Barriss Offee

Yet again we find ourselves reviewing a figure that alleges to be an update of one we reviewed when it was new. Barriss Offee is the Padawan learner of Luminara Unduli, and similarly shares her Master's latticed facial tattoos. The youthful Jedi apprentice often prefers wielding a lightsaber to participating in diplomatic negotiations. During the Battle of Geonosis, Barriss must defend herself and her fellow outnumbered Jedi from the Separatists' impending droid armies. Her strong healing abilities make her an invaluable asset when the battle erupts into a full-scale ground assault and the beginning of the Clone Wars. (That's the bio from the old figure, by the way - these Vintage Collection figures just have generic, uninformative text back there, presumably because the line was aimed at fans who were already familiar with the characters, not casual shoppers.) A big part of the appeal of Barriss was her face. Green skin and geometric tattoos? That's cool. The paint isn't quite as crisp here as it was on Luminara, sadly; it's not even as clear and distinct as it was on the 2002 Barriss. There is a change, though: if you remove her hood, she has some kind of skull cap under there, rather than just hair. The cape, in early photos, was softgoods, but the final product swaps that out for molded plastic - one piece for the cape, another for the hood. Her giant skirt is still cloth, and since it's longer than her legs, it poofs out around her pretty substantially. The pants she's wearing beneath them are plain, but she has a few gold details on her high-heeled boots. Her shirt has a crinkly, ribbed texture, with a different-colored panel in the center of the torso. Finally, she has a brown belt that appears to have a heart on the buckle. Barriss has a balljointed head, swivel waist and wrists, T-hips, and swivel/hinge joints at the shoulders, elbows, knees and ankles. Considering the other Offee was released at the height of Hasbro's "let's give everything super dynamic poses but bugger all for articulation" phase, pretty much anything would be a step up. Everything moves well, and the fact that the skirt is softgoods means it doesn't get in the way of the movement. The figure's only accessory is her lightsaber. Two of it, in fact: one with its pale blue blade ignited, the other just a hilt that plugs into her belt. Both her hands are molded to hold the lightsaber - which is good, since anyone who's watched The Clone Wars knows that Barriss is not unfamiliar with dual-wielding. In the movies, Barriss Offee was more of a design than a character - but that's true for almost everyone. She was fleshed out nicely by the comics and the cartoon, and this figure is the best she's had. -- 04/19/14

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