Wednesday, December 21, 2011

Rebel Reviews - VC30: Zam Wesell


It's a new look for Echo Base News Reviews, now being known as Rebel Reviews! David and I are also going to try to do some catching up with 2011's offerings in The Vintage Collection by doing two reviews per day this week. Our Rebel Reviews marathon continues with Zam Wesell. Is she improved over the Sneak Preview figure way back in the day? Read on!


TVC30: Zam Wesell
Articulation: ball joint head, shoulders, elbows, waist, knees, ankles; swivel wrists, hips
Accessories: binoculars, removable helmet, human head, Clawdite head, face-covering viel, hanging veil, sniper rifle, blaster pistol

If you can remember, the first Zam figure came in the Sneak Preview wave for Attack of the Clones. She was horribly pre-posed, only able to stand and fire her sniper rifle off the hip. While this works in Call of Duty, it doesn't work too well in modern collections. The next attempt was...still not too good. She was made to crouch this time with old fashioned (yep, 9 years is old in Star Wars years) hinged knees. She had one hinged elbow and another swivel arm that you could remove to recreate Obi-Wan's latest arm chopping escapade. Let's just say that Zam was overdue for a re-do. There's really no better way to look at Zam than to go head down...so let's go!

Her hat is where I want to start. There are times when Hasbro tries to do so much that it seems likes they're going overboard. Her..binoculars(?) are removable and move on a swivel. This doesn't seem to be a problem at first until you find out that the veil in front of her face is plugged in right under the holes that you plug the binoculars into. Well, if you're not blessed with skinny figures, i.e., me, you'll end up knocking veil out when you plug the binoculars in or vice versa. When you plug the face covering veil in to cover her face, you darn well know that you're covering her face. You can barely even see her eyes poking out! Thankfully, both of the veils fit well into their holes and hang without any problems. Heck, as you can see from the top, you can almost fit both at the same time! (Not that you'd really want to, but I digest.) Her Clawdite head fits well and you can slide it easily under her helmet. (No more of that face mask, two-in-one figure detail.) Obviously you can't replace her neck, so it's still her human white color.

Her waist is actually a bit higher than her true waist. What does this mean? When you move her waist joint, you don't move her belt line. There are so widgits that plug into her body, but they don't move with the top of her body as they should. They don't take too much away from the look of the figure, but it's a slight annoyance.

There really isn't much to say about the rest of the figure. The sculpting is fantastic. The hands are made well, they hold the sniper rifle well and in a somewhat natural pose, they hold her pistol well and I can go back and forth between the guns without worrying too much about the hands being stretched.

Her skirt blocks her from sitting or bending too well, but it's sculpted super well. So, let me answer for you the question you've all been asking: Can any Zam Wesell figure fit into her Speeder from the 2002 Saga line? No. She can slide in, but it just doesn't look like the sitting that she does in the movie. It sucks, but does anybody else even own that vehicle anymore? It's soooo ugly!

She's a great figure and she would be definitely worth the ten bucks retail, or a steal at the $5 TJ Maxx.





Review by Chris Wermeskerch

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