Hasbro
Released March, 2004
Reviewed by Adam Pawlus
Photography by Michael Sullenger
Reviewed on April 30, 2004
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When Return of the Jedi was released over 20 years ago, Kenner saw a cash cow. There were 8 movie Ewoks, 2 cartoon Ewoks, a glider, a village, a catapult, a battle wagon, and countless other licensed goods as well as two movies and an animated series that lasted for two years. In the new line, Kenner and Hasbro have so far released six Ewoks and that's about it. This figure is a generic Ewok with Attack Glider which is welcome because, frankly, generic Ewoks are a nice change of pace.

This figure is packaged with a spear, rocks, and a glider with harness.

Sculpt/Articulation/Gimmicks/Paint

Figure and a vehicle, $10. Hard to top that.

Once again, Hasbro wisely tweaked an existing mold to make a new figure. Ewok was made from a modified Teebo.



The torso had a pouch added to it, the left arm no longer has a wrist joint, the feet have been altered, and the head is all new. The basic pose and fur sculpt remains the same, though, but the good thing is that it looks like a very different figure as long as they aren't both posed the exact same way in a diorama or in a photograph.

The head is more in line with the traditional original Ewok figures from 1983, namely, it looks mean. His teeth are there for all to see, and he doesn't look especially pleased. This is good, as he has several methods of attack at his disposal with which he can use to crush his enemies from above or below. The face has a good amount of paint on it, although the fur is a little clumpy. The hood is part of the head and unlike Teebo or Wicket, it is not removable. This is a bit of a shame as it would be easy to re-use the mold for future figures if they had just made it with more interchangable pieces, but hey, at least it looks different than what we already have.

As mentioned above, the figure is basically a revised Teebo. The bottoms of his feet look more like the bottoms of Ewok feet and sport 2004 copyrights, but the overall look of the body and limbs remains the same. The figure doesn't have Teebo's stripes which, again, makes him distinct from his plastic ancestor. He's articulated at the shoulders, neck, hips, and at the right wrist which help him to hold his spear, but not very well. It seems odd Hasbro opted to remove the other wrist given that it's quite useful when placing him on the glider.

Accessories

This package includes everything you see here, which includes an Ewok, Glider, Spear, and Rock Bombs. I should note those are Hasbro's terms, not mine.

It's nice to see Hasbro include more pieces than necessary for this set, as it gives the Ewok multiple options as far as his activities in a display are concerned.

The glider, not surprisingly, holds only one figure. It's a little tricky to set up, but the included instructions and these photos should help get past that hurdle.

The glider is made of a translucent plastic which seems like it's going to be horrible, but in person looks fantastic. The original 1983 glider was a solid brown color, and this allows the vehicle to look just a little more like an actual animal skin. The ability to drop rocks is somewhat weak on the revised toy, though, as there's no lever you can flip to quickly and easily attack your foes, you more or less have to grab the rock, pull it off the tab, and drop it yourself. From a collector perspective, this is good because it results in a more authentic looking glider. The kid in me, the part that prefers the frosted side, wants to know what kind of crap toy this is. So collectors, you'll dig this. Kids, well, you've got some extra work to do.

The rocks and spear look great and are sculpted well. They're painted even better, but suffer from the oh so common Super Bendy Weapon Syndrome that we've seen more and more of as of late. At least they look good, right?

While the smell leaves something to be desired, these new accessories are pretty fantastic. The glider is far better looking than the original toy or the one that came in the Complete Galaxies Endor set back in 1998, and what more can you ask for? Aside from a nice rock dropping mechanism, this is as good as it gets.

Packaging

This toy comes in an extra large, extra thick Saga-style cardback. The design is fairly identical to that of the basic figures, but it's bigger. It would have been nice to have had it be just a little more distinctive, though, but I should also note I'm not a big fan of the gold-striped late-2003 Saga packaging anyway.

Availability

While I have yet to see one in stores, many others have. Keep your eyes open.

Fin

For $10, it's great. The Ewok is nice, the glider is nice, the weapons are nice, and it looks like you're more or less getting your money's worth. The Ewok-phobes will want to pass, but everybody else is in for a treat. Kudos, Hasbro, on revisiting Endor and on doing it well.

Our regular sample was obtained from Entertainment Earth in April 2004.