Lit From Paper to Plastic - assessing the accuracy of WotC's Star Wars miniatures - Mk II

Still the Vong though if you have them arround Jabba the Hutt.and Bossk.

 

I have all of them, yep. But I was going to do EU characters - if people want to see movie too, I'm happy to do that. Could look at some of the various Lukes...

 

Being a hard core Dark Times fan, I'd love to see a review of Dass Jennir, Bomo and K'Kruhk

 

Well, let's do the Vong then.

Yuuzhan Vong ​

​

The Vong premiered in the 4th set, and first non-movie themed set, Universe in 2005. The prior 3 sets had been OT themed (Rebel Storm), TPM/AotC and the awful 2003 Clone Wars themed* (Clone Strike) and a ROTS tie in. This set though touched on the EU in ways we hadn't seen before. RS included 1 EU mini in "Mara Jade, Emperor's Hand" and CS included Durge, but this set had the introduction of the dominant EU factions from the time - the New Republic and the Vong. As well as sweet AT-STs and Rancors.

Universe debuted two Vong generic troops, as well as Warmaster Tsavong Lah (who looked appropriately crazy) and Nom Anor, who was styled after his Crimson Empire II appearance (http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20060422152623/starwars/images/5/59/Nom_anor1.jpg). This gave us insight into their abilities from the NJO Books, in game form.

Ooglith Masquer: Nom Anor had this ability. It allows you to chose an ally and give that ally stealth. Useful for the idea of Anor as an advance agent of the Vong, and for how successfully he could manipulate others.

Plaeryin Bol: Another Nom Anor power, representing his lovely eye, this would replicate its poisonous spurt by doing 40 dmg to an adjacent living enemy. The damage was avoided by rolling 11+ on a d20.

Vonduun Crab armour: When a Vong takes damage, they can reduce the damage dealt by 10 with a save of 11 (6 if you're Tsavlong Lah). Meaning that they have a solid chance of reducing a Jedi's damage to 10 over 20, for example. I like this; the Vong armour was resistant to lightsabers in ways other armour wasn't and represented something that to me actually made the NJO work - a threat to the Jedi which wasn't eeeeeevil Sith. If you can't slice through them easily, it makes fighting waves of them just a little harder.

Force Immunity - This is the real crux of the Vong concept, and I have to admit in hindsight (and as I rag endlessly on how awful Dork Nest and subsequent EU was) it was a nice way of scaling bad the all-powerful nature of the Jedi. How this works is easy - enemies cannot affect this character with Force powers, or spend Force points to reroll attacks against this character or to respond to this character's attacks and abilities. So when someone like Emperor Palpatine, who only does damage with his Force barbeque lightning, comes up against an 8pt Vong grunt he's somewhat stuffed.

Similarly, if you get hit for a fatal 40dmg from Nom Anor's plaeryn bol, you can't spend a force point to reroll the save. Nor can you use the lightsaber parry skill to deflect a melee attack. Very nasty, but so utterly appropriate.

Razor and Thud bugs: Another aspect of Vong weaponry was the use of small bugs as missile weapons. Only one non-Vong has these - that silly sidekick dude from the fanwank extravaganza that was the Legacy comic (and look, it was a fun read but it was so obviously an effort at pandering). Razorbugs are just a ranged attack that does damage 10 vs save 11. Not hugely effective but if you're facing a 24 defence target it's better just to go for a 50% chance of 10% than a slimmer chance and no damage.

But, thud bugs? Nasty. They have a range of 6 and do 10 damage. However, any living target hit is considered activated this round; a save roll of 11 negates the activation. (Huge and larger characters, like Dark Trooper Phase 3, ignore the nondamaging effect).

Activations are key. You get 2 activation per turn, with a round ending and initiative (where winner picks who goes first in the next round) being rolled. A figure can only be activated once per round. So, if you use the Thud Bug to activate a round who hasn't moved yet this turn, it can be hugely damaging to the other player's efforts. Anything in Star Wars minis that controls the flow of the game is useful.

But it's also hugely thematic, in that we learn the thud bugs stunned people in the NJO books all the time. Jedi could "deflect" them (where deflect = cut in half) and that's the save 11 but they were pretty effective weapons in the books.

Shaper - Introduced in the later set Legacy of the Force, the Vong shaper buffed Vong units by adding +10dmg to allies within 6 squares. What was nice yet nasty about this is that it too multiplied by critical hits. When you look at a character like Mara, who has 10 dmg base and adds 10 for her lightsaber - she crits for 30, not 40. This is because base 10 dmg is doubled with a crit (roll of 20 or 19/20 if they have the ability) and 10 for lightsaber is added. If a Vong warrior crits his normal attack and adds the shaper's +10, it's 10 x 2 + 10 x 2 = 40. It's situational and not always reliable, but accurately represents the influence of shapers in YV culture in terms of enhancing the warrior caste.

Scarification: This was another cute mechanic, very apt for the faction and the Vong. It represents the Vong's embrace of pain and disfigurement as strengthening tools. Any wounded ally within 6 squares of a Praetorite Vong Priest (from the Jedi Academy set) gains +4 to their attack role and +10 damage. In game terms, this probably helped the Vong deal with stat creep in some key heroes and troops. In lore terms, it's actually perfect and probably should have been introduced earlier.

Named characters: There are 3 named Vong; Nom Anor, Tsavong Lah, and Yomin Carr - who came to us in the hit and miss set of Alliance and Empire. All three have great sculpts, and though Yomin Carr was one of the "great" sculpts of that set he also looked a bit Mars Attacks!...

They were in their own ways useful. Anor was a loner with stealth, who operated best in a flanking move. He also created legendary NomBombs, where followers could self destruct for an unavoidable 20dmg when they died adjacent to enemy units. The warmaster had a whopping 200 hit points and was a pain to kill whilst being a decent commander. Not great, but just decent. Carr had the ability, and gave it to followers, to spit poison within range 6 for 20 dmg save 11. So they didn't miss the parts of the characters which defined them and made really good transitions from page to plastic.

Of course, you could throw Fringe faction droids into YV squads which was all sorts of not thematically appropriate, and there were Peace Brigade thugs who gave minor bonuses to YV damage, but the point of these reviews is to assess the accuracy of the translation. So not having a built in ability to block them having droids in their squad was an oversight, but not a fatal one. There's so many unique powers that only apply to the Vong that it would be hard to say that WotC failed in any way to translate the Vong to minis. And having played themed NR v Vong games before, the sense of difficulty and being overwhelmed is there when your big hitting Luke or Mara has to wade through Tsavong Lah's huge hitpoint pool. It was just a good thing that later on Fett showed up in the books so I could use him - his disintegration on a roll of 20 is hilariously good fun vs YV.

There are 5 EU specific factions in the minis game - New Republic, Yuuzhan Vong, Old Republic, Sith, and Mandalorians. These factions therefore represent the not-insignificant challenge of interpreting characters to the plastic format and actually are largely successful in doing so. (Sith might be a bit of grey area because you can get Sidious as a Faction:Sith mini). But Vong was probably one of the toughest because conceptually it had to be about viable troops with very few notable commanders.

WotC did an excellent job with these guys and despite a midform slump in sculpts at least made all 3 named Vong excellent quality.

Next up - Dass Jennir?

* - I really didn't like the OTT Force powers in the Windu episode, nor the animation style for this series. I'm mostly a fan of Clone Wars (the new one) but the era in general was a bit... meh for me.

 

Dass Jennir​

Hit Points:80
Defense:18
Attack:9
Damage:10

Special Abilities

• Unique
• Double Attack (On his turn, this character can make 1 extra attack instead of moving)
• Affinity (May be in a Republic squad)
• Lightsaber (+10 Damage against adjacent enemies)

Force Powers

• Force 2
• Force Renewal 1 (This character gets 1 Force point each time he activates)
• Dispassionate Killer (Force 1: +4 Attack and +20 Damage until the end of this character's turn. At the end of that turn, make a save of 11. If the save fails, this character is immediately defeated.)
• Force Leap (Force 1: This turn, this character can move through enemy characters without provoking attacks of opportunity)
• Jedi Mind Trick (Force 1, usable only on this character's turn: range 2; target living enemy is considered activated this round and cannot make attacks of opportunity this turn; save 11)

Dass Jennir was introduced to us in the fittingly titled Dark Times expansion in 2008. I ended up getting the mini, liking the look and reading the first Dark Times trade.

Appearance

The look of the mini is based on the look he had when fighting against the new Empire with the Nosaurians, such as in this image here: http://img2.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb...images/0/00/Battle_of_New_Plympto_Imp_era.jpg

Fairly dynamic pose, an interesting mix of the practical kit of the Rebel/OT era with the colour uniformity of the PT era, creating a nice blended look despite being shades of green. Well painted and detailed too, though like with the WotC Dungeons & Dragons miniatures there was a real hit and miss attempt to paint eyes on minis by effectively applying a decal like feature. It works on my Dass mini, but I have a Lyrandire Skyfire Captain elf from D&D who looksl ike he's wearing a flesh coloured domino mask with fake eyes painted on a result.

However, the problem with a monochromatic character is that it's a bit uninteresting to look at. I think they did a great job in capturing the look of Jennir, but it's not really a stand out mini. You'd only shelf-display this one if you were a huge DT fan.

8.5/10

Stats

Um, where to start. Jennir was a Jedi Master, so when the 26 pt Jedi Weapon Master generic has better stats than you it's a bit of a letdown (http://www.bloomilk.com/Character/273/jedi-weapon-master - basically Cin Drallig, but not named). Though Jennir can synergise well with other minis to increase his output, it really means he's most effective stoving in Stormtrooper heads than taking on a tough bad guy, which one would expect of a Jedi master. The defence is ok, but attack and HP are a bit low.

Lightsaber is standard for 10dmg, blaster-and-saber Jedi (there's 2 exceptions from memory who just do 20 dmg ranged and melee. Force Unleashed Luke is one of them, can't remember the other) and double attack is actually nice. A Czerka scientist helps him out a bit, but still...

6/10

Powers

Jennir has a decent range of Force powers. Force 2 with renewal 1 is appropriate for a Master, though it doesn't signal his growing reliance on non-Force skills and his desire to go into hiding. However, given the mini is wearing a goatee and frickin' sweet hat, it might also be a snapshot of Jennir at a particular time and not representative of his whole career so I can forgive it. Mind trick really works, as I remember Jennir using it to avoid detection by slavers during the Dark Times arc. Good call on the inclusion then.

So, the real surprise then comes with respect of the inclusion of "Dispassionate Killer". This to me beautifully captures the moment where Dass kills Meeto, and the flurry of emotions he feels. To recap - dispassionate killer grants +4 Attack and +20 Damage until the end of this character's turn. At the end of that turn, make a save of 11. If the save fails, this character is immediately defeated. It is risky as hell, and in a way represents his mindset. But if it works, there's a sense of relief which I remember Jennir feeling. I really, really like that this is included and with a Force battery (i.e. Yoda spirit, Anakin spirit, etc) he has effectively a second save to roll at the cost of one Force point. It really screams Jennir, and nobody else has it (obviously because there was only one other expansion after this) but then again, who would?

8/10

* * * *

Overall, Jennir's very situational and probably more useful to Rebels than the Republic faction, who can get the aforementioned Jedi Weapon Master for more reliable beatstickery and less points. You'd have to be a big Dark Times fan to shelf-display him, but he's not hideous. The stats are not very good, but the special powers are and I suspect they made the effort to scale him back relative to the beings he fought in the comics. Plus, Dispassionate Killer is actually strong when it works.

Overall: 7.5/10. Solid effort by WotC at adapting Jennir, but with a low statline to undermine the score.

 

Oh well done, now I can´t like your Vong Minis post and pandering to fans is not a bad thing, especially when we have seen the opposite in action when authors just pander to themselves like in LOTF.

Funny enough there is an insane Droid warrior who actually fought in the Peace Brigade.

 

oh come on! Legacy was nothing but fan service. The entire point was to create something that was so derivative of everything fans wanted in Star Wars that it avoided controversy by sheer weight of ticks in the right boxes. Cade Skywalker is a massive tosser. He has a trench coat and douchy facial hair. He has a Mal Reynolds style old-timey but also SF gun. He has Vader's trousers. He's angsty and flirts with the darkside. He is a rogue, a bounty hunter, and a ladies man. It's just... sickening. And they were good stories, but we didn't need to hear about ANOTHER SKYWALKER. The era could have been interesting had they invented a new protagonist. Plus I'm not sure why the 150ish Hett had to be SPOILER the Villain.

Plus the "Imperial Knights" was just designed to appeal to fascists like Jello without having to deal with grotty Sith lords. Basically if they went to RPF and said 'what do you want from a comic?', the answers = Legacy.

But yes of course, I own all the TPBs and enjoyed it. Even knowing what it was.

Maybe I should review Cade?

EDIT: Liked your post for the comment about LOTF authors.

 

You could use the whole crew they have a pretty nice dynamic if used together.

Well done fan service though. Just like something like the Atlas.

They did and it worked in this case because he is something of a very different beast then Luke and Vader.

Because random Dark Sider of the week would not have worked.

Or you know just offer another perspective and a more complex galaxy?

Rwandan Patriotic Front ?

I still don´t see the problem aside from it getting cut short which did diminish the story a whole lot.

Or maybe especially because of what it was.

 

Great thread. It's so rare to see a discussion on the WOTC minatures. I'd love to see a Ferus Olin miniature if there is one. I love LOTJ.

 

He is liek a Jedi but also a Bounty Hunters and Smuggler and Rogue and liek, Jedi.

He has an earring and bad facial hair and lots of angst.

He wears his ancestors trousers and flirts with the dark side. He uses baddie powers but is still a goodie.

Ladies and gentleman, fan self-servicing reaches a new height as I give you Cade Skywalker!

Cade Skywalker, Bounty Hunter​

Hit Points:110
Defense:20
Attack:12
Damage:20

Special Abilities

• Unique
• Bounty Hunter +4 (+4 Attack against Unique enemies)
• Double Attack (On his turn, this character can make 1 extra attack instead of moving)
• Splash 10 (If this character's attack hits, all characters adjacent to the target take 10 damage; save 11. If the attack misses, the target and all adjacent characters take 10 damage; save 11.)
• Twin Attack (Whenever this character attacks, he makes 1 extra attack against the same target)

Force Powers

• Force 5
• Force Heal 40 (Force 2, replaces attacks: touch; remove 40 damage from a living character)
• Force Push 3 (Force 3, replaces turn: range 6; 30 damage to target and to each character adjacent to that target, and push back target and each character adjacent to that target 3 squares if Huge or smaller)

Remember how much you liked Anakin Skywalker, thought he was a deep and well written character, but lamented he couldn't have shown up later and fought Sith and the Empire? Well if you're similarly afflicted by silly thoughts, here's a character just for you! The star of an admittedly fun romp called Legacy, Cade was a paper thin character that was composed of the worst elements of other, better developed characters (or, in the case of Angstakin Skywalker, equally terrible characters) to appeal to the lowest common denominator of fandom.
Sadly, the miniature does not come with the Dramatic Flying Kick power that all Legacy people seemed to have:

(Seriously. Go through the comics. Everyone fly kicks everyone else. It's a madhouse.)
Appearance
The sculpt isn't actually that accurate, not like Syn or Blue or the Fels, Imp Knights etc. Actually from memory all the Legacy cast got good sculpts... except Cade. But he's still wearing his correct outfit, albeit wielding a blue saber instead of green. And the blaster sort of looks like his double barrelled one, however it's a bit too sort of blobby to really be sure.
The pose looks like how I felt when I first understood the purpose of Legacy comics. A bit like I'm considering having a stroke but unsure if I should.
5/10.
Stats
Cade in the comics if, of course, a total badass. Nobody wants a properly flawed, introspective character. He needs to be able to kick seven kinds of Sith out of people and be tough and powerful and a bounty hunter and a smuggler and a Jedi and my favourite evah... Luckily, he has the stats to actually carry this off. Remember how I couldn't remember who the other lightsaber wielding 20dmg at range piece was? It's Cade! This is solid, because it's so damned rare. Frankly, though, Cade will hit; he will be harder to hit, and he hits hard. Though for 61pts, you really want those stats to play out.
+16 to attack vs unique targets, thanks to bounty hunter, is a really solid statline and I guess it makes sense since we do see Blue, Syn and Skywalker collect bounties early on in the run.
Double attack/twin attack means he can do between 80 and 160 damage in a turn, depending on crits. This should be considered "HUUUUUGE" in game terms, and represents just how dreamy powerful Cade is. He's... really powerful.
Splash 10 is cute and probably designed to reflect his twin barreled blaster. All hits adjacent to a target taking 10 vs save 11? yeah, ok, I'll take it.
Such power. So statline.
10/10
Powers
Cade is super powerful in the Force, but also conflicted. So of course he flirts with the darkside but then just decides he doesn't wanna be a baddie which is why he is the most awesome. So, unlike Jedi masters and stuff he starts with Force 5 which is due to his innate ability that might've been dormant his whole life as he suppressed his heritage and became an awesome bounty hunter/smuggler/mercenary/ladies man.
Force Heal 40 is the whole using lightning to make people better (I just... don't even...) and that's actually one of those "essential elements of the character things" that should be here and is actually really powerful. Given you know, it brings people back fromt he dead. I'd have instead made him spend Force 2 or 3 to take 20dmg and give 30hp to a model who could have been killed that turn or something but I'm not saying this also doesn't work.
Force Push 3, which deals 30 damage and pushes a model back 3 squares, is because every Force user has the ability not just to fly kick someone, but to push them for about six kilometers:

Given Cade is pretty much a one trick pony, the powers are actually very accurate and so:
10/10
* * *
As much as I rag on how Legacy is essentially a legitimate version of a 14 year old's fanfic, WotC made a very fair and very accurate translation of Cade from paper to plastic. They started with a silly base in the character, but his ability to beat the Sith out of anyone is truly backed up in the stats and they've made him no more overpowered than the authors did. If anything, they tamed him a bit - but having a 500pt Cade who could destroy the map and the game if he so desired is good for nobody.
Aside from being pug fugly, this is a great mini.
8/10 total.

 

I never read them so I couldn't comment, but there is a Feris Olin mini. I heard bad things about the character though.

 

Thrawn (Mitth'raw'nuruodo)​

Hit Points:70
Defense:18
Attack:11
Damage:10

Special Abilities

• Unique
• Master Tactician (You automatically choose who goes first except on a roll of 1)

Commander Effect
Allies gain Opportunist.
At the end of this character's turn, 2 allies within 6 squares of this character who are the same size may switch positions.

Thrawn was considered a brilliant strategist among his own people but was exiled for breaking the Chiss policy of isolationism.

Mitth'ra... Mitth'rawn'u... Mitt'Romn.... Thrawn is in his second incarnation in here in the spectacularly misshappen sculpt of an Imperial Entanglements mini.

Appearance

Oh boy. Yep. Ok. So the thing is, I own both Thrawn minis and have been critical of the look of both. Firstly, I think the skin is too blue. Secondly, the uniform needs a belt at the waste like an Imperial fleet officer has. The first Thrawn also had a Ysalamiri draped on his shoulders, sans nutrient frame. This one just has Val Kilmer's haircut from Top Gun. I mean, to be fair, the pose has a good military bearing and all that, but it's just... there's something missing. The other mini looks better.

4/10

Stats

Lucky for us, Thrawn's actually been done in a manner that not only is astonishingly good in gameplay terms, but is reflective of Zahn's character. You have a good defence, decent hit points, and a really solid attack for 32 points - but you won't use this guy in combat. You just know if someone came at him he'd cooly cock a blue-black eyebrow and blast them to pieces. You'd also give him a Noghri bodyguard (http://www.bloomilk.com/Character/220/noghri), because it's Thrawn. But really, his Master Tactician is the key. It controls the initiative unless Thrawn's player rolls a 1.

Now, with initiative, you can either decide to go first, or that the other play goes first, depending on what yields the best strategic advantage. To have a default control over this is really powerful. And when I get into Thrawn's commander effect I'll explain why.

Thrawn, in his eponymous trilogy, had that control over engagements. He's often derided as being too powerful or too omniscient, but this is unfair. When he underestimated the New Republic at Sluis Van, or was under attack heavily at the Katana fleet, he was happy to withdraw and often selected targets based exclusively on the ability to get a reaction from an enemy's psychological blindspot (i.e. Ukio). Having an ability which enables you to decide, seemingly at random, if you go first or second is a great way to replicate Thrawn's mastery of the battlefield.

10/10

Powers

Thrawn is a commander, meaning anyone who has no commander effect can be subject to his effects. Sometimes commanders only affect Troopers (units with the word "trooper" in their name); other times it means anyone without a commander effect is included.
Thrawn has two commander effects for followers. The first is that he grants opportunist - followers (like, say, the all powerful Boba Fett) get +4 to attack and +10 to damage against enemies that have moved this round. Thrawn sees and exploits weaknesses, so I think this is totally perfect.

But, the real nice touch, which he shared with his Universe counterpart (http://www.bloomilk.com/Character/218/grand-admiral-thrawn), is that at the end of Thrawn's turn two allies within 6 squares of Thrawn may switch place. So if you move up a glass cannon and beat up an opponent, you can just... swap it with an AT-ST. Or a follower Vader. Or something equally terrifying.

The boundless opportunities the combination of Master Tactician (initiative control) and the end-of-turn switch are what make Thrawn both fun, and true to his book counterpart. In game terms - you maybe move up a unit and attack, but because it's a bit fragile you swap it out with an AT-ST and the end of the round. Next round, you open fire with your AT-ST and then move it out for a hard to hit tank-type figure. Considering the resources Thrawn used, from C'Baoth to the cloaked asteroids to the cloaked ships "firing through" shields, to the clones, it has to be seen as appropriate. You can't counter if you don't know which Imperial unit you'll be facing, and the options Thrawn has afford him control, surprise, and domination.

If you want to get beyond that, you have to kill Thrawn... which is precisely what caused the Empire in TTT to crumble. Perfect.

10/10.

So, you have a Thrawn who has had his appearance molested by terrible sculpting but who is completely in tune with how he appears in the books. Reasonably costed, essential for his ability to control rather than his outright personal combat prowess, and not entirely helpless, WotC understood how a Thrawn could upset balance and to this day, both Thrawns continue to see play.

Residual: 8/10. Damn you poor sculpt!

 

Grand Master Luke Skywalker​

Hit Points:150
Defense:23
Attack:19
Damage:20

Special Abilities

• Unique
• Melee Attack (Can attack only adjacent enemies)
• Triple Attack (On his turn, this character can make 2 extra attacks instead of moving)
• Twin Attack (Whenever this character attacks, he makes 1 extra attack against the same target)
• Djem So Style Mastery (Whenever this character is hit by a melee attack, make a save of 11. On a success, this character can make an immediate attack against that attacker with +10 Damage.)

Force Powers

• Force 2
• Force Renewal 2 (This character gets 2 Force points each time he activates)
• Master of the Force 2 (May spend Force points up to 2 times in a single turn)
• Force Defense (Force 3: Cancel a Force power used by a character within 6 squares)
• Lightsaber Defense (Force 1: When hit by an attack, this character takes no damage with a save of 11)
• Master Speed (Force 1: This character can move 6 extra squares on his turn as part of his move)

Commander Effect
Each ally with a Force rating gains Force Renewal 1.

So, WotC finally got around to doing a Luke at the height of his powers during the NJO series. This will be the first Big 3 movie character, even in EU format, I think I've reviewed.

Appearance

OK, so, here's the thing. I'm looking at this mini and I don't see Luke; I see Taylor Swift. He's wearing his RotJ Jedi Robes, has the "required" single black glove (I don't know why this was a feature of all Luke imagery when he only put it on to cover the wound on his artificial hand...), and is wearing a brown Jedi dressing gown over the top. So there's nothing inherent wrong with the pose, it was just included in the twin ugly sets of Jedi Academy/Imperial Entanglements - a period marred by heavy experimentation with awful sculpting and paint techniques.

The pose, though, is actually pretty good. The un-ignited saber hilt, the outstretched palm, it's perfect. Perfect!

(For reference, my personal favourite Luke sculpt is the Young Jedi one from Champions of the Force: http://www.bloomilk.com/Character/289/luke-skywalker--young-jedi)

Thankfully, like the above Thrawn, there's no mistaking what the intent behind this mini was or who it is. And it's not as ugly as Thrawn. Still, a decked out NJO Luke is something I imagine many fans would want to display on the shelf and the poor quality really hurts that.

5/10

Stats

This Luke costs 115pts. That is an insane amount to spend in a 200pt game and means Luke is really the basis of your force. Given he's a Grand Master, what do we get for it?

Well, a lot. 150 hit points is massive. 19 attack is basically "he only misses on a 1" in most cases. 20 damage is standard, but 23 base defence? You're kidding - in cover he's rocking 27 Defence. This Luke is just hard as hell to hit.

In his abilities list, he gets Djem So Mastery, which enables him a free attack at +10 dmg if he makes a save and his hit in melee. So if you do hit him, he hits you back and often for more. Just ouch.

Luke also has triple attack and twin attack, meaning he's doing 6 attacks or 120-240 damage a round. I just... I don't even know where to start. There's no mini, excepting maybe the AT-AT or Boba Fett, Bounty Hunter , who Luke can't take down in a 1:1. And in those situations, you're assuming Luke can't spend force points to spring out of the AT-AT's line of fire and/or relying on Boba's auto-defeat an enemy on a roll of 20.

Luke, in the NJO, is plagued by doubts for much of the early run but realises his role is to lead and inspire, and part of that means surrendering himself to the Force and letting it guide him through combat. To this end, WotC have delivered. Doing stats for the Big Heroes of each trilogy inevitably means you represent a facet of the character and not the character as a whole. That's why we have a number of Mannequin Skywalker/Obi-Wan/Luke/Han/Leia figures - it's actually very difficult to do them as a whole in this setting. There are two EU Era Lukes, 2 Leias, and one Han and though the other Luke is a solid piece, this is one that gives us the NJO Luke in a single figure. The NJO is a book about a war, so Luke being a warrior - a deadly, unrivalled warrior - who leads his Jedi to battle is appropriate.

10/10

Powers

Luke's a commander, and his commander effect actually hits anyone on his team. All allies with a Force rating gain Force Renewal 1. So Luke here is shown to encourage the same trust in the Force as he has himself. Given the way the Jedi rallied, I'm pretty confident this is a good Commander effect for him and it makes the Kyle and Mara minis I previewed earlier significantly tougher by giving them the capacity to recharge their Force points.

Luke, though, if he doesn't spend Force points generates 2 a turn, can spend 2 a turn, can cancel out other Force powers and can Defend against any attack with save 11. You can picture the mini cutting a path through a swarm of Vong, taking no damage in return and creating a gap for Kyp, Mara, Kyle, Corran et al to follow him in.

He's not got a dizzying array of Force powers, but what's the point. He's in the moment of leading attacks, and that's what you want from him. Luke, the ultimate beatstick, the most powerful Jedi in memory, the most powerful single miniature WotC ever did. I could suggest he get levitate, or heal, or mind trick to round him out and whilst a Grand Master can totally do all those things they're support roles and this Luke was meant to lead from the front. He didn't shy away from danger in the NJO novels, and I still recall the scene in one of the Dark Tide books where he let loose with his and Jacen's sabers and it was glorious.

So, for 115pts, he has appropriate powers, just arguably not enough depth in them.

9/10

* * *

This is the Luke a lot of mins gamers wanted, because they wanted the badass Jedi from the NJO novels. I think it's pretty safe to say they got him, and WotC did a really good job of showing the martial leader, the Jedi General, that is Luke Skywalker. If you play the game, he's a lot of fun. If you collect them because they're 28mm versions of your favourite EU characters, then it's obviously an NJO Luke who looks... crap. You'd be better off getting Dark Empire Luke for that purpose.



I'd give this effort to translate paper to plastic a residual 8/10 rating.

 

...holy crap, I had no idea that they actually made a figure that powerful. You can really tell that after a point they just gave up on making the 100pt metagame work and focused entirely on the 200pt one, or possibly even higher.

 

Yeah the 200pt game is fairly standard; and whilst this Luke is pretty powerful he's pretty much a target in a 200pt game. Burn him down, the rest can't fight back.

 

ES you should do jacen next so we can all reflect on the majesty of his crotch

 

Crotch time it is!

Jacen Solo​

Hit Points:60
Defense:18
Attack:12
Damage:20

Special Abilities

• Unique
• Affinity (A character whose name contains Leia may be in your squad regardless of faction)
• Melee Attack (Can attack only adjacent enemies)
• Double Attack (On his turn, this character can make 1 extra attack instead of moving)
• Force Ascetic (Cannot spend Force points to reroll or move faster)
• Force Empathic 10 (Takes 10 damage whenever an ally with a Force rating is defeated)
• Protective +20 (+20 Damage while a wounded ally whose name contains Leia is within 6 squares)
• Synergy (+4 Attack while an allied character named Jaina Solo is within 6 squares)

Force Powers

• Force 4
• Unleash the Force 60 (Force 4, replaces attacks, usable only after an ally with a Force rating is defeated: 60 damage to all other characters within 6 squares; save 11 to reduce damage to 30)

In 2006's Champions of the Force set, we got Jacen and Jaina the Wonder Twins. It wasn't until a few years later, with Jedi Academy, that we got Anakin Solo...
Appearance
I really like the look of this mini. He's obviously a teenager and hadn't been corrupted by the Denning Dark Side yet. And so appearance wise, he's based off a lot of the art of the first-half-NJO arc, which saw a fairly inspired choice to make him look like River Phoenix. Phoenix famously played Harrison Ford's son in The Mosquito Coast and a young Indiana Jones, and had the right look to be Ford's offspring. He's dressed in a jumpsuit similar to what Luke wore on Bespin.

(Jacen is based off this, as was Anakin. Except Anakin got a blue saber, and Jaina wasn't in a flight suit).
The only complaint is that the lightsaber handle is ridiculously huge. Like double bladed lightsaber huge.
9/10
Stats
Jacen is relatively inexpensive, at 25 points, and comes with only 60HP (which is low but possibly apt for a teen); defence 18 and attack 12, both of which are solid. From memory, Jacen was a good duelist but equally a committed pacifist, so his stats at least reflect that he has that skillset.
Elsewhere, he has a bunch of interest abilities. He gets +4 when Jaina's in your squad, which makes sense given the twin's bond. Affinity for all Leia minis is cute when you consider Jaina has the same for Han - Jacen's a mummy's boy, Jaina a Daddy's Girl! - but it also means you can get Rebel only pieces into your squad.
He also gets +20 damage if that Leia is wounded (Protective) and this is from memory a throwback to ugh, that NJO novel with the yellowish theme to the cover, refugee camp, goddamit it... Balance Point maybe? That one. Again, very thematic.
Force Ascetic is very in character, representing the philosophical gap between Jacen and both his brother Anakin, and his uncle Luke. The practical effect is that Jacen won't spend Force powers to reroll a missed attack, or to double his move.
Force Empathic 10 is an interesting drawback - each time an ally with a Force rating is defeated, Jacen takes 10 points of damage. It may restrict gameplay, but it is really in character. Jacen is uniquely attuned to the feelings of other sentient beings, which if you'll recall is how he is able to overcome the world brain on Coruscant. So feeling the death of a loved one like a wound is, to me, very in character.
Jacen is a complicated character - the game is combat based, and Jacen was forging a path of being above and beyond the constraints of his power. He was very much "just because I *can * fight with a saber, doesn't mean I should". Personally I don't know why he was chosen as Sith Lord but it was a terrible choice.
10/10
Powers
Jacen has 4 Force points and only one power, which costs 4 Force Points - "Unleash The Force". He and Anakin Solo are the only two to have this; "Force 4, replaces attacks, usable only after an ally with a Force rating is defeated: 60 damage to all other characters within 6 squares; save 11 to reduce damage to 30"
I'm struggling to remember a point at which Jacen did this, so I need your input here guys. When would Solo have exploded with Force energy in response to someone's defeat? Bear in mind, this is pre-Sith lord nonsense and Anakin Solo can do it too..
??/10
I suspect Jacen's fairly accurate, but I need your help on this last bit...

 

End of Balance Point. Leia is wounded, Jacen lets go, and turns the room into a storm of Force flying furniture that knocks Lah out a window and takes off his foot. This is pretty clearly a Balance Point era Jacen

 

Oh right! Of course!

OK, so given up to Balance Point Jacen had practiced the Force asceticism and that at the point at which he hurt Lah, he hadn't used the Force in any practical way, I think you have to conclude WotC did an excellent job at making Jacen and accordingly, I'd go residual 9.5/10 mark for the overall. It's a great translation from paper to plastic and would look great on your shelf.

I'll do Jaina and Anakin Solo next.

 

Ender, noticed the Jennir review and thought you might appreciate some of my customs:

https://www.flickr.com/photos/61837160@N08/sets/72157646580856433/

 

Very nice! What's the base mini?

 

I believe it was whatsisname, the Zabrak from Kotor II...

 

Ah yes, Bao'dur. Perfect because of the magical left cyberarm!

I have a nice PC style custom we made by taking the head of the Corellian Pirate and putting it on the body of the Rodian Huntmaster, then painting the hands flesh coloured. I'll upload a picture later.

 

Jaina Solo​

Hit Points:70
Defense:19
Attack:10
Damage:20

Special Abilities

• Unique
• Affinity (A character whose name contains Han Solo may be in your squad regardless of faction)
• Cunning Attack (+4 Attack and +10 Damage against an enemy who has not activated this round)
• Melee Attack (Can attack only adjacent enemies)
• Double Attack (On her turn, this character can make 1 extra attack instead of moving)
• Synergy (+4 Attack while an allied character named Jacen Solo is within 6 squares)

Force Powers

• Force 3
• Lightsaber Deflect (Force 1: When hit by a nonmelee attack, this character takes no damage with a save of 11)

As I write the Solo Twins up, I am forced to think to the series that spawned these figures in the NJO. It's hard to conceive that the company that gave us LOTF and a new, worse KJA could have also made some really interesting decisions with their characters. Specifically, a bold new foe in the form of the Vong, and to make Jaina like her father and Jacen like his mother. How far they've fallen...
Appearance
WotC made a decision not to put Jaina into her typical flightsuit, favouring instead the Jedi robes in the NEGTC (which is actually where Jacen has the same fatigues as his mini does too):
http://img3.wikia.nocookie.net/__cb20110127014413/starwars/images/5/5e/JainaWar.jpg

The pose is really dynamic and strong, which is good for a strong and independent female character. However they botched up the face sculpt and painting, in a way they didn't with Jacen.
Also, Jaina's not got a blue saber as I recall it but a purple one.
6/10
Stats
Being the martial twin, Jaina is geared towards beatstickery at a reduced cost. Her attack is a bit low, but her defence is a respectable 17 - she's in effect a growing/maturing fighter. She has more hitpoints than Jacen, but lower attack and defence.
This is before the Sword of the Jedi thing, or before LOTF ruined her, so she's still coming into her own.
LIke Jacen, she has double attack, synergy - which frankly she needs - when Jacen is in the squad, and the capacity to bring the versatile Han Solo into the New Republic. Before an NR Han was released, this was a significant bonus and she was often used just for this. But again, she is a lot like her dad and I like that they managed this well by having the twins close to, and aligned with, their parents.

Still, I feel a bit disappointed that Jaina isn't as fleshed out as Jacen, even if that might be a larger issue within the books themselves.
7/10
Powers
Jaina only comes with the useful lightsaber deflect, which allows her to spend a force point and make a save 11 to take no damage. Compared to the Unleash the Force, it's not that inspiring. Jacen feels like they put in effort; Jaina feels like a second tier Jedi beatstick that is used to bring Han into the NR - so she exists purely in game play terms.
5/10
* * *
Jaina's a bit of a disappointment when viewed int he context of an accurate translation. She was also a bit undercooked in the first half of the NJO as well, but that doesn't mean WotC couldn't have done more to make the mini interesting.
6/10 total.

 

I wanted to get into the game so much back then but never held up interest... I loved the includion of EU stuff. I still ponder asking my brother to get me Zayne, Jarael and other KOTOR comic stuff for christmas or something, but sadly the miniatures aren't that good...

He looks a bit like a mad scientist in a lab coat, doesn't he.

And this could be a repurposed pole dancer mini... are there pole dancers in D&D?