Great vintage-style figure or Greatest Vintage-style figure? You be the judge.

Bossk is one of the 6 Bounty hunters seen on the bridge of Darth Vader's Star Destroyer in "The Empire Strikes Back". While Boba Fett gets all the glory, the other Bounty Hunters get no love. That is, until Hasbro included them in their Vintage figure line.

This may be one of the greatest Star Wars action figures ever made.

Now I am no Bossk fanboy. I love the bounty hunters as much as the next guy, but Bossk never did it for me. The vintage version just looked lame. But I ended up reading Tales of the Bounty Hunters, a 1996 anthology of short stories based on the characters tasked with finding Captain Solo. It fleshed out each of the characters so much that it renewed my interest in those lesser characters, even Dengar.

So why is this figure so great?

First, the vintage card back. Hasbro included Bossk as part of it's vintage collection, a line that brought classic characters and packaging to the new era. The card back is the same as the vintage toy, but the figure is all new. It takes advantage of all of the recent advances in Hasbro figures.

The sculpt is awesome. Every scale stands out, every button on his outfit. Paint application is flawless. His outfit is molded out of several different pieces, with the breathing apparatus and parts of his flight suit being separate.

Articulation is amazing for a figure this size. I count 17 points of articulation in this little guy. He just looks amazing.

It's really too bad that Hasbro doesn't do all their figures like this. I'd gladly pay $10 a figure for improved articulation and detailing.

Here’s another one of my favorite childhood characters done right in modern toy form.

Here’s another one of my favorite childhood characters done right in modern toy form.

I won’t go into how great of a movie the Empire Strikes Back is, but I will talk a bit about the Bounty Hunters. How is it possible that these creatures who only get seconds of screen time can captivate me for over TWENTY YEARS?

Toys, that’s how. Although Boba Fett, Dengar, Zuckuss, IG-88, Bossk and 4-LOM only appeared briefly in the movie, they have had numerous toys made over the years, and have even been given fleshed-out backstories. That all makes it cool now, but as a kid, I was mesmerized by some of the best designs in the trilogy. (Aside from Dengar – what is with that guy?)

Zuckuss instantly became my favorite character in the movie. That grey metal body with the insectoid head and that gun, oh that glorious large gun! What was his story? Well, come to find out, his name isn’t Zuckuss at all, it’s 4-LOM. Apparently Hasbro made a mistake on the packaging and got these two mixed up. It’s still tough to think of this guy as 4-LOM. To me, 4-LOM is the bounty hunter that you had to mail away for, the one that Ricky Michaud stole from me and gave to some other kids near his house. Of course, I think I stole it from someone else, but I digress….

Hasbro is actually now Rockin’ the star wars line with great representations of their classic figures. This guy is articulated like crazy – a far cry from the vintage figure, or any of the subsequent releases. As far as I am concerned, there is the vintage version and this one. That’s it. The only 2 you need.

4-LOM is very articulated for a droid, with joints at the neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, hips, knees and ankles. The only thing lacking is some kind of side motion on the hips to allow the figure to spread his legs out a bit.

Included is his signature gun, which actually has paint detail. Unfortunately, 4-LOM has a hard time holding the gun in any position except for how he holds it in the movie.

Also included is a collector’s coin. You know, for the collectors. They like to collect things, so why not give them a coin?