Hey, we had to get to the Ewoks sometime. After all, there were eight figures - yes eight figures - in the original line, as well as a playset and at least 3 vehicle/accessories dedicated to them (4 if you include a speeder bike). Chirpa came on a ROTJ card only. Side note: on early ROTJ figures, the Ewoks were often blacked out to conceal the "surprise" until the movie came out.
Chief Chirpa is just one of fuzzy little Stormtrooper-killing machines. Yes, they had clubs and crude spears, yet somehow they took out trained soldiers with blasters and battle armor. Maybe one of them watched Imperial manuevers secretly and trained from that, kind of like Splinter from Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. They obviously knew enough to take down a few AT-STs, including one from a deleted scene.
Why should you own this figure? Five reasons:
1. He's the chief. Do you get She's the Sheriff figures and not get Suzanne Somers?
2. In all seriousness, the figure is molded pretty accurately to what the character was, from the hood to the command staff (shout-out to Admiral Ackbar!).
3. There is a whole frickin' Ewok playset - someone has to be in charge.
4. Those dark, dark eyes that you can just lose yourself in.
5. "Yub nub!" Those two words strike fear in the heart of any stormtroo, no, ha-ha, tee-hee, I just can't say it.
Backstory:
Much of the Ewoks cartoons can, and often are, taken as canon, but we know that the Chief had a wife (Ra-Lee) and two daughters, Kneesaa and Asha. The two Ewok Adventure movies are often considered canon as well, since they could have happened before the events in ROTJ - just pretend that the evil witch is using the Force to create illusions instead of "magic."
Chirpa's reign saw the arrival of the Imperials, and the Ewoks alliance with the Rebels. Not much has been said about the Ewoks post-ROTJ, but presumably they settled into a more peaceful existence, and some of their tribe have been known to travel the stars in the novels.
Want more? His Wookieepedia article
32nd in alphabetical order
Wednesday, July 2, 2008
Chief Chirpa (ROTJ 1983-84)
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1 comment:
When I was about 9 at school here in Scotland a kid in my class known for his tall stories announced he had ‘won’ a Chief Chirps figure. This was months before the figure was released here and while it remained blacked-out on the cardbacks. No one believed him as he wouldn’t bring it into school, the poor guy was ridiculed.... only years later (as an adult collector) did I find out about the UK national newspaper Chief Chirpa give-away. Everything he said had been true! FYI the figure from that give-away is the ‘white’ UK version. Fairly rare.
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