Tuesday, December 27, 2011

Rebel Reviews - VC81: Ben Quadinaros


Today we take a look at one of the worst characters from the Saga: Ben Quadinaros! Should you bother picking this one up? Read on to find out!


VC81: Ben Quadinaros
Accessories: blaster, pit droid
Articulation: ball jointed shoulders, elbows, hips, knees, and ankles; swivel wrists

Where do I begin with Ben Quadinaros? This character was painful to watch in The Phantom Menace film, so the fact that a Ben Quadinaros figure was released seems like a really bad joke. While some obscure characters (like Yarna and the Ice Cream Maker Guy) had cult followings that seemed to justify figures being made, Ben Quadinaros seems to receive nearly universal hate from the Star Wars fan community. 

The Ben Quadinaros action figure is a perfect fit for the character. Both are extremely useless, and look totally absurd. Hasbro did a great job of recreating the Dr. Seuse-esque design of Quadinaros, though I am not sure if that is good or bad. While some people clamor for super articulation on every figure, it feels wasted on a character like Quadinaros. The action figure has some ball joints (ankles and hips) that aren’t even included on action-oriented characters, so it almost feels like a slap in the face. The accessory compliment is very fitting, as Quadinaros includes a blaster pistol and a pit droid. While the pit droid is an old sculpt from 1999, it succeeds in making the figure seem like a slightly better value.

While most of my review has been very negative, I will give Hasbro credit on Quadinaros’ face sculpt. Instead of translating one of the character’s goofy expressions from The Phantom Menace, Hasbro sculpted a very angry and devilish expression for the figure. Despite the liberties taken on the face sculpt, the figure is not worth getting. The character is questionable, and the actual figure is not worth $9.






Review by Greg Bridgeman.

3 comments:

  1. Real StarWars know the underground movement that brought Ben Quadinaros to shelves everywhere. This figure is for the fans, not the "fan" who nit-picks everything since Empire.

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  2. B. Caddell, I disagree. Just because someone does not know something doesn't mean they are not a real star wars fan. It does not matter what they like about the saga nor what they collect. At the end of the day we are all star wars fans, and that is what makes us all have something in common.

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  3. I like that he is such a freaky looking thing. Not all creatures need look humanoid or meet our expectations. There in fact should be even freakier intelligent life-forms in the Star Wars universe in my opinion.

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