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Hasbro- Star Wars Black Series: Ello Asty
I?m sure this is common knowledge at this point, but did you know that Ello Asty?s name was derived from the famous Hip-Hop Group The Beastie Boys? album Hello Nasty? Apparently JJ Abrams is a massive Beastie fan and likes to include little nods to them in his films. My first knowledge of this comes from the Star Trek reboot that he directed where Sabotage played over the opening scene, with the two sequels having Beastie Boy ?oldies? included in other scenes of there own. Given that Star Wars doesn?t include contemporary music, I guess someone was being clever to hid this Beastie Boy reference into this Rebel pilot?s name with an inscription, presumably written in Aurebash ?Born To Ill? on his helmet. Now it WAS my understanding that all members of the species had a similar Beastie Boys name reference, but I?m not certain that this is still the case after reading more about it.
And while I?m a big Beastie Boys fan, I?m not sure how I feel about this inclusion. I mean, it?s a silly name for a background character that doesn?t survive until the end of the movie, but I also don?t love the cutesy wink to include something that isn?t Star Wars related and seems a bit narcissistic for JJ to include. I suppose there are much bigger issues in the Star Wars universe and this pales in comparison, so I?ll just put it out of my mind, but I just hope that it doesn?t become a normalized thing.
Pros: Now I didn?t bother with a side by side comparison with Poe, but I have to assume that the basic figure is the same with some minimal sculpt changes and obviously a new head sculpt and helmet. That said, Asty feels like a huge improvement given that the Poe figure was just all around terrible. Plus, I like weird aliens and different pilots so that?s a plus.
Cons: While this is not a slight against the figure per se, I?m not sure that I buy that Asty is basically a normal humanoid with just a real messed up horse face. I suppose this is really just a cheap way for Hasbro to repurpose a mold, but is it bad that I want a bit more originality with my Star Wars aliens?
