*Reviews
| Saga
| Vehicles
Want to recreate the high-speed chase between Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Zam from Episode II? Then you're gonna need one of these. Zam's speeder features some nice detailing and a nifty crash feature. Read on for the review and 8 photos!
Zam Wesell Speeder
with Blast-Off Panels
"Fleeing her pursuers, Zam Wesell pushes her speeder to its limit on a harrowing, high-speed chase through the streets and buildings of Coruscant. Barely keeping the fast, highly maneuverable vehicle ahead of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker, Zam's flight ends in an explosive crash." --Excerpt from the box back
| Sculpt--4/5 Before the movie came out, I didn't even look at either of the speeders, but now after seeing the movie, Zam's speeder seemed a lot cooler to me. As far as I can tell, the sculpting is pretty accurate. The two "prongs" on the front of the speeder are rubber (more on that later) which makes the prongs a bit warped-looking. It's not that bad though, and I didn't even notice it when I was looking at it in the store. Beneath the two removable panels are the engines and machinery which looks very good well detailed. It's kind of hard to say if the cockpit is accurate to the movie; your figures will practically be lying down in the cockpit and I'm not sure if that's how it is in the movie. The seat looks good though and there are handle bars, foot pedals, and a display. The two prongs on the back of the speeder are made of softer plastic (probably so it's harder to hurt yourself), and because of that, one of them is a bit curved. Features--5/5 The speeder has an opening cockpit, but the real feature of the speeder is its blast apart battle damage feature. This is just a very cool feature and was executed very well. As mentioned earlier, the front prongs are made of rubber (well, just the outsides are made of rubber), and the hard plastic tips are spring loaded. You push the tips in, either by "crashing" it into a wall or pushing them in manually. Upon doing so, the panels covering the engines fly off and the tips lock in place so the prongs are all crunched up. My explanation of the process probably didn't do it justice, but the rubber really does a good job of making it look "battle damaged". Accessories--3/5 Zam's Speeder comes with two blast off panels to cover the engines. I'm not sure what else they could have included so I guess I can't complain that that's all you get. Although it would have been nice if it came with a pilot Zam Wesell, since the Sneak Preview Zam and Bounty Hunter Zam don't fit in the cockpit all too naturally. Paint--4/5 The paint is well done; the engine sections look very nice and you can't even tell where the rubber ends and the hard plastic begins. The yellow and white paint on the rubber sections are pretty tacky-feeling though, and is prone to getting dust and lint stuck to it. i have also noted some cracking where the rubber bends when in crashed mode, so you may not want to use the feature too much. Packaging--4/5 The packaging is also well done. The front has a large window, allowing you to get a good look at the speeder. There's also a nice backdrop of Coruscant in the background. The back has a nice picture of the speeder with its panels on and a smaller picture of it in crashed mode. Overall--4/5 This thing actually turned out better than I thought it would be. I love the crashing feature and turned out to be a fun toy. The only downside is that there isn't a Zam figure that fits in the cockpit properly, which almost defeats the purpose of owning this vehicle in the first place.
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All original website content and photos © Copyright 2002-2006 Garett Yoshimura. All Rights Reserved. Not affiliated with Lucasfilm Ltd. or Hasbro.