Star Wars: Transformers Obi-wan Kenobi, contents: Obi-wan Transformer, Obi-wan pilot figure, 2 projectile Lightsabers, Instruction sheet.

I can imagine a Hasbro board meeting, where executives sit around wondering how else to milk the Star Wars license, ( a licence they've apparently extended for another few years, presumably paying a lot of money for) and hitting on mixing it with some other well known known boys toys brand.

I can imagine some executives with some form of design background, champing at the bit, realising the floodgates to some spectacular toys had just been opened, and knowing, quite rightly, that if this project was successful, money, fast cars and loose women were all on the menu.

I can imagine the subject for the actual handling of the project comes up… which team do we give it to? Transformers or Star Wars? Do we give the project to a team that has experience doing transforming robot toys? Or do we give it to the Star Wars team who are at a bit of a loose end now the Episode 3 toys are all out? Uh… Lets give it to the Star Wars team… oh dear.

That's not to say this toy is bad, its just it could have been so much better. Obi-wan Kenobi's Jedi Starfighter has been released along with General Grievous' wheelbike, Darth Vaders TIE advanced, and Luke Skywalkers X-wing. Lets start with what was done best, the vehicle mode. To put it frankly, its top. Its based off Obi-wan Kenobis Jedi starfighter, as featured at the beginning of Stars Wars: Episode 3. (fig 1) This Starfighter is awesome, it has many different play features. Firstly, it has a retractable landing gear, which actually is two legs that fold out from underneath the front of the toy. The Canopy opens, allowing you to see a nice little cockpit, where you can seat the little Obi-wan pilot, a nice touch. (fig 3)

The Solar panels can actually flip open for an attack mode, (fig 2) its not sprung loaded, you have to manually open each one. It can be a little fiddly, because these panels are based off the same hinge, if you open one, then open the other, the second fin actually closes the first one you just opened. It's a small problem, but I thought I should mention it. Little buttons on the front of the wings can shoot out the silver gun looking projections, these silver bits turn out to be the handles of the Robots Lightsabers! This is a very neat idea, done very well. The only real omission for the fighter mode is its wings do not sweep downward, like in the movie, it's a major design issue, it really adds to the Starfighter design. It is possible to pop the wings out slightly and then angle them downward (fig 2). This leaves slight gaps just under the canopy, but still makes it a lot more accurate, but makes it a lot more flimsy, one for display then. My complaint with this though, is why couldn't it be accurate in the first place?

If we compare it to Hasbros 3 ¾ inch figure version of Obi-wans Starfighter from their main star Wars line, it compares very well. (Please note, in the comparison pictures, they are not to scale and the top picture is the Transformer, the bottom picture is the 3 ¾ inch action figure version) Its obviously a lot smaller, but if we look at both together (fig 8) it's very close. There are only 3 things really wrong between the two, most obviously, the wings do not sweep downward, but if you manipulate the wings so they do sweep downward, its pretty much a dead ringer for the larger toy. (fig 10) Secondly, but not so obviously, is the Robot parts (or 'kibble' as its known amongst Transformers fans ;) that sit on the underside of the Starfighter, it makes it seem more bulbous from the side. (fig 9) Directly stemming from this is the larger than normal landing gear, so it can makeup for the extended bottom. Lastly the scale between the two is quite off. The Small Pilot figure for the Transformer is obviously too small when compared to its larger counterpart. I assume this is the case so these vehicles can all be relatively the same size, Lukes X-wing is much bigger in the movies than these little Starfighters.

The paint jobs are comparable, it's missing scorch marks and other details, but includes others like the kill markings underneath the canopy. One difference between the paint jobs are the logos, on the Transformer they are moulded into the fighter, on the bigger version they are just stickers. Score one for the little Transformer!

Which brings us to the Robot mode, after a bit of fiddling, twisting, cursing and manipulation we have a robot. Kind of. This robot mode unfortunately suffers from dodgy proportion syndrome. His limbs are too small, and his torso too large, this is the price for a gobsmacking vehicle mode. (fig 4) One very nice touch is once transformed, the little pilot figure can be reseated upright within the cockpit, this Transformer isn't Obi-wan himself, but a giant war machine! If you compare the transformer to the Pilot Obi-wan 3 ¾ inch figure, its obvious the designers tried to include some character features into the figure, mainly in the head. It's not everyones cup of tea, but it's not bad.

The missiles pop out and become dual lightsabers. They are a little short, but with imagination, they become dual short sabers! Or not. Articulation is good in this mode, 20 points at my count. The problem is, 3 of those give very little movement at all, his waist turns, but only fractionally, and his wrists are restricted by the metal pin that holds the arms together. These pins are actually a real bone or contention, his fists are actually on ball joints, but these pins totally neuter him. Normally if he holds his lightsabers, his elbows will be bowed out, looking kinda crappy. If you're courageous enough, knock those pins out, and suddenly his wrists have much more freedom, in these pictures those pins are already knocked out! (Credit to this fix has to go to Cheebs, from the TFW2005 message boards)

His wings are very large and unwieldy, because of their size they prevent certain poses. Lastly, but most importantly, Obi-wan is missing the Transformers toyline standardisation, (which is what leads me to believe the Star Wars team designed this, not a Transformer's team.) these days Transformers pretty much all have standard 5mm sized holes, so all Transformers can interchange guns, swords and so forth. Obi-wan has custom hands (which can't actually hold his lightsabers properly without chipping the paint) so he can't hold Transformer guns. Also his wings in robot mode are secured by small pegs (which incidentally cause little stress marks in the wings).

These days Transformer Pegs are all standard 5mm pegs which smaller 'minicon' transformer figures can attach to. This one does feel like a missed opportunity, the Jedi starfighter would look fantastic with some weapons or Minicons added to it. All in all, it's a pretty solid figure, a great vehicle mode with a compromised robot mode. It would score higher but for one thing, all the proper Transformers being released today are much superior, and cheaper. Which is a shame, this figure, while fun, is a prime example of 'what if'.

Click here to see some fun I had with this figure!

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