NEWS UPDATE

Wassup... yet again old hespii has been a bit slackin on the whole blogging/figure reciewing thing but i haven't been completely useless I got two new figures. ;)

R2-B1 and General Rieekan are the latest aditions to the collection equalling 94 figures in the cabinet now. I picked them up from Wollworths Legana when returning from visiting some mates.

I found R-B1 and thought he looked pretty rad with his yellow and blue paint job (unfortunately at the normal price of $18) but then i found Rieekan (the guy in charge at the battle of Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back.

He was in pretty bad condition, his box had been damaged and bent and the free little holagraphic figure that came with him had been stolen. When seeing this i thought "wait a seck, i could this get this discounted, they cant charge normal price" So i went to the counter and asked and they said that they'd get someone to look at it. I had to wait a bit but eventually someone came and had a look at the box and said "yeah we can give that a discount" in my head i'm thinkin how much, how much, how much and he says "$7"

yes yes yes the thrill of it a figure for 7 bucks, what more could you ask for? well i wont go into detail....

So two figures for about $25 not to shabby, not to shabby at all

Hespii

Monday 29th June - Princess Leia with Speeder Bike

Today’s figure is “Princess Leia with Speeder Bike” from Return of the Jedi (ROTJ)

Character Summary: Princess Leia Organa is one of the main characters from the original star wars trilogy (IV, V, VI) She is originally the Senator for her home planet Alderaan but then becomes a key figure in the Rebel Alliance (Which was co-founded by her father Bail Organa) it is eventually revealed during the course of the movies that Luke Skywalker is her brother, Darth Vader her father and she also falls in love with Han Solo. She helps lead the rebellion to its victory over the Empire in ROTJ.

Also in the Expanded Universe (EU) she becomes the leader of the New Republic and marries Han Solo, resulting with three children.



This Leia figure depicts her as she is seen in ROTJ when she is part of a strike team landing on the forest moon Endor. She is dressed in a blue combat suit, removable camouflage cloak, a combat helmet and is also equipped with a standard Rebel Alliance Blaster Pistol.

This figure was a part of the Power of the Force line of action figures and came boxed with an imperial speeder bike which Leia uses in a scene from ROTJ. In this scene Luke and Leia steal an imperial speeder bike to chase down Imperial Scout troopers, during the chase Luke manages to board his own bike but Leia is shot down into the forest.

Because her bike is shot down in the film the action figure speeder bike actually has the ability to come apart. When a button on the back of the Bike is pressed the bike falls into three pieces with Leia being ejected from the Bike.

I got my Princess Leia with Speeder Bike when I was in hospital having my tonsils removed at a young age. It was a gift from some friends of the family named David and Julie. I can still remember receiving it in hospital and sticking the labels and stickers onto the speeder that came with it. Unfortunately I did lose one of the handlebars of the Speeder Bike when I took it show to my friends at Primary School which was quite sad at the time especially because I lost it somewhere amongst bark chips. Sadly I had no chance of getting it back.

Also at a later date Princess Leia’s head decided to fall off. Because when removing the camouflage cloak it would tug and strain her head and one day it just popped off. Luckily a bit of Hot glue from a glue gun fixed the job.

This is a great figure that gave me lots of happiness through the years and it helped keep my mind of a painful operation.

Stay Sweet

Sunday 28 June - Yoda (Vintage)

Today's action figure is "Yoda (Vintage)" from The Empire Strikes Back (ESB)

Character Summary: Yoda, you can't call yourself a star wars fan if you don't know who he is, its a fact. Yoda is the little green pointy eared Jedi Master from the Star Wars saga he appears in Episodes I,II,II,V,VI and is known for being the strongest Jedi in the movies. Yoda has had influence on the training of every Jedi in the saga from Qui-Gon Jinn to Luke Skywalker, it's safe to say he's a very important character.

During the Prequel Trilogy (I,II,III) he is the grand master of the Jedi and has an active role as a military tactician and Jedi General (He even uses a Lightsaber). But in V, VI he is in hiding on the swamp planet Dagobah and it's not until luke finds him in ESB and is trained by him that we meet this awesome character again.

This Yoda action figure was a part of the original ESB 1980 figure range but it did actually have a delayed release so that it wouldn't spoil the suprise of this new character. The Figure originally came packaged with a material cloak/robe/jacket, a belt, his reknownd walking stick and for some reason a snake. The belt would wrap around the robe, the snake around yoda's little neck and the walking stick obviously in his hand.

But unfortunately like all my Vintage figures (1977-1983) i didn't recieve it in its box because A: I wasn't around in 1980 and B:They're especially expensive and collectable in this day when in their boxing.

I actually got my little Yoda without any of its accessories from my cousin Seb in New Zealand. I was there with my dad when i was 10 for the wedding of one of my other cousins. And when visiting Seb and his family he gave it to me. It was either my first or second vintage action figure rivalling closely with Chewbacca but i always though he was awesome because of the amount of detail in his face which is something that not all Vintage figures possess.

Though small he is a great addition to my collection.

Stay Sweet

Wat's Dat? - Commtech Reader

Hey its a brand new feature on Hespii's Star Wars Figure Blog called "Wat's Dat?" in which i investigate and explain a special aspect of Star Wars action figures.

The Star Wars Episode I Commtech Reader was a piece of technology that was used to "make figures talk"

It was a machine shaped like the Comlink (Radio) used by jedi such as Obi-Wan Kenobi and Qui-Gon Jinn and it is used to play Star Wars quotes and sound effects.

The user of the reader would swipe a special Commtech Reader chip across the top of the reader and then the reader would play the sounds on the chip. You could also save one or more of the chips to the reader just in case you were borrowing one of a friend.


The first of this collection of reader chips came bundled with the Commtech reader containing some general sound effects but the rest came bundled with an action figure, the chip would then contain quotes/sounds from that character.

The Majority of these characters where from Episode I: The phantom but you can find some of characters such as Luke Skywalker aand Han Solo.

The Commtech Reader is a great addition for Star Wars figures especially those that came with the reader Chips.


Hespii

Thursday 25 June - Bossk

Today’s Action Figure… “Bossk” from the Empire Strikes Back (ESB)



Character Summary: Bossk is a trandoshan bounty hunter who appears in ESB and the Expanded Universe (EU). In ESB he is summoned by Darth Vader to hunt down Han Solo and the Millennium Falcon along side other Bounty Hunters such as Boba Fett.

This Bossk action figure depicts him in his standard yellow flight suit, bandoliers etc: it’s a pretty standard figure that to be honest doesn’t really do much at all besides moving arms, legs and head. But come on he’s a flipping dinosaur that’s pretty awesome in my book.

He also comes equipped with a blaster pistol and blaster rifle (the rifle can be seen in the film)


Bossk was a figure from the 1997 Power of the Force Collection 2 series and I happened to get mine in its original box of EBay. It was actually the first figure I ever bought of EBay and for a price of about $8, it was pretty cool when I got it cause it was just like buying it from the store but cheaper ;)

He’s a cool figure and looks good next to my other Bounty Hunter figures.

Stay Sweet….

NEWS UPDATE

First of all my apologies for the lack of posts of late but the call of life has been busy and i will have a new figure up soon.

NEWS HEADLINE!!!!

So while i haven't been blogging i have picked up two new action figures Plo Koon and Asajj Ventress.

I found Plo Koon on sale at K-Mart Launceston for $10.50 quite good considering it's part of the Legacy collection (Current series of action figures) he came with a lightsaber and also some extra blasters which was an added extra bonus.

Assaj Ventress on the other hand i picked up for the normal price of $18 from Woolworths Riverside. She came with her two lightsabers which can be clicked together to form a double bladed sabre and also a small handheld hologram of count dooku (her boss). You can also remove her cloak skirt thing to have her in just her jumpsuit. Ventress is a part of the new series of figures to co-inside with the Clone Wars Movie/TV Series, so she has a slightly cgi appearance and is my first clone wars (CGI) action figure.

New post coming soon......

Tuesday 16th June - Grand Admiral Thrawn

Today’s Action Figure is….. “Grand Admiral Thrawn” from the Expanded Universe (EU)

What is the Expanded Universe?: For those who don’t know the Star Wars saga doesn’t purely exist in the six films, a lot of the Star Wars stories are in Books, Comics, Magazines, Web Content, Television Series, Video Games and other films. These are known together as the Expanded Universe.

Character Summary: Grand Admiral Thrawn actually named Mitth’raw’nuruodo is one of the most crucial characters in the expanded universe. He is best known from the Thrawn Trilogy of books by Timothy Zahn which is set 4 years after Return of the Jedi. In this trilogy he is the current leader of the Empire in a quest to destroy the New Republic.

This Thrawn action figure was a part of the Expanded Universe Series released in 1998 which contained action figures from the Thrawn Trilogy it has him in the outfit of an Imperial Grand Admiral the position he held during the Thrawn Trilogy. It also came with a Blaster pistol and a ysalamiri (a creature worn by Thrawn that can repel the force) this action figure boxing also had the ability to fold out into cardboard 3D play scene of a spaceship’s viewing platform.

I got my Grand Admiral Thrawn action figure boxed when I found it at my local supermarket. At the time I had never heard about Thrawn and knew practically nothing about the expanded universe of Star Wars but I bought the figure for the “coolness” factor. C’mon he’s a blue imperial, pretty rad.

After buying my figure I started to get a bit upset because I had never heard of Thrawn before and started to think it was a fake action figure. It wasn’t until I stumbled across a picture of Grand Admiral Thrawn in Star Wars: The Essential Guide to Characters that I discovered he was an actual character and a pretty awesome one too.

Later in life I read the Thrawn Trilogy and grew attached to my Thrawn figure which was the first EU figure I ever got. I also realized how rare he was because up until 2008 it was the only Grand Admiral Thrawn figure you could get and I’ve only seen the one for sale.

Unfortunately at some point I lost his blaster pistol but Grand Admiral Thrawn is still one of my favorite Star Wars action figures and a great addition to my collection.

Next figure coming soon. What will it be? Stay tuned to find out.

Stay Sweet