Star Wars Obi-Wan Kenobi (ETA-2)

Prelude: Obi-Wan Kenobi is certainly one of the most important characters in the Star Wars universe. So it's no surprise to anyone that he was among the first to be converted into a SW Transformer. Obi-Wan or Ben, as he called himself for a time, took on the role of mentor, teacher, and even father figur first for Anakin and later for Luke Skywalker. And it is basically his doing that good ended up with another chance in the Star Wars universe.

Think of the SW Transformers what you may, but if you are going to combine one with the other, then Obi-Wan is certainly among the characters who should not be left out. Seeing as the Star Wars Transformers first appeared when Episode III aired, the choice of alternate mode is not surprising. It's the red Eta-2 Jedi starfighter that Obi-Wan flew during Episode III.

Robot Mode: To mention one thing first: Obi-Wan is annoying the heck out of me because it's surprisingly complicated to get him to stand upright. Even though he has above-average posability, his giant backpack is causing him to constantly topple over. Seeing as the thing is made from the wings of the jet mode, though, it's thankfully not just heavy, but also rather long. So you can use it as an additional support for some good-looking poses. Also, the backpack kinda reminds me of the often-seen Jedi robes as shown in the movies, which I guess they're supposed to resemble.

Obi-Wan's torso is comprised of the transparent cockpit of the jet, inside which you can see the smaller Obi-Wan figure, if you've put it in there. His arms are very posable and are made from the sides of the cockpit. His hands can easily handle one or both of the two included blue lightsabers. Obi-Wan's legs emerge from the rear and the engines of the fighter.

All in all the Jedi Master is a very well-proportioned and agile Transformer. If not for his constant toppling he could be a very good robot. His head is worth a mention, too. Seeing as Obi-Wan wore a beard in Episode III, one has been included here as well and the head actually bears some resemblance to his role model. You need to take a closer look or two, though, to figure out who he's supposed to be.

Alternate Mode: The Eta-2 Jedi Starfighter has never been my favorite among the Star Wars vehicles. Quite the opposite, really, its forced resemblance to the TIE Fighters of Episodes IV through VI was coming on too strong for my taste even in the movies. Apart from my not liking this starfighter, though, it does feature a lot of details and extras, which I can't simply ignore.

The fighter features a landing gear for one thing. It's in the front part of the wings and goes a long way towards making the jet look realistic. The outer wings can be brought into attack position as we saw in the movie, which looks pretty good, too. My personal highlight, though, is the little R2-robot's head peeking out from the wings, very much like the role model. A very nice detail.

Below the canopy you can see some kill marks. According to them Obi-Wan is a pretty bad-ass ace. Wasn't it mentioned sometime that he didn't like to fly? Anyway, you can store the two light sabers in two rocket launchers inside the wings and fire them as missiles. That's why there are two lightsabers, for symmetry's sake. So all in all Obi-Wan's altmode is pretty well done. Looking at it objectively I have nothing to complain about here.

Remarks: Obi-Wan's appearance in the world of the Transformers leaves me somewhat torn. On one hand he is certainly very detailed and I have nothing to complain about in terms of looks or posability. Unfortunately this Jedi has a big flaw that marked many older Transformers as well: It's very hard to stand him up straight. This flaw certainly drags down his final mark somewhat.

I find that especially unfortunate, seeing as this mold has been reused several times already. It's pretty much the 'Standard-Jedi-Model'. The heads were changed, but all in all I know of at least five versions of this mold. Apart from the red Obi-Wan there is another Obi-Wan in blue (in a two-pack together with Darth Vader's modified TIE Fighter), Anakin Skywalker (yellow), Mace Windu (dark purple), and another version of Darth Vader (black). If all these figures suffer from the same balance issues, well, that would be quite unfortunate, especially since Obi-Wan is not bad as a figure apart from that.

Rating: His detailing makes up for other things, so he gets a B from me.