The Hammer-headed Ithorian Momaw Nadon’s brief appearance in Star Wars is pretty iconic, but I think he is a Star Wars character I mostly care about because of toys. The original Hammerhead figure was a favorite of mine and I have fond memories of finding the POTF2 figure on the pegs when I was a bit older. I cannot remember if I first learned the name Momaw Nadon from the POTF2 figure or from the Tales from the Mos Eisley Cantina book, but I do remember being surprised that he wasn’t wearing a blue onesie like the vintage figure since I don’t think his outfit really ever registered with me. At any rate, I love the alien figures in this line, so let’s take a look at the Black Series Momaw Nadon!
The packaging is similar to recent releases, but they removed the angled section of the box for a more traditional right angles. It’s honestly not very large and I feel like he could be a regular carded figure. It does really call into question the “deluxe” designation for this figure for me, but Hasbro does tend to play pretty fast and loose with what is considered deluxe.
The figure comes with three cups and a standard Imperial Blaster. I believe the cups are from Bib Fortuna and the blaster makes a certain amount of sense since the figure had one originally in the vintage release. He can hold it in his right hand securely. You can finagle the second finger into the trigger guard, but it sort of tilts the gun a bit.
He holds it best with the grip around the outside of the trigger guard.
The cups fit best in the right hand and a little cockeyed in the left. I do think they are appropriate accessories for a cantina patron, if a little dull. That said, his only canon appearance is briefly nursing a drink in a bar. I think I would have liked the table and chair he sat in, that would have made it deluxe and would encourage me to finish off my Cantina diorama. Another thing I wouldn’t have minded was his obnoxiously large gun from POTF2, but if you have the old one it actually works pretty well with this figure.
The sculpting on this guy is pretty nice as they’ve captured his squinty eyes and leathery skin texture from the movie well. I think a lot of his costume and lower anatomy has been invented over the years and this figure fits in well with the film established look and the Ithorian anatomy established over the years in supplementary material and other canon Ithorians. It re-uses a great deal of the recent Dok Ondar figure to great effect, likely a planned parts sharing across two releases. I do hope to see an eventual vintage color re-issue, though I hope if they do that they add some new bare upper arms and legs for that authentic onesie look.
The articulation is fairly standard for a Black Series figure though since he re-uses parts from an older figure he retains the thigh swivels that have been removed from recent releases. Momaw has:
- Swivel/hinge shoulders, elbows, hips, wrists, elbws, and ankles
- Ball and socket waist, head, and neck
- Swivel thighs
- Butterfly hinged pecs
The skirt has slits along the sides, but it is longer on the right side than the left because of the sculpted detail of the rope around his waist and therefore the forward leg movement is better on the right side than the left. He doesn’t sit great and for a character that only sits on screen, I would have liked more attention paid to making sure he could sit better.
The paint is a little better than the usual black series as the nice sculpted texture on the skin is highlighted with a wash. My impression of Hammerhead in the film is that he has some lighter coloring on the underside of his head or that could be the underlighting from the table in the scene, so it may not be an omission. There are some clean detail hits on the belt, rope, and little pouches on the belt.
Overall, this is a solid release and this type of alien character makes for a fun figure even if he doesn’t do much in the film. Do I wish I could have paid regular figure price for him, yes. The deluxe feels like a bit of a price gouge to me. The Ithorians have become a significant species in the Star Wars universe, so it’s nice to get the original model in Black Series finally. Generally speaking, I find the alien character make for more interesting figures to me and would love to see them make more Cantina aliens.
Source: The Fwoosh
