Well, if you're Kenner, you turn to what's been dubbed the
Expanded Universe. That is, you turn to all those novels, comics, and video games that Bantam,
Dark Horse, and LucasArts have been putting out since the early 90s. This isn't a new idea, of
course, there was the Shadows of the Empire line that came out a year or two ago, not to mention
the thousands of Mara Jade fans (or Grand Admiral Thrawn fans, or Dark Forces fans, etc) who no
doubt have been clamoring for these figures for years. Well, they're now here, so, those of you
who have been waiting all these years may rejoice...
          ...Or, then again, maybe you won't.
          It's not that the new figures are bad, I mean, most of them look pretty well done. It's just that they could've been done so much better. I suppose the problems come in when you have these fictional characters that have never even so much as appeared in the movies, and try to put together a three dimensional figure based on widely varied two dimensional source pictures. So, anyway, without further ado, here's the run down on who is showing up in our first assortment of expanded universe figurines:
          Kyle Katarn: the one out of this list that a lot of Dark
Forces and Jedi Knight fans no doubt waited for the most. Unfortunately, though, I have to say
that this is also the most disappointing of the nine. My biggest gripe is that you look at the
figure and say, "Who is this supposed to be again?" I mean, it's obviously not the star of Jedi
Knight, and it doesn't look like the Kyle we see in the Dark Forces cutscenes either. My guess
is they took the two and tried to combine them, ending up with a horrible, blue armored,
suspender wearing character that looks like neither of his components. Next!
          Next up we have the super-menacing Dark Trooper Phase Three. Definitely better than poor Kyle up there, but old Mohc still could've been better. There's just something about the whole of his contruction that bugs me, and I don't just mean the puny little Assault cannon he comes with, or the funny black nozzles that stand in for his awesome jetpack. I don't know, the legs look good, but as you move up the body, it gets more and more off. Maybe the sculptor for this one should've look at the pic over at Dark Jedi.com for inspiration.
          The great Grand Admiral Thrawn is next, and this one is pretty good, one of the best in the line up, in fact. You've got the stark white Grand Admiral's uniform and gloves, the blue skined, red-eyed head, and a ysalamir drapped across the shouldrs. They even managed to get the rank badge right for a Grand Admiral, bravo! There are just two things that bother me (you knew there had to be something, right?). First of all, the face bugs me. I don't know why, maybe it's too big, or too wide, but it just doesn't look like the ever devious Thrawn's visage to me. Second, I'm not sure if that ysalamiri is a permanent resident or not. Every picture I've seen has it right there, on his shoulders, and it's there in the packaging too. Hopefully, it does, in fact, come offa there.
          Now, we have my pick of the litter, the lovely and talented Mara
Jade herself, complete with Luke's "wanna go out?" blue lightsaber gift and a blaster. This here
version of Mara comes from the comic book interpetation, so if you only know her from Mysteries
of the Sith, you probably won't recognise her. My gripe with this one comes from the design, not
the figure itself: Mara's supposed to have sleeves so she can hide guns up in 'em! Ah well, I guess
I'll take it up with Dark Horse, and besides, I'm liking this one anyway. Maybe if they'd given
her the MotS jacket too... Hrmph.
          Hey, it's Space Ghost! Yeah, that stiff, white costumed Batman-wannabe with his own talkshow on the Cartoon Network... oh wait, I'm wrong, it's the Imperial Spacetrooper. Yep, that's right, first Stormtroopers, then Snowtroopers, then Scoutroopers, and now Spacetroopers: a soldier in a special suit of stormtrooper armor designed to operate in space, as seen in Heir to the Empire. My only question is: Why? Do we really need a line with both a Dark Trooper and a Space Trooper when the concepts are so similar? Gimme Karrde instead! Ah well, too late now. We won't be seeing any more EU figures for about ten years, after they're done making all them prequel peoples. Well, it's not that bad, exactly what a super buff Stormtrooper should look like.
          And then, there was the Dark Empire based figures, lead off by
Dark Jedi Luke Skywalker. Yup, Mara might have her reservations about whether or not the
Emperor was cloned, but there's no doubt that Luke went over to the dark side, and here's the
figure to prove it. Heh heh, Luke looks a little goofy, don't he? You'd think a dark Jedi would
look more menacing, not like he just stumbled onto the Emperor naked.
          Ah, and here we have Dark Empire's own Leia Organa-Solo, or as our venerable editor calls her, Leia-Man. Now, if you ask me, this one isn't that bad. It's just that the face is a little... off. It's not as bad as the original series's Monkey Head Leia, mind you, but... ah... I don't think they have the likeness down quite yet. This version would be from the part of Dark Empire where Leia boards the colossal Eclipse Star Destroyer to face the Emperor and save Luke. And, since Cam Kenney don't like drawing hair, Leia's is nice and straight. Oh yeah, and her lightsaber is red. Don't ask me why, it just is.
          If I can somehow mistake the Spacetrooper for Space Ghost, then it's no stretch to imagine that the Clone Emperor is Dracula. I mean, look, he's got the full body cloak (an item so very popular in Dark Empire), the big-ass triangular collar, and the pasty, pale complexion. But nope, it's our young Emperor, ready to tempt Luke and steal Leia's kiddies. And since Leia gets the red lightsaber, the Emperor gets a blue one. Again, why ask why?
          And finally, to end on a low note, we have the barely seen Imperial Sentinels from Dark Empire. These guys don't look too bad, but, like the Spacetrooper, I have to ask, why?
          That's it for our top nine Expanded Universe countdown. Again, for
the Spacetrooper and the Sentinel, I have to ask, Why? Also, I'd like to bemoan the absence
of Jan from Dark Forces and Jedi Knight, maybe Jerec, though since Kyle didn't come with a saber,
maybe not, Corran Horn, Mirax Terrik (or anyone else from Rogue squadron for that matter), Talon
Karrde, Joruus C'Baoth, and possibly some characters from the Jedi Academy Trilogy. I guess they
had to draw the line and make their choice, I just wish they had chosen more evenly.
          I'd also like to take this opportunity to thank Rebelscum.com for letting me borrow the pictures, and if you want to see the rest of the bunch, you can go to Rebelscum.com's Expanded Universe Page. Thank you, and good day.