Star Wars: Episode I: Yoda with Jedi Council Chair action figure by Hasbro, review by Andrew Lenahan

Series Overview:
With Star Wars already being among the most successful toy lines of all time, it was inevitable that new toys would be released for 1999's Star Wars: Episode I: The Phantom Menace. However, overproduction and the somewhat lackluster quality of some of the toys, coupled with the poor reception of the CommTech voice chip gimmick, led to too much supply and not nearly enough demand. Nonethless, there were some highlights among the Episode one toys.

Character Overview:
Possibly the most famous and recognizable Star Wars character (besides perhaps Darth Vader), Yoda literally needs no introduction. In Episode I, serving on the Jedi High Council as a Jedi master, he's younger than most of us remember him from the original trilogy, but still basically looks and acts the same.

Action Figure Sculpt and Paint: 7.5
With a highly uneven sculpt, first we're wowed by a truly amazing facial sculpt: it's so lifelike and expressive, with such fine detail, that it's almost hard to believe that it's just a tiny action figure. Then we're brought right back down to earth with the body sculpt. He's dressed in robes, which are a singular challenge for sculptors in any case, and are not pulled off well here. The robes have a pockmarked texture which might look wonderfully realistic on a miniature grapefruit, but bizarre on what's supposed to be wool-like cloth. The bottom of the robe is very flat, which is common for robed figures and usually not a problem, but when he's sitting as he's supposed to be it looks very odd.

Paint is very sloppy, especially around the hands. Yoda has a lime-green complexion on his head (with orange smudges?) and dark green with lime accents on his hands and feet. Also, Yoda looks very dirty, like he's just rolled in the mud. Now that might not be a bad design decision for a Dagobah yoda, or even a battle Yoda, but it's hard to imagine that right before taking his seat on the Jedi Council he was testing his Slip 'N' Slide at the local pig farm.

Articulation: 6
Yoda articulates with a turning head, ball-jointed shoulders, and pivoting hips. His legs are fused together. On The plus side, he's very easy to stand up, and he fits into his chair reasonably well.

Accessories: 7
One of the accessories is the dreaded CommTech voice chip. Voice features tend to not be particularly exciting, and voice features requiring special hardware purchased seperately to activate are worst of all. The sound quality is also dismal, as it usually sounds like the character has had a tracheotomy. The one upside to CommTech chips is that they're pegged so they can double as figure stands, though that hardly made them any more popular with collectors. Even so, I'll list the included phrases, according to the card:

"Hard to see the dark side is."
"How feel you?"
"Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering."
"May the Force be with you."

The second, and far better, accessory is Yoda's Jedi High Council chair. It's not made of the normal high-quality plastic, but the sculpt is excellent, as is the paint op.

Packaging: Average
The Episode I figure packaging is standard bubble and cardboard stuff, though with a cool, moody red and black Darth Maul design.

Overall score: 7
Despite the wonderful facial sculpt, this is far from the best Yoda figure out there (that would be the 2004 Dagobah Yoda), nor even among the top three. If you really want a Yoda with a High Council chair, you'd so better with the Episode II version, which also has a lightsaber and Force action. While not a horrible figure, with so many better alternatives out there, this one is recommended only for Yoda completists.

Availability:
At this point, finding an Episode I figure in a retail store would be almost impossible. However, like all Star Wars material, there is a strong secondary market, and you should be able to locate one of these on eBay easily.