Name: Boba Fett
Series: Star Wars Transformers
Allegiance: Bounty Hunter
Alternate Mode: Slave I
VEHICLE MODE
Height: 16cm Length: 6.5cm Width: 12.5cm
A light ceramic blue ship with a rust coloured "foot", some darkish grey painted details and light grey stabilisers, Slave I is the iconic space ship flown by Boba Fett in the original Star Wars trilogy. The shape is quite unusual - the original design was actually inspired by a streetlight. Anyway, the cockpit window is colourless and as with many Star Wars Transformer alt modes, there's well defined wear on the paint job - moreso here than on most since this vehicle is maintained by a solo player. While the colours aren't really vibrant, they fit the depiction of this ship, so I'm very happy with them.
The detailing here is great, with a lot of seams, hydraulics on the stabiliser fins and various asymmetrical panels on either side. The designer has really made sure this is a patchwork ship. The stabilisers aren't as solid as I'd like - they tend to partly transform if you bump them, and the front of the "foot" is a little loose, but the vehicle nonetheless displays very well. Slave I lands on it's engines, so the foot is effectively the aft while flying - the dimensions I gave are for the flying position. Since the vehicle isn't meant to come to rest facing forward, this one can't rest on a table or shelf in flight position, which is my main complaint. You can cheat, flipping out the robot feet at the "bottom" (the pointy end of the hull), and it'll happily stand on those.
Play value here is decent. There's a small and well detailed Boba Fett pilot, which is composed of soft plastic. This pilot can fit inside the cockpit, the canopy folds down (talking flight mode here). There are twin silver blaster cannons which can swing through 360°. They're composed of a soft plastic (although a firmer one than on the mini figure). There's a missile launcher underneath (the back, while flying) with a single grey missile. While the official Star Wars vehicle is meant to have a concealed missile launcher, it's meant to fire forward - this thing can only fire backwards in flight, which makes it kinda redundant.
While the missile launcher needed a way to be useful, the vehicle looks good and there's a great paint job. The mini figure is better than most in this line, and the blasters are useful. Sadly there are some loose pieces which really impact on the playability - so while this vehicle mode is up to the usual high standards of the Star Wars Transformers line visually, you're best to watch and not play.
TRANSFORMATION TO ROBOT MODE
Flip out and fold up the front of the "foot", open the canopy, pull out the minifigure, flip out the head, replacing the minifigure. Close the canopy and swing up the antenna - which pops off easily, so you may be fetching and reattaching rather than swinging. The front of the foot can actually stow under the cockpit. Swing out the missile launcher and swing back the back end of the "foot", swinging the tip back as you do. Swing up the shoulders, unfurl the stabilisers to form arms. Extend the back of the hull, rotate to form legs. Flip out the feet (assuming you weren't using them as a stand!), flip out the heelspurs and split the legs. You're meant to detach the blasters now on his ankles and use them as handguns, although you can swing the around as ankle guns, if you like.
ROBOT MODE
Height: 17cm Width: 8cm
A light ceramic blue robot with grey arms and feet, dark grey shoulders, there's army green on the groin and helmet while the "T" shaped visor on the helmet is black, flanked by rust coloured paint - which also features on the forearms. The colours are unusually muted for a Transformer robot mode, but suit Boba Fett well. The colourless canopy is on the chest, and you can stow the minifigure inside, although it's very visible (fine for a piloted mech, not so good for a robot).
For the most part this robot mode works well visually - although you may not like the piloted mech look (I don't). The upper arms are hollow which doesn't look very good, and if you bend the elbows, the forearms will also be hollow. The torso largely avoids the pot belly of some SWTFs centring their robot mode on the cockpit, although there are shades of it in the convex torso. The blasters look good as handguns _and_ ankleguns while the the missile launcher ends up pointing up on his back, doing a great job of being the rocketpack seen in the Star Wars films. While the shoulders are a little off where they should be, this is a by product of the backwards curving chest. The helmet is pure Boba Fett.
The play value here is okay, but nothing exciting. The head turns, the shoulders swing a little and lift out to the sides while the elbows are hinged with rotators. The waist rotates while the hips are very restricted ball joints, the knees hinged. This figure can move into natural poses, but nothing dynamic other than aiming the guns. The missile can be fired, but it shoots straight up - it's anti-aircraft or nothing, I'm afraid. On mine at least, the canopy flops down easier than I'd like. The heelspurs aren't big enough to anchor dynamic poses - not that many are available.
Well, it's better than some of the other single-pilot sized SWTFs, dealing with the canopy better than others. But this mode is a little to static to be exceptional. The upside is that this mech is clearly an interpretation of Boba Fett, and fits the character closely for a toy that becomes a very accurate Slave I. I would have liked a more stable canopy and more movement in the shoulders and hips, but as a display piece, this is an excellent job.
VARIATIONS
None that I'm aware of, although the same mould was recoloured as Jango Fett (Boba's father).
OVERALL
A relatively early Star Wars Transformer, but Boba Fett is clearly better than the earliest toys in the line. Both modes look great, and I am quite impressed that the designer managed to capture such a good impression of Boba Fett on something that also manages to be a spot on Slave I. The play value is pretty poor, overall, since the missile launcher is sidelined in both modes, the poseability is limited and the cockpit isn't too useful. Despite that, this toy will look great on your shelf, so while playing will be frustrating, displaying is worthwhile. Recommended if you don't play to physically interact with the toy to appreciate it - 6.5/10
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