The newest figure in Sideshow Collectibles’ 12″ Star Wars line is here: Commander Praji. He is part of the “Militaries of Star Wars” subset and is a Sideshow domestic exclusive, limited to 3000 pieces. He’s already sold out at Sideshow, but you can still get onto the Wait List, just in case more pieces become available due to cancellations or declined credit cards. Praji is the first Imperial Officer released in this line, and he’s one of those blink-and-you’ll-miss-them characters in the Star Wars films. In case you’re wondering, he’s the guy Vader orders to “tear this ship apart” at the beginning of A New Hope. Read on for photos of this new action figure and a review!
One of the key factors in judging Sideshow’s 12″ line is the likeness of the original actor. Given what little screentime the character actually gets, I’m hard pressed to say whether the likeness here is great or just good, but he definitely looks like a guy in an Imperial uniform, and that’s good enough for me with this one. Here’s a screencap from A New Hope, so you can judge for yourself.
Praji comes in the standard (and fantastic) window box packaging that all the Star Wars 12″ figures use. The box is decorated with shots from the movies, and on the inside flap there’s a biography of the character. That flap closes with a concealed magnet, which is a really neat innovation. Another thing I love about Sideshow’s 12″ packaging is that they don’t use any of those horrible twist-ties. If you want to put your figure back into its original box just like it originally came, that’s super easy to do, and that gains Sideshow a lot of bonus points from me.
As is usual for the 12″ Star Wars figures, Praji comes with an assortment of accessories and pieces. His uniform consists of a tunic, pants, shiny Imperial boots, and a removable belt with attached holster. The tunic has Praji’s rank bar attached to it. The tunic also has two tiny pockets on either side of Praji’s chest, a perfect size for inserting the two little Imperial code cylinders that come with him. By default, Praji comes with black gauntlet gloves on, but those can be removed by just pulling that set of hands off from the arms and swapped for a set of bare hands that are included in the package.
What is an Imperial without his funny hat? And Praji comes with two of them! I thought this was a really neat bow to collectors, as you have the choice of displaying him in either a rigid plastic cap or a soft fabric one. I personally prefer the plastic one because it keeps its uniform shape and stands up a bit better than the fabric one. Both caps have the regulation silver gromit on the front.
Praji comes with two weapons: the Mer-Sonn 44 Blaster Pistol and the Blas Tech E-11 Blaster. Both guns look fantastic, from their intricate detailing to their scrubbed metallic finishes. The pistol fits snugly into the holster that attaches to Praji’s belt and can be held in place by a strap that fastens over it. I have mixed feelings about the holster, though. On the one hand, I like that there is a holster so that I can display Praji with both weapons at once, but on the other I have issues with the fastening strap. There is a small metal nub at the end of the strap, and it fits into a tiny hole on the holster and is held in place by a tiny magnet inside the hole. In theory, that’s a really cool way to keep the holster strapped shut, but in practice it usually results in the strap popping open due to the itty-bitty size of the magnet. When Praji is on display and not being moved around or posed, though, this is a negligible issue.
Like the rest of the Star Wars 12″ line, Praji comes with a display base featuring the Star Wars logo. I like these bases a lot, as they’re not at all obtrusive and make a very attractive and uniform (not to mention sturdy) display for the 12″ figures.
I definitely recommend the Praji figure for any hardcore Star Wars fan. He’s probably not a significant enough character to be worth the $59.99 price tag for a casual collector, but it’s awesome to finally have a good Imperial office in this scale. It makes me look forward to the possibility of a Grand Moff Tarkin in this line’s future.
You can see the rest of the photos below:
( Star Wars 12 Inch Commander Praji Flickr Set )
