony scene is one of the slowest evolving subsets in the history of the line.  At the time of this review the Black Series update to the Yavin Ceremony Princess Leia has not yet been released (estimated Q1 2015),  That means that 1998’s Yavin Ceremony Princess Leia is still the only version available at this time and there is a whopping 13 years separating that figure and 2011’s inaccurate Vintage Collection Yavin Ceremony Han Solo.  That subset is also punctuated by the unforgivable omission of Bob Hudsol, who we were told via the Q&A was in the parking lot, but probably became a victim of Hasbro’s shrinking confidence in releasing obscure background humans.  In 2007, Hasbro delivered a troop builder of sorts with the Rebel Honor Guard to help fill out the background of that scene, but in doing so failed to make the generic trooper generic enough. 

The problem with the figure is the stance.  Hasbro seemed to be trying to emulate a military guidon parade rest which is a cool nod to the World War II symbolism throughout A New Hope, but Hasbro went too far with the stance.  As you can see in this reference picture. the feet should be at shoulder distance for parade rest.  This figure takes the stance to an extreme, going beyond the proper width to a guitar god power stance.  This breaks apart the neutrality of the trooper that Hasbro otherwise managed to achieve. Army building troopers with an exposed face is a tricky prospect because if the sculpt it too distinctive, displaying several of them together looks odd.  The face is generic enough on this figure that a displayed squad would not look unnatural, but the wide stance counteracts the facial neutrality.  It looks like you have an entire squad that is attempting to air out the undercarriage in the Yavin humidity.  I went to basic training in San Antonio.  I know what’s going on here. 

It’s a shame that this stance choice was made, because the figure is a perfect diorama filler otherwise.  As mentioned there are no distinctive features, like the full beard on the Legacy Collection Hoth Rebel Trooper or the middle aged portrait on the Vintage Collection Rebel Fleet Trooper, that puts a damper on displaying multiples.  With a narrower stance, as the reference photo on the card back shows, this could have been used as a filler figure in Yavin hangar displays as well as Yavin Ceremony displays.  As it stands (no pun intended), the figure is basically good for the moment before Chewbacca roars the entire formation to attention.  Fans were excited about the army building potential of this figure when it was announced, but that never translated to retail success.  I think the blame for that lies solely on the sculpting choice.  Ironically even though I think the figure is a poor candidate for displaying in a squad, I find myself disappointed that I did not pick up a few more.  Collecting enthusiasm is a funny thing.  When a figure hits that excites us, we tend to buy too many.  When a figure falls short of expectations, we tend to buy to few (at least I do).  Another example of this initial disappointment would be the Vintage Collection C-3PO.  I wish I bought a few more and I’m glad we’ll be getting a second chance in the Black Series.  With a narrow stance, this super articulated figure would earn an easy eight, but the wide stance forces me to lower the score to 7 out of 10.

Updated Review by Bret, 9/5/19

Fortunately, in the years following Chris’s original review in 2014, we did finally get an upgraded Princess Leia in the Walmart Black Series.  We also got a roaring Episode IV Chewbacca in VC141.  We even got probably the best clean R2-D2 to date, albeit in the TLJ 5POA line.  We’re also getting an incremental upgrade (again) to the Yavin Luke, but we’ll save that for another time.

As Chris points out, the wide stance ruins the neutrality of this army builder.  Nevertheless, I’m not as down on it.  I feel it works as a background rebel officer or tech anywhere in your Yavin dioramas.  I sometimes use the baseball caps from the Rebel Fleet Troopers to vary them up a bit.  We’ll likely never get a figure like this:  random human in a plain uniform.  As it is, we’ll stick with the 7/10.  It’s a figure you’ll want, even if it didn’t turn out as perfect as it could have.