Editor’s Note:  This review has been updated with a second look…

Original Review:  Chris 8/16/2013 08:29 PM

I write this introduction as a word of advice to those who hold the Prequel Trilogy dear.  It’s okay to love flawed films, and you don’t have to defensively (and ineffectively) argue away the flaws.  When you try to defend Attack of the Clones as well written, plotted, paced and constructed, you don’t make an eloquent case for the movie.  Instead you make yourself look hopelessly biased to anyone objective and allow your arguments to be easily dismissed.  You don’t need to convince people that movie is something it’s not in order to enjoy it.  Just love the movie you love, flaws and all.

Return of the Jedi is my favorite Star Wars movie.  I had the enormous pleasure of seeing the Original Trilogy unfold in nearly real time.  I saw Episodes IV, V and VI at ages 5, 7 and 10 respectively, having seen A New Hope during the 1978 re-release (according to my father).  Since I recall seeing the movie before the toys first came out, I suspect we actually saw A New Hope during the first 1977 re-release, but that’s an argument not worth having.  Let me tell you this: Return of the Jedi was the perfect counter punch to a 10 year old who had been carrying around a pit in his stomach since seeing the heroes get thoroughly kicked around three years earlier.  So I love Return of the Jedi.  But the third act comes perilously close to unwinding the whole thing with hokiness.  I don’t mind the “walking teddy bears” at all.  But the concept of indigenous primitive halflings taking down an elite mechanized force with sticks and stones is a tad wince-worthy.  I know there is the poetic notion of never underestimating an inferior force defending its home from invaders, but the sides needed to be drawn a little more evenly. 

And this rambling introduction brings us to the Biker Scout.  The troopers are scouts on a forest moon.  Yet they don’t even make a token gesture towards camouflage.  In fact, their bristling white armor argues that they’re making an effort to be conspicuous.  Wince.  If Lucas insisted on perpetually tampering with these films, giving the Scout Troopers a camouflage deco similar to their predecessors in the Kashyyyk 41st Elite Corps would have had incalculably more value to enhancing Episode VI than giving Ewoks pupils. 

But I still love Return of the Jedi and the illogically white armored Biker Scout looks cool and has become an iconic representation of the movie.  You should already own this figure courtesy of the Toys R Us exclusive Speeder Bike with Scout Trooper set.  The figure itself started life as the VTSC Biker Scout from 2006.  For the Toys R Us set, it was tweaked so that it now has ball jointed hips to better interact with the Speeder Bike, and a double jointed neck which allows the figure to be eyes forward even when in the nearly prone riding position.  Absent of the bike, the double jointed neck allows the figure to inspect where those raining rocks are coming from.  Some have complained that the figure cannot strike a neutral pose due to the hip articulation.  I find it’s a simple matter of rotating the hip joint until the legs draw closer together.

During the review of the Speeder Bike set, I didn’t even mention the jarring unpainted black shoulder joints.  Gone now is the afterglow of the first modern Speeder Bike, so that flaw grows more grating over time.  Because of that, the figure alone gets an 8 out of 10 whereas it received a 9 out of 10 when reviewed with the set.

If you think I’m crazy for giving this figure, which is flawed by virtue of the shoulders, a higher score than the Yavin Ceremony Luke Skywalker from the same wave, remember that I personally put tremendous value in articulation, and this figure has it.  8/10 Bantha Skulls

Updated Review:  Chris- 11/25/2018 07:05 AM

When we completed our Vintage Collection retrospective, we ended the retrospective on VC93 - Darth Vader.  It was a conscious decision to end on one of the best figures in the first run of the Vintage Collection that had such strong ties to the vintage Kenner line.  No such forethought has gone into ending this Black Series Phase I retrospective on the Biker Scout.  In fact we’re ending here due to one part procrastination and one part utter indifference. We should have reviewed this turkey on Thanksgiving.  Amiright?  Huh??  Right???

Nothing? There’s no pleasing this crowd.

This figure is like the collapsible stock on the E-11 blaster which was first introduced with the VC112 - Sandtrooper.  That accessory went from “neat” to “meh” to “ENOUGH ALREADY”.  My appreciation of this figure is experiencing a similar slide, and I’m going to lower the score for a second time to a six.  I still love the pose-ability of the figure.  The ball jointed hips and particularly the double ball jointed neck allow you to coax a ton of expression out of the 3.75” scale figure.  That’s always a good thing.  In my original review I noted that I was able to achieve a neutral pose with the figure.  I may have been on bath salts when I wrote that.  This time around, I had difficulty just getting the figure to stand.  Harumph.  The ball jointed hips we get on current figures seem to have more range of motion than the six year old implementation on this figure (via the abovementioned Toys R Us set).  While it was a novelty in 2012, in 2018 if falls under the “seen better” category.  In fact, posing the figure on the Speeder Bike was a bit challenging.

The double ball jointed neck is still special, and I doubt we will see many figures to employ this type of articulation going forward, but the ball jointed hips are nothing special in the current landscape.  This allowed the badly mismatched shoulder and ankle joints to become more irritating now that the articulation shine is wearing off.  They are so jarring, that the score lowers to a 6 out of 10.

Verdict: No Action 

This figure could benefit from a modern ball jointed hip implementation and ball jointed wrists would greatly help posing the figure on the bike, so there is room for improvement, but Hasbro needs to rest this source for a while.  They’ve gone to the Bike Scout well more often than Chris Griffin goes to his “unemployed buttmunch” burn.  Between the VTSC release, Saga Legends releases, a flip-up visor Commemorative Tin release and the removable helmet “Nik Sant” Battle Pack version, the Biker Scout has a decade of omnipresence in the line.  Hasbro should wait until action figure technology advanced to the point where an “all new” version is warranted. 

Verdict Guide:
Re-sculpt = The figure is not definitive, and a new version should be developed.
Re-issue = This version is definitive (or close enough), and shows sufficient secondary market demand to warrant a straight repack.
No Action = This release does not require new attention.