General Veers

Back in 2006, I was shopping at Target and I decided to head over to the toy department to check out the latest toys. Taking a pass by the Star Wars section I was pleasantly surprised to see an action figure of the Saga collection release of General Veers from Empire Strikes Back. I noted how cool it was, put it back on the peg and promptly continued shopping and for the next fives years I regretted that decision.

The main reason I put it back was that I am not a Star Wars toy collector and I cannot let myself start another series of toys to be obsessive about. I just simply collect too many things as it is. But sometimes something is so cool that it goes past any of my logic and I have to own it. The Saga Collection General Maxmilian Veers is one such release.

First off, in my humble opinion, General Veers was the true bad ass of the Empire. Julian Glovers portrayal of General Veers in ESB is one of the finest performances of all six films even though he has less than 8 minutes of screen time in the film. Glover was able to squeeze in a determined, disciplined and poised performance that still leaves me in awe nearly 30 years later. Just another piece of the puzzle to why ESB is one of my top 10 films ever made. In fact it was a huge let down that his character did not return in Return of The Jedi, as it would have been great to have him as the shield commander on Endor.

How can you not like General Veers costume, which consists of the Imperial Officer uniform with various armor attachments added throughout and a cool artillery officer style steel helmet and looking overall like a WWI German trench storm trooper. It projects “officer class” and “war is my business” without speaking one word. If I were ever to do Star Wars Cospla this would be the impression I would do. Sadly people do not talk about Veers as the highlight of a character he is but this is most likely due to the fact when Kenner released his figure in 1980 they gave him the generic name of “AT-AT Commander” and Veers stayed somewhat anonymous for many years.

But over the last 10 years General Veers has been given the due he deserves with a couple of great figures released recently including this Saga Collection figure. Heck! Why not a comeback? His main vehicle was the freakin’ AT-AT!

First the inside joke. General Veers figure release number is 007. One of Julian Glovers most famous roles besides General Veers was playing the James Bond arch-enemy Aristotle Kristatos in For Your Eyes Only (1981), which I think the 007 catalog number is a nice inside joke and nod to the film Glover made after ESB. (Interesting enough, Empire Strikes director Irving Kershner also directed a James bond film, Never Say Never Again (1983).

Saga Collection General Veers comes carded with: 1x General Veers figure, 1x chest plate, 1x blaster gun, 1x stand, 1x helmet, 1x bonus vinyl figure (Stormtrooper).

The basic figure looks great, with Veers in his officer Class A uniform. You can put his blaster in the holster and the armor helmet and front plate armor easily snap in place sturdily and can be easily taken off. The face-sculpt looks great and captures Glover face perfectly in such a small scale. Not only does the figure look good in the Empire board room but looks great in the field fighting Rebels on Hoth.

My only issues with these Saga Collection figures is the way the elbows rotate instead of pivot like most other action figures. I believe the reason for this was for the light saber poses can be more accurate but it suffers on figures such as this as you cannot get a neutral pose. I cannot tell you how much I hate these pivoting arms. Thankfully, from what I can tell, they got rid of this gimmick.

A bonus small clear blue soft plastic Stormtrooper is also included, which is a nice little bonus.

I believe Hasbro has since upgraded the General Veers figure since this release (check out Atom’s excellent review of the 2010 AT-AT to get a peak of that version), but you cannot go wrong with this version and one will be more than satisfied with its inclusion into your collection. The snap-off armor and one of the best characters of the originally trilogy alone makes this one of the best Star Wars action figure releases of the last few years.

©2011 Article and Pictures by Leonardo Flores and CollectionDX