Action Figures & Their Beers -- Nice Pear

by Beedo Sookcool
on 2026-02-19, 03:36:45

HENRY WESTON’S VINTAGE PEAR

Vintage. Lime-green wrapper. This one’s an easy match.

Henry Weston is a big name in the cider market here in the UK, and here is his . . . oh, no. Oh, dear. “Vintage Pear Cider.” Bugger it. As we have already established in the Samuel Smith’s Organic Perry review back in 2021 – dank farrik, has it been that long?! – if it’s made of pears, it’s not cider – it’s perry.

This is a respectable 6% ABV 2024 Vintage tipple, described as medium sweet, light, refreshing, & fruity. And, of course, it contains sulphites for preservatives. The label also says “Bottle includes two exceptional serves.” Do they mean “servings”? And as for “exceptional” – I’ll be the judge of that!

Well, as advertised, it is sweet and fresh and fruity and delicious, but those darned sulphites mar the flavour a bit, as they always do. I like the Samuel Smith’s Organic Perry more, but this is also very nice, and I’d happily buy it again.

This newest Greedo mould, however . . . y’see, I want to love it. I really do. Rodians have been my schtick since I first got online back in 1995, after all. But it’s obviously a scaled-down The Black Series Greedo with a redone head, and it doesn’t quite work. The fingers look great, but they’re worryingly skinny, and I’m worried that I’ll accidentally end up tearing them off if I try to pose his hands. The new head looks great, with vastly improved ears, but it has nowhere near the range of movement of the 2006 The Vintage Saga Collection mould, and thanks to the sculpt, it’s got something of an attention-grabbing double chin. Apart from modifying the neck articulation, I would’ve added an alternate pistol-grip left hand to the mould, for closer 1979 figure accuracy. And as for painting, I don’t understand why the darker bands for his sleeves weren’t just added above the joints, so they wouldn’t have to worry about paint rub or jarring aqua-coloured joint rings on lime-green limbs. Something like this:

The other thing about that custom of mine up there (apart from the fact that I used metallic blue instead of flat aqua for the costume accents) is that it shows how easy it could’ve been to sculpt a pair of generic “knee-high boots with ribbed jumpsuit” lower legs that could be used on both a TVC Retro Greedo and a TVC Retro Tall Blue Snaggletooth without looking out of place on either, while still being more “accurate” to the original toys than the TVC Retro figures we got.

Drink this if you also like: High-quality perry or cider.