MUSTAFAR LAVA MINER
30th Anniversary Collection Basic Figure
Item No.: Asst. 87500 No. 87235
Number: #3003
Includes: He has a buckit
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $6.99
Availability: March 2007
Appearances: Revenge of the Sith

Bio: The volcanic planet of Mustafar has spawned a number of native life-forms, including the sentient Mustafarians. These insectoid bipeds wear armor that is fashioned from the castoff shells of their lava flea mounts and can withstand the extreme heat and splashes involved in mining hot lava. (Taken from the figure's cardback.)

Image: Adam Pawlus' lamp.

Commentary: As one of the few 100% new never-before-released-at-all sculpts in Wave 1 2007, the Mustafar Lava Miner should be an exciting figure. In a way, it was, but in another more accurate way, it wasn't. It's huge, it has lots of articulation, but even though it has a bucket, it's still not exactly a stunning release mostly because few fans were crossing their fingers in hopes of Hasbro releasing every last figure to re-enact the miners in the background of the epic Obi-Wan vs. Darth Vader duel. The detail is great, the size is impressive, and it's a true original-- but it's dull. Were this a Cantina alien, it'd be a little more exciting, or were it a member of Jabba's entourage, it'd be pretty slick. As a background character in a sequence which had tons of other, far more interesting minor characters which happened to be Separatist leaders, it's a weak figure. It's not bad, it's just one of those figures Hasbro does a bang-up job on that you look at and go "wow, that's really, really kinda dull." This is no fault of Hasbro's, as they did a great job integrating articulation and coloring the figure to look like it was just plucked off the scorched surface of a volcanic planet.

It's just... dull. Too bad Lucas didn't give this guy a moment or two to shine on the big screen, because then it might be a little more memorable in the context of the year. As it stands, this might be one of the more forgettable figures of 2007 just because it doesn't really fit in too many places in the entire line.

Collector's Notes: Only one version has been released so far and it came and went pretty quickly-- they were totally removed from the assortments before Wave 2 2007 ended its run. As such, this may be one of the shortest run figures of the year, although nobody really seems to care. Figures like this prove that a figure being "rare" compared to the others doesn't mean much in terms of the value of good old fashioned popularity.

Day 564: November 21, 2007