Original review by Chris, 11/14/14

In the Holiday Special, which switches from live action to animation without explanation, Luke and the droids go in pursuit of Han and Chewbacca who are in clear distress on board the Millennium Falcon. Luke trails them to a water planet, but in Star Wars “water” is a hot pink viscous substance with a gelatinous consistency.  Naturally, Luke crash lands in the Jell-O at which point he is set upon by a pink dinosaur that immediately begins chomping on Luke’s Y-Wing.  It looks bleak for our hero, but suddenly he is saved by…BOBA FETT (?!?!?).  That makes no sense!  He’s a bad guy!  Boba Fett uses his magic tuning fork to shoot a ray or something at the dinosaur, which runs away.  Boba Fett is also riding a dinosaur, but don’t worry.  It’s not a mean dinosaur.  Of course this friendliness is all a ruse as Boba Fett is on a mission for Darth Vader to capture the Rebel heroes alive.

Though I’m poking some fun at the Holiday Special, I actually like it, and it’s not a “it’s so bad, it’s good” ironic appreciation.  Some of it is absolutely unwatchable. I can’t offer an explanation or defense of the simultaneously bizarre and boring events at Chewbacca’s homestead.  All I know is that this could not have been written or produced without the benefit of heavy hallucinogenic drugs.  Once you are past these awful scenes, I get a kick out of the show.  Art Carney is a jewel and I can watch his scenes over and over.  If you can find the version that is inclusive of the commercials, it serves as a time capsule.  This is a long way to say that I am happy to have the only intentionally sourced figure from the Holiday Special.  Some cantina alien figures may have accidentally used Holiday Special references.  The animated Boba Fett sequence seems to be the only part of the special that LFL will acknowledge.  It was actually included as a bonus feature in the Blu-ray set.

The figure itself is a slight retool of the VOTC Boba Fett figure.  That base figure is good, perhaps very good, but not outstanding.  The biggest problem I have with this sculpt is the backpack and the cape. In order to have the cape drape naturally it must be underneath the backpack at the shoulder and upper back area, however this does not allow the backpack to connect to the figure with a lot of conviction.  As a result it falls off too easily.  I’m also not thrilled with the range of motion of the arms.  This is partially due to the complexities of the gauntlet and upper arm assembly.  I prefer Hasbro err on the side of realism, so this isn’t a huge issue for me.  Today some ball jointed hips and rocker ankles would “unleash” a true 3.75” scale Boba Fett, but for an obscure almost forgotten source, I think we can ride this version of the Animated Debut Boba Fett into the sunset of the line (which is hopefully a long way away).  It’s a still valid 8 out of 10.  Hasbro, in the unlikely event that you are reading this, please, please, please re-release this figure on a vintage Droids card as a mail away redemption at some point.

Updated review by Bret, 9/16/19

Chris seemed to be a fan of this sculpt 5 years ago.  The VOTC base sculpt from 2004, which was then replaced by the Evolutions sculpt from 2007, simply hasn’t aged well.  It’s time for an all new Boba Fett…just in time for Hasbro to go this route again in 2019 when they updated VC09 with FACE! technology.  But that aside, this figure does still work as the very specific homage to the animated featurette from the Holiday Special.  It works as this niche item from a source that is no longer canon, and is simply a nod to nostalgia.  While an OT Boba Fett is in need of an upgrade, this animated Fett is good enough, and we shouldn’t bother considering any kind of revistiing at any point in the future.  We’ll keep the 8, with 2 points given for the source material.