Mosep Binneed

I feel like I can't talk about a new toy on this blog without touching on my thoughts about the state of modern collecting, but I suppose it's unavoidable. Mosep Binneed here is a fine figure, but he stands out as one of a few novelties to pick up out of many overpriced Star Wars toys.

The main problem is that the retail price of Star Wars toys have climbed too high. I'm not cheap, as a collector I'm more than willing to pay high premiums for premium quality. That's not what you get here, now you pay around $15 for a figure of decent or lower quality. It shouldn't cost that much, especially not with what you get with most of these figures. They're not especially articulated, they don't have tons of parts or paint, and the packaging is bland too. Where does the money go? I can only imagine Hasbro's profit margins.

To add insult to injury, Hasbro's character choices aren't even that good at the moment. I'm not going to pay $15 for an old C3-P0, more Jawas, or a Han or Leia that aren't even that fresh. I did go for some of the recent Clones, but even then I had to consider it strongly. For retail figures the price is simply too high; for what Hasbro wants now, I could easily procure a vintage version of any of these characters in mint condition. As such, I'll be limiting my modern collecting to things I like when they're on sale, and unique new figures like Mosep here.

With that rant aside, I like Mosep Binneed. It's a cool design and shows there's still a lot of interesting characters to be made out of the Cantina goons. The sculpt on his suit along with his head are very good and accurate looking. I think his bright red works well to stand out among his typically more drab compatriots.

He includes one part, a blaster. It's an alright looking piece, though it doesn't feel like he holds it the best. I think this is where my earlier complaints come back into play, as something just feels like it's missing a tad. Bom Vimdin from The Vintage Collection manged to include tons of little parts and had a bit more articulation as well. It seems like a few more parts could've been added to pad out the value, but that's sadly not the case.

Still, I like this figure. With the oddballs like this guy, you're not very likely to ever see Hasbro take another stab at them, or even reissue the figure later (they won't even reissue TVC Ponda Baba). I make it a point to get figures like this when I can, even if I think it's a sad time to be a Star Wars collector.