Thursday, March 6, 2008

Lobot (ESB 1980-82)




While the people who lived in Cloud City seemed to have finer tastes in clothes, Lobot exemplified it. Look at those sleeves! Look at those pantaloons! Look at that headgear! Apparently Lobot didn’t have room for toupee with his cybernetic implant.

Lobot came on both ESB and ROTJ cards with a standard Cloud City figures pistol (Lando and the Bespin Security guys come with the same one). My personal favorite of anything said about this figure was in the Star Wars: The Action Figure Guide: “Lobot is not very tall, and his height has been translated well to the action figure.” Seriously – that is the only thing it says about the figure itself. Basically “right height.” Ha!

Why should you own this figure? Five reasons:

1. Disco fans – check out the duds!

2. Hearkens back to the late 70’s/early 80’s time of bulky headgear.

3. If you don’t want two Pilots for the Cloud Car, you can put him in the other pod.

4. Someone needs to make hand gestures to Cloud City people.

5. Mascot to the mute (well, he just didn’t have a speaking part).

Backstory:

Lobot was the son of a slaver, who, after being raided by pirates, ended up at Cloud City stealing for a living. He was caught and sentenced to community service to the city, and also given cyborg enhancement. He became the city’s computer-liason officer, staying on even after his service ended. He basically controlled the city, more than the Administrator.

He secretly helped Lando win Cloud City, since he knew Lando would elevate its status. Lobot was the one who told R2-D2 about the Falcon’s hyperdrive and how to fix it. He continued to administrate over Cloud City despite its changing owners multiple times, but 17 years after the Battle of Yavin he began helping his old boss Lando out with various missions. Usually these missions required some kind of cybernetic liason. He would later return to Cloud City, the last place he is mentioned to be.

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