Bounty Hunter: Concept Boba Fett

It's been a while since I've done a Bounty Hunter Post so here is the origin of the main man himself, Boba Fett. Part of the 2006-2007 Hasbro Star Wars Artist Concept Series, Boba Fett is based on concept work done by Ralph McQuarrie. Though I'm sure others worked on the development of the character, McQuarrie gets the credit for the original concept.



The figure being the concept version does not yet have all the bright colors and battle damage that we all know and love from the movies, but rather is a clean gray and white version. Since the concept sported several helmet types an extra head is included to modify the look of your figure. Some cool features like a holster for his blaster, snap on flame for the flame thrower, and a concealed belly missile launcher have been added, all culled from the concept art.









This subset of figures has to be one of the coolest Star Wars toys in a long time, and were extremely popular. I consider myself a rather good toy hunter and I have not completed a set, which to tell you the truth I would really only want to get the Darth Vader version besides the few that I already have, one day Vader, we'll meet... Boba and I can wait, we're very patient.

Bounty Hunter: SD Boba Fett

Here we have the Medicom Toys Super Deformed (SD) Empire Strikes Back Boba Fett. Besides liking Boba Fett, I picked this up because it reminds me of a drawing I did years before for Star Wars Kids Magazine of Fett for a feature called Boba Fett's Bounty Hunt.



It was actually a drawing in my portfolio of the Fett-Man that got me the gig at Star Wars Kids back in 1999, that all the following Boba Fett Drawings I did were based on. Everyone that has seen the magazine and then visits the studio says the same thing. "Did you design that toy?" Nope, but I have to believe somewhere, someone had seen the drawings I did and it gave them the inspiration. Or it could be a coincidence, who knows? Still it's a fun little toy to have around. Medicom actually did the Return of the Jedi version as well, but that's the one that screams like a baby as he falls into the Sarlaac Pit and I'll have no part of that.

Well while I dig up the original files, here's a couple of shots of some framed issues I have hanging in my office to compare (camera phone, guerilla style!).

Bounty Hunter: Transforming Fett!

I said Fett, not Vette... This is a crazy gift my buddy Bill gave me around my birthday (It's been a while I know Bill, I'm slow to post these things). This is crazy because it comes with a tiny, tiny Boba Fett, that fits into his space ship, the Slave I, that in turn transforms into a 7" Boba Fett, that you can also stick the little Fett into. I'm lost.



The vehicle mode is a pretty good representation of the Slave I. The ship mode alone is a pretty cool little toy, pop off the blasters, take tiny Fett out of the cockpit, and a few twists later you have the robot mode. The blasters go into the hands and tiny Fett can go back in for some robot riding goodness. Oh, the rocket pack fires pretty far for a modern toy. Back in my day we had toys that could fire missiles that could break the skin, before that kid swallowed the one from the Battlestar Galactic viper toy. Toys would never be the same. Kind of weird, that very incident caused the removal of the missile firing action from the original Fett figure, and here we are years later with a Fett toy that fires a pretty decent missile.



I really dig the package on this set, it has a little disk on the front in case you are not familiar with Transformers, that you can spin to see the ship mode and the transformed mode. If I hadn't wanted to check out the toy so bad it might have stayed in the package just for the little spinning disk alone. Good thing for digital cameras and blogs!




I have personally owned maybe three transformers (including this one) in my life, and one of those was a go bot, so I think this is pretty cool. My son, who has owned probably up into the hundreds of transforming toys (80% being Transformers), says this is rather basic for a Transformer. Either way it's still a freaking Boba Fett, if these would have been around when I was a child I would have been terrorizing the space lanes and neighbor planets with my Han Solo stomping robot of doom!

Bounty Hunter: McQuarrie Concept Snowtrooper

Okay, I know he's not a Bounty Hunter. But I practically had to take out a bounty to find this guy. It turns out my buddy Bill shops at a Magical Grocery Store as well, and picked this guy up on his weekly trip to the store. He also picked up a few buddies to go along with him (you're breaking me Bill, but thanks on this one).

So as you would know, McQuarrie equals favorite concept artist from the Trilogy. Snowtrooper equals one of my favorite paintings from said concept artist. Actually I love the sketches of the Snowtrooper, and if I find a copy of the Empire Strikes Back sketch book I had as a kid I will no doubt put scans up of my favorite drawings. So, where was I? Oh yeah, McQuarrie Concept Snowtrooper figure equals favorite figure, right?

You know next to my vintage Yoday and Boba Fett, this figure is easily one of my favorites of all time. Even if he has a wonky leg, not to worry Bill, they all have the one leg longer than the other problem. Looks like they copied the concept artwork too closely, right down to the pose. Cool!



Oh yeah, another cool thing is the colors on the helmet and the "nonsense numbers", great stuff, great stuff!

Bounty Hunter: Enter Greedo!

Chess bookoo-too ta chkeest-a CHKREN-ko, ya ol-chka.



Oota-goota, Solo? Jabba wa-neen-chi chko-ka a noo-ee shah-nee trai-tran-a-ee wan-ya rooska. heh heh heh



That's right more cuteness from a Galaxy Far, Far, Away! Hasbro Galactic Heroes Greedo and Han Solo! Because you need to show kids how to bargain with bounty hunters! The best bargaining chip you could have is a blaster at the ready kids. Take it from your buddy Han, best to shoot first and live to fight another day! Poor wittle Greedo won't know what hit him.



Also, I couldn't pass on this set, seeing how my newly acquired Galactic Heroes Millennium Falcon didn't come with the "cool vest" Han Solo, plus he needed a Greedo to shoot!

Bounty Hunter: Christmas Fett

Okay, not Christmas Fett exactly, but this is the version of Boba Fett that appeared in the famed Star Wars Holiday Special. This could be considered a debut for the Fett man as this is his first appearance in media.



The figure is again a re paint of the Vintage Original Triolgy Collection figure, this time with some slight changes to his gauntlets, a new holster and pistol, and the addition of a giant tuning fork he used to poke the dragon he rode in the cartoon. It would have been cool to see the dragon realized at the scale of the figure, maybe I'll go but some play-doe. There is also the obvious color change. This figure was previewed with a much cooler animated style helmet, but for reasons unknown he got to keep the standard fett helmet. See this is why previewing figures in magazines and on the web is such a let down some times. You get your hopes up and then the figure hits and bam!

I guess it could work in reverse as well, bad looking figure, company gets feed back, and when the figure is released you get a much better product... Nah never happen.

Bounty Hunter: Comic Pack Boba Fett 2008

Last year Hasbro started releasing Comic Packs, two figures accompanied by a reprint of a Dark Horse or Marvel Comic. The figures are meant to reflect the characters in the comic. Sometimes these comic packs are available at most retail chains and sometimes the are "exclusive" to certain ones. The Boba Fett Comic pack is a Wal Mart exclusive this year. The strange thing about the comic packs is the color of the figures. As I have mentioned they are meant to reflect the look of the character in the comic. Most of the Dark Horse reprints use colors from the modern comics, which are pretty much the same as movie or TV versions of the characters. The Marvel age of Star Wars comics was known for its strange (by today;s standards) coloring, which means the figures are colored to match. So that being said I give you the comic pack Boba Fett and a purple RA-7 Droid, old schoolers might remember him as the Death Star Droid.



I kinda of like the purple droid, adds a little flair to the Star Wars shelf here at Eclectorama, the Fett figure isn't too shabby either. A much brighter version of the Fett man, the figure is based on the Vintage Original Trilogy Collection figure of 2004. This marks the fourth version or repaint of this figure base. The second version I have shown here. This version bears a similar resemblance to the vintage 12" Boba Fett of Legend. I still have yet to capture a 12" vintage Fett, so an e-bay swipe will have to do for comparison. The comic pack figure also has some sand or Sarlaac pit goo detail. At first glance it looks like a mistake on the figure, but it supposed to represent the part of the comic were Boba is covered in sand and the fore mentioned goo when found by the Jawas. Which leads us to the re printed comic.



"Jawas of Doom!" Star Wars # 81! The story in a nut shell, Boba Fett has survived the Sarlacc Pit from Return of The Jedi, but is unconscious just outside the mouth of the pit. Seems the Sarlaac didn't find his armor to appetizing. A band of Jawas and their RA-7 droid find him and have trouble determining if he is a droid or cyborg so they take him to the sand crawler, which I will note changes scale and configuration a time or two in the story. In the mean time R2-D2 has found himself in the clutches of the same Jawas and it's up to Princess Leia and Han Solo to pull his metal ass from the fire.

Boba Fett regains consciousness and is immediately recognized by the R2 unit, but Fett is suffering from amnesia and fails to recognize R2 or Han Solo who has came to rescue the little droid. Leia in the mean time is outside the Sand crawler attacking it with her stolen landspeeder, causing the crawler to veer out of control back towards the Sarlacc Pit. Han enlists the help of Boba Fett to lift the droid out of a top hatch to get to safety before the Sand Crawler meets it's end in the Sarlaac's belly. As Leia calls Han's name, Boba Fett's memory comes back and instead of grabbing Han's hand to climb up himself, he chooses to take a shot at the scoundrel. Han and R2 leap to safety, leaving Fett to head straight into the Pit with the Sand Crawler. Khaaaaaaaan! I mean Haaaaaaaaaan!

Now some amazing things about this comic. The Sand Crawler, as big as it is can be swallowed by the Sarlaac, and apparently tastes better than Boba Fett's armor. So it's a Fett in a Crawler that does the trick for the Sarlaac. Our heroes also steal two speeders outright from some poor alien sap on Tatooine, not borrow, steal and return fire as they do so, nice. I'm also amazed that Boba Fett, when he remembers Han, does not use his rocket pack to get clear of the Sand Crawler, then take his shot. Also he may need to rethink the helmet because he misses Han at about five feet, but then again he's a clone and like the Stormtrropers apparently cannot shoot to save his life. As I have mentioned the Sandcralwer is drawn in different scales and at one point has a couple of seats on the front that the Jawas can be seen using as a cockpit. One nice moment at the start of the story is a small panel depicting a tender moment between a man and his Wookie, it was so beautiful.

So two figures, an amazing story, and Wookie love what better way to spend 10 bucks and an afternoon? What better way indeed.

Bounty Hunter: Bubble Gum Cards

Straight from a pack of Empire Strikes Back Trading Cards to Eclectorama! The notorious Boba Fett makes an appearance on the illustration / sketch cards of the day, the day being 1980! Back in the day we also ended up calling them Bubble Gum Cards.

I remember my buddies and I buying these cards by the case at the new Warehouse Club store, that would later become a Sam's then close to become a Walmart, and is now a fitness center, and trade them on the bus after school. Which really turned into passing off the extras you didn't want to someone else. Each pack had the standard stick of gum that had to be left over from the first world war! At least in our minds anyway. How come no matter how bad that gum tasted, you ended up eating every last stick?

I had one of these illustration based cards up before with the Stormtrooper of the Week feature last year. These were a breath of fresh air among all the photo cards and I count these as some of my favorite images from the movies. More than likely these were style guide images used on other products, but I haven't been able to place them on anything else yet, though I'm still looking!

So enjoy this weeks Bounty Hunter on his hot pink background!

Bounty Hunter: 30th Anniversary Boba Fett

So last year Hasbro released this line of figures to help celebrate the 30th Anniversary of Star Wars, man do I feel old. Anyway this version of the Fett was to be another mold, actually the one pictured on the back of the card. That one pictured has an action feature, where you press down the rocket on his pack and he raises his arm into a firing position. Kinda cheezy, but they did a really good job at hiding the mechanics. Plus it had a really cool stand that looked like flames. Well back to this one. Seems the fans spoke and they wanted this version, which is a repack of the VOTC figure (Vintage Original Trilogy Collection).



Don't get me wrong, but this is kind of what is turning me off of Star Wars collecting, at least the action figures anyway. The VOTC figure was about 10 bucks when it came out, it was marked up more because it has more articulationn than the basic figures, packed in vintage style packaging, and was supposed to have more detail. Cool and cool, until they release it a year or two later in their basic line. To me this defeats the purpose of getting these types of figures, though for the purpose of making money it's a home run. This isn't the first time I was bit by this snake, the first time I purchased the second version though. I have no one but myself to blame though.

To tell you the truth, if they were going to repaint Boba Fett over and over, I wish they would use this mold and paint him in his Empire Strikes Back colors. There's a difference? you ask. Hell yeah! Empire Boba is a little bit duller in the paint scheme, his gauntlets are green, and the jet pack doesn't have all the bright colors. Doesn't everyone know that? As I kid I didn't have a clue, nor did I care. It wasn't till I had to draw him over and over again for Star Wars Kids Magazine that I learned all the little differences.



This Boba Fett, even sporting his Jedi colors, is still a really great figure. So if you had to have one besides the original and the 300th version, it would be this one. He's sort of like the super articulated Stormtrooper, can be posed pretty believably and is probably the best (not including the original) version of the character out right now. Oh I mentioned the 300th version, that's not the 300th version of Boba Fett, but the 300th Star Wars figure that has been released, that happens to be Boba Fett. More on this one later.





This one comes from the aisles of the Magical Grocery Store. I knew he was out and wasn't sure I would get him since I had the VOTC version, but being a fan of the Fett, and having had a JLU dry spell, I picked him up. Just for the purposes of reviewing him here, and I can't pass up a Fett figure! I mean to compare him to the VOTC version in the future and see if there are any differences. I'm betting that they would be minor if any, maybe since they were manufactured a few years apart. Still would be neat to compare. Till then, enjoy some more macro shots. Who knows maybe I'll try my hand at a custom paint scheme and paint me up an Empire Strikes Back Fett!

Bounty Hunter: Burger King Squirting Boba Fett!

What else can I say about this? Rendered in the super deformed style popular in Japan, just fill this Boba Fett with liquid (of your choice) and get to squirting. Originally released back in 2005 as a kids meal premium, it wasn't till my bud, Bill found him and Yoda at a garage sale that I came across this figure. I gotta say this is the type of stuff I really like, it's goofy, has an action feature, and it was free!

You know when you collect certain characters, your bound to accumulate a lot of similar stuff, like action figures, so coming across stuff like this keeps it interesting.

Bounty Hunter: Titanium Series Die Cast Boba Fett

One of these days I'm going to open this bad boy up just to see what Boba Fett looks like! Okay, okay I already know what he looks like, a freaking clone! So what's the big deal. Well for a while (a while being 2007) this was the first version of Boba Fett that you could take off his helmet and see the little visage of the bad boy clone himself. You would think that with all the clones with removable helmets that this would have been a no brainer action figure back in 2006. Why did it take Hasbro so long to release a figure of Boba Fett with a removable helmet? Some one there must have gotten the clue because joining this little hatless wonder will be an evolutions set with a little Boba Fett that can take a breather from that awesome little helmet. For those not in the know, and evolutions set is a set of three or so figures following the evolution of a character or theme in the Star Wars universe. An example would be Anakin Skywalker's fall to the dark side. So you would get a set with good Ani, bad Ani, and finally burned Ani (Darth Vader).

The Fett Set (I like how that sounds) will have a Mandalorian, Jango, and baby Boba. I've gone on record before as to my distaste for little clones that you can remove the helmets to see the same little dude staring back at you, but I've moved beyond and embraced the notion of yet another version of Boba floating around for all those Fett Fanatics (I like the sound of that as well), including myself.

Back to this Fett, this guy comes in two versions a painted version with all the official colors of the Fett man, plus this version billed as the "vintage die cast look" or as I like to call it "I bet we can sell these things without paint and still make money look!". Well it worked because I ended up with one in my collection. Now I didn't set out to get this guy right away, matter of fact I ended up getting this one as a gift so I didn't have to buy it. I've always been of the school of thought if your doll is going to be called an action figure it should at least be possible and not glued to a stand. So I waited and waited, continually putting off a purchase from this line until one day they had dried up or had been moved to the discount bins. Ever the procrastinator I still put off buying him pending the decision to get painted or plain. I was leaning toward plain, when this guy crossed my desk, so it was a win, win.

As I said at the beginning, I'm interested in popping this guy out of the package to see how heavy he is, check out the level of detail, and take a peek under the helmet... it's just that the package is pretty cool as it is and I'm not sure I want to ruin it by breaking it open, so here I am again with this one.

Announcing Bounty Hunter!

Well 2007 saw the Stormtrooper of the Week feature, which I really enjoyed, so I thought what other Star Wars character(s) do I enjoy?! The answer to that is the bounty hunters, more specifically Boba Fett, not to say I won't drop some of the others up from time to time. So the name of the new feature is called just that, Bounty Hunter! Now I'm not sure if this should be weekly, bi-weekly, monthly, etc. But from time to time I'll drop a cool pic of something related either toy-wise, comic-wise, or collectable-wise on Eclectorama featuring the scum and villainy of the Star Wars Universe. Heck I might even through a hero up there every once in a while!

Now I know what some of you are thinking, Boba Fett, he's lame! To that I respond, recently yes, yes he is. Nothing hurt me more than Boba Fett appearing in the prequels as an annoying little brat, I really wasn't impressed with Jango Fett either. The key word is recently, while I'll show pics of new Fetts, it's the ideal of the ol' Boba Fett that appeals to me. See, I was a kid when the "Sneak Preview" figure was announced for Empire Strikes back. I immediately sent in my proofs of purchase and this mysterious helmeted figure arrived declaring he was a new Bounty Hunter from the upcoming Star Wars flick. I didn't even know what a bounty hunter was exactly until the Empire Strikes Back came out. I remember eagerly awaiting to see the new character on the big screen and with his gravely voice agreeing not to vaporize Han Solo upon capture I was hooked. I knew right then and there this was a bad ass. It wasn't until Jedi and the scream when he was rocketed into the Sarlaac pit that I came to the realization that he might not be the bad ass I thought he was. But, it was this initial encounter that got cemented in my brain that Boba Fett was the end all, be all bad boy of Star Wars, and that's what this feature will celebrate!

So to start off here's my very first encounter with Mr. Boba Fett, the 1978 Preview figure from my childhood, easily my most treasured toy, the one I would save in case of natural disaster, the one that I would pass down to a grand child upon my death bed, the one that if said grand child never arrived I would be buried with!





This is the one figure that looks better when he's all scratched up! Though mine is in pretty decent shape, even though he has a few paint chips here and there! I wonder if they had lead in them?

This is the one that came in the mail, I never had to go and purchase one on the card (though now I wish I had, and kept it on the card). The day he arrived he became my favorite figure. Let's face it he was crazy looking, the costume was like nothing I had seen in the film, he was an agent of the Empire and his costume was way cooler than Darth Vader. More importantly he had no back history, I could make it up as I went along. I do remember that he was supposed to have a firing back pack, but I wasn't disappointed that it didn't fire. If I remember right there was note in the package explaining the safety issue or something. That got immediately tossed out, who cares about safety when you're holding one of the Galaxies most notorious bounty hunters in your hands. This little guy stole Rebel X-wings, hunted down Chewy, and on occasion would give Vader a bitch slap with his slapping hand. There was nothing that this dude couldn't do, until Jedi that is.