Star Wars Princess Leia Organa (Boushh) Action Figure Review

Scene: Battle of Carkoon
Mission: Rescue Han Solo
Bargaining Tool: Thermal Detonator
Jabba’s Opinion of Boushh: ‘My kind of scum!’

“The brave and beautiful Princess Leia Organa disguises herself as the bounty hunter, Boushh, to sneak into Jabba the Hutt’s Palace. Once inside, Leia frees Han Solo from the confines of his carbonite casing. Her actions, however, are anticipated and Jabba turns the tables, capturing Leia and forcing her to become a slave. Little does Jabba know that Leia and her powerful friends will have the last laugh.” – Excerpt from the package back.

Sculpt (4/5)

Leia’s Boushh outfit was one of my favorites as a kid. The mask in particular has such a great and unique look to it that it mesmerizes me every time I can get a good look at it. So of course, I was eagerly anticipating this figure, which was sure to completely surpass the last version of this figure – the old POTF2/SOTE version from about ten years ago. And it does surpass it. The details are much more accurate and the proportions are so much better that there’s really no need to even keep the older version unless you are a completist.

The cape, belt, shoulder strap and backpack are all separately sculpted and all integrated into one piece. I suppose you can remove it, but it won’t be easy. The separately sculpted “skirt” adds a realistic touch to the figure and hides as well as hinders the hip articulation. Some other nice details that caught my eye are the wrinkles in the sleeves, and Leia’s boots which have some very fine texture work.

So what’s not to like? Well, the shoulders look a bit strange and seem a little too rounded, making the articulation that much more obvious. The gap at her armpits also is a bit of a turn-off as it just looks totally unrealistic. But I can get over the shoulders; if the shoulders were the only problem with this figure, I’d be very happy, but unfortunately, they aren’t the only problem. The biggest problem with this figure is the awful headsculpt. It’s awful in almost every way possible, but the thing I hate most about it is the fact that it’s inaccurate. For some insane reason, they sculpted Leia’s head with a long, braided ponytail that goes down past her shoulders. Why?! Watch the movie – there is no ponytail! None of the older Boushh Leia figures had ponytails, so why start now?

None of it makes any sense since not only is it inaccurate, but it also helps make the figure less poseable too. The ponytail totally gets in the way, and turning Leia’s head in certain directions is nearly impossible. Put the helmet on her and it’s even worse! A horrible and unfortunate decision on Hasbro’s part through and through. I also have to mention the casualty that is Leia’s face which probably could look good if they didn’t go overboard with the hair the runs along her jawline. Leia didn’t have this much hair running down the side of her face in the movie and sculpting it this way just makes it look like she has huge sideburns. Ughhh! The last thing we need is a female headsculpt with manly traits.

Articulation (3.5/5)

Leia has twelve points of articulation: ball-jointed neck, ball-jointed shoulders, cut elbows, cut wrists, standard hips, and ball-jointed knees. Not a bad set of points, but I was hoping for ball-jointed elbows at least. Ball-jointed ankles or swivel boot-tops would have been a welcome addition as well. Neck articulation is hindered by the previously mentioned ponytail, and the hip articulation has less motion because of the separately sculpted skirt. Still, the articulation is decent, but could have definitely been better.

Accessories (4.5/5)

You get Boushh’s force pike/spear thing, a thermal detonator, removable helmet, a display stand, and an “exclusive” mini hologram figure. This force pike is easily the most accurate version Hasbro has made, but unfortunately is made of the soft plastic no one likes. It’s probably a safety issue, as I can imagine small spear-like objects could do some damage if they were made of rigid plastic, but still, I long for the good old days of accessories that don’t bend just because the force of gravity is upon them. Chances are, your force pike will be slightly bent coming out of the package. The thermal detonator is finally sculpted separately as its own accessory (The last Boushh figure had the detonator permanently sculpted into Leia’s hand). Since the detonator is so small, a peg is used to keep it in place in Leia’s hand or alternately stored on her belt

The helmet sculpt is great, and it’s very accurate. There are plenty of little details in it, and for the most part it’s perfect. If there’s anything I could nit-pick, it is the fact that part of the back of the helmet flares out a little so that the helmet can fit around Leia’s inaccurate ponytail. Moving on, the display stand is a welcome change from the older Saga stands. These new ones are personalized and have the name of the figure printed on its front. Another nice touch is that the logo of the movie that the figure is from is sculpted onto its surface.

For instance, a Darth Vader hologram of him just standing with his arms at his hips would have been great since that is how he appears as a hologram in The Empire Strikes Back. Instead, we have him in an action pose which wasn’t seen in the movies (not counting the pre-armor Episode III Vader). Another problem is just trying to collect them all. Sometimes you’ll have no choice but to pick up a double if you don’t have many to choose from. I already have an extra Boba Fett, Darth Maul, and Amidala hologram. But in the end, I’m glad they’re there, and I like the way they’ve been integrated into the packaging.

Paint (4/5)

For the most part, the paint is good. However, the biggest problem with this figure is the painting on the headsculpt. Most of the Boushh Leia figures I’ve seen have some of the worst headsculpt paintjobs I’ve seen in a while. Unpainted hairlines, unpainted hair, bushy eyebrows, eyes that appear to be looking up, eyes that appear to be looking left, et cetera, et cetera. The bad paintjob only highlights the poor job on the headsculpt. Some figures may have unpainted sideburns, which makes Leia’s face look extremely strange.

So if you can, choose a figure with a good paintjob. Especially look at the hairline and the sideburns, as those were the two areas I’ve seen that were messed up the most. I actually bought a second Leia since it had a better paint job than the first one I had! The only other gripe I have about the paint is the helmet. First, the helmet color seems slightly off; I think it could be a little brighter in color, or a different hue…something just seems off about it. Second, the vent-looking thing at the mouth of the mask could be painted better. It should have some black going down the center which to me is very important to completing the look of the mask.

Packaging (5/5)

Yay! Packaging changes are always good as it’s easy to grow tired with a design after you’ve seen it a hundred times. The Black Series goes back to a more rectangular cardback and retains the edge-to-edge blister that Hasbro has been using since the ROTS and animated Clone Wars figures. Thankfully, the tape holding the edges of the blister has been reduced, so it is now possible to get the figure out without even dealing with the tape. The blister itself is more rectangular this time, but is still rounded on it’s surface. This makes it a bit harder to stack the packages on top of each other, but if you store your MIB figures in boxes then this won’t trouble you

As for the actual card back, it tapers off a little at the bottom so that it is not truly rectangular. The front of the card continues the retro feel of the Original Trilogy Collection, but this time the silver lettered “Star Wars” goes straight off to the sides instead of creating a frame around the figure. This packaging also continues the use of a background image that compliments the scene or movie the figure is from. I’ve always liked this as you can potentially cut them out and use them as a background for displaying your figures. Plus, it just helps make the packaging feel all that more special and individualized. Another nice touch is the color-coded upper left corner of the card front which tells you which episode the figure is from. This helps make it easier to find new figures at the store and it’s come in very handy.

The back of the card has a bevy of information. An image of the character from the movie is in the upper right corner while below it is a full body shot of the action figure. To the left is information about the character, plus little bits of data relating to the character such as “Mission: Rescue Han Solo”. It’s a nice addition and they’re kind of fun to read. Below that are cross-sell images of other figures in the line. In the bottom right corner is a window displaying the included hologram figure, which adds to the cool factor of the overall look of the card. What can I say? I like this packaging, and I think it’s some of the best I’ve seen since the Freeze Frame series.

Overall (4/5)

I really wanted this to be a better figure. I mean, Boushh is one of my favorite characters, and while this is indeed the best version we’ve gotten, it has also fallen short of what it could have been. The biggest complaint is the headsculpt. Fix that and the figure will be much better. Add in some better articulation and a good paint job and this figure will be perfect.

Do I recommend it? Yes. It’s way better than the older versions, and with the helmet on, this figure looks great. It’s only unfortunate that it didn’t reach its potential.