Star Wars Action Figure Reviews

General Rieekan is finally immortalized in plastic and comes with an excellent tactical screen. Is this worthy of being an Ultra figure? Read on for the review and 12 photos!

General Rieekan

with Hoth Tactical Screen

"A battle-weary but capable commander, General Carlist Rieekan was the Rebel officer in charge of Echo Base on Hoth. Rieekan had to make the difficult decision of evacuating the base that the men and women under his command had worked so hard to build. Most of the evacuation transports were able to escape Imperial pursuit and regroup elsewhere, ensuring the Rebellion's survival. Born on Alderaan, he was off-planet, inspecting a new satellite transmission system when the Death Star obliterated his home." --Excerpt from the package back

	Sculpt--5/5 I've been looking forward to this figure since it was announced and Hasbro has delivered a great sculpt. The headsculpt has tons of character and the likeness is dead-on. Rieekan's outfit looks equally good with realistic wrinkles and there's a slight texture that is visible on close inspection. There are some other nice touches, like the way his belt sags ever so slightly, or the way the flaps of his lower pockets kind of flair out. Rieekan is a bit preposed, forever pointing at something. I suppose you can put a gun in his hand though. Articulation--2/5 Whoa! What the heck happened here? General Rieekan has five points of articulation: neck, shoulders, and hips. Is this 1983? It's pretty disappointing considering the higher price point of this figure and the fact that it's the year 2003. Waist articulation could have been included despite Rieekan's sagging beltline; they could have just included the articulation underneath his coat bottom. Wrist joints could have easily been hidden without altering the sculpt, and a bicep-cut would have been very useful but I can see how that would ruin the sculpting. Features--NA/5 There are no features associated with this set. Accessories--3/5 You get the Hoth tactical screen and that's it. The tactical screen looks great with its nice screen graphics and well-sculpted control panels. Some details on the control panels are actually just stickers, but they still look good. While the tactical screen is a nice accessory, I honestly don't think we're getting enough to warrant this set being in the Ultra/Deluxe line. I think including some computer stations or something would have helped a whole lot. Paint--4/5 Overall, the paint is good and well defined. The tactical screen looks really nice with its silver-edged control panel and the clean on-screen graphics. Rieekan is well done too but my figure has a poorly painted hairline with the brown paint of his hair overpainted onto his forehead. I'm not sure if Rieekan's belt buckle is supposed to be dark gray, but it is here. I also noticed a variation in the color of Rieekan's skin tone. There were six Rieekan's at the Toys R Us I bought this from and half of them had a more dirty, duller flesh tone than the others. The one pictured here is the other type, with a more realistic and colorful flesh tone. Packaging--3.5/5 Since this is the first Ultra figure I'm reviewing, I thought I'd say something about the packaging. The card is larger than the basic figure packaging as is the bubble to accommodate the larger figures in the Ultra line. This works against this particular set though, since Rieekan and his screen don't take up much room and thus it seems like there's a lot of wasted space. The graphics on the card are exactly like the gold-edged basic figures which I still dig. Overall--3.5/5 Why is this an Ultra figure? The figure is pretty basic and so is his tactical screen. There's really nothing here that warrants a higher price point. Sure, the sculpting on Rieekan is great and the tactical screen rocks, but asking ten bucks for this stuff is pushing it. On the other hand, I'm sure fans will have no problem paying ten bucks for a figure they've wanted for years, just as I've done. So is it worth ten bucks? It all depends on how badly you want this figure!