This
is one of those figures that was definitely made for the
collectors out there. Fans have been asking for her since
she first appeared on screen in "Return of the Jedi."
Kenner had her in the development pipeline for the vintage line
until Lucasfilm axed the idea. (Check out the prototype
here.)
Who is she, you ask? Yarna D'al Gargan
is a dancer from Jabba's palace. As a matter of fact, in
the original credits for ROTJ, she is listed as "Fat Dancer."
Since that time, the universe has expanded and Yarna has had her
story filled out a bit. (Click
here for the SW Databank entry.) I'll let you
judge the EU stuff for your self.
Appearance:
Yarna is another of those quickly glimpsed characters
that have been turned into figures. And basically she looks
like her film appearance.
She reminds me a bit of Baron Harkonnen from Dune with a grass
skirt. Obviously, as one of Jabba's dancers, she is showing
a lot of skin. (Nope, going to pass over the joke.)
My
number one biggest problem with this figure is too much
articulation. All of the joints just stand out so
much. The ampleness of her form causes the joints to be so
deep and so obvious, that she looks like pieces stacked up instead
of a flowing humanoid form.
My second observation is her hands. They are made from a
different plastic and are painted. This gives them the
appearance of being mismatched. They will hold her
accessories, but not real well. The right hand especially
seems to be lacking detail and is sculpted too wide and open.
Overall, her paint is fairly good. The wash on the skirt
brings out the detail. Same with her headdress. Yarna
is one those characters, that when ever I've seen pictures of her,
I couldn't tell what was hair and what was in her hair. This
figure achieves that.
Her face, like her hands, appears to be a different shade.
However, some of online photos of her look the same way to me.
I can easily dismiss that as some sort of beauty makeup.
Fun:
This isn't a figure kids are going to be begging for so they
re-enact some of the great Star Wars Battles. Frankly, if
your six year old is begging for this figure, I might be a bit
concerned.
Oddly enough, as mentioned above, Yarna is fairly articulated.
Now, some of that articulation is limited. Her headdress
pretty much eliminates any head movement. Her skirt keeps
her hip joints from being the least bit useful. Her
ankles and knees can be used to get Gargan on her tip toes, though
(See bottom picture).
Gargan
comes with a couple of accessories. Neither of which I can
remember her having in the film.
The first is a glass in smoky brown color. This glass
has some detailing on the outside that sets it apart from most of
the cantina style cups we've seen over the years.
The second item is a can opener knife thingee. It fits
neatly into the sheath on her left hip. It's got a silver
blade and a wrapped handle. She can hold this small blade
well enough in her left hand.
The last item is a droid piece. Yarna is part of a
Build-A-Droid series. Instead of bases or coins, this year
we get pieces of droids. Since I very rarely get all
of a series anymore, I have to say I'm not a huge fan of this
idea. I can see a small box of three quarters finished droid
collecting dust under my desk at the end of the year.
What
would have been nice is a soft goods skirt. She would have
been more posable, which you want for a figure of a dancer.
In addition a little soft goods cord for her to dance with would
have worked well.
Overall:
If you're looking to fill out your Jabba's
palace diorama, Yarna could help you out. She's one of the
more memorable background characters from the palace. She's
recognizable enough that somebody that isn't a huge fan would pick
her out of a display scene. Also, she's one of the
pre-digital dancers, so she deserves some respect.
However, if you are looking for a the next
coolest action figure to fight clone troopers, I'd pass her by.
Ironically, the things most often asked for in a figure have hurt
her score a bit. If she had came with soft goods and less
articulation, I probably would have scored her higher.
Engineernerd Score: 85/100
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