Tag Archives: Star Wars

#1223: Governor Tarkin & Stormtrooper

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , ,

GOVERNOR TARKIN & STORMTROOPER

STAR WARS: COMIC PACKS (HASBRO)

tarkintrooper1

Back before they were both owned by the same parent company, the first comic book company to hold the Star Wars license was Marvel Comics.  They had a pretty solid run with the license, going a full decade.  The series started off with a pretty straight adaptation of the events of A New Hope, and then eventually filled in the gaps between movies with some of the earliest Expanded Universe stuff.  When Hasbro started releasing packs based on specific comic stories and issues, the Marvel stuff was right at the forefront, including today’s pair, Governor Tarkin and an Imperial Stormtrooper!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Tarkin and the Stormtrooper were part of the very first series of Star Wars: Comic Packs from Hasbro.  They were pack 03 in the line, and included issue #2 of the Marvel Star Wars comic (albeit with all the Marvel stuff scrubbed off and replaced with Dark Horse, the then current holders of the comic license).

TARKIN

tarkintrooper2This was only Tarkin’s third time in the 3 3/4 inch scale, which is honestly a bit surprising.  In the Marvel adaptations, the colors were rather different from the movie, in order to make some of the designs a bit more comic friendly.  Tarkin and the rest of the Imperial officers were dressed in grey in the film, which was a rather difficult color to replicate with 1970s printing processes.  So, Marvel changed their pallet to something more akin to Hydra, their in-house branch of fascists.  The figure stands about 3 3/4 inches tall and has 10 points of articulation.  As far as structure, he’s a pretty straight re-use of the Revenge of the Sith version of Tarkin.  It’s slightly odd, since that’s not actually a Peter Cushing Tarkin sculpt, but it was the most recent Tarkin sculpt at the time, and, by virtue of being meant to emulate a comic version of the character, I guess he’s not really that far off.  The sculpt is a decent enough piece of work.  He’s rather cartoony, which ends up working a bit better for this particular figure than it did the originator of the sculpt.  There’s not much in the way of posability, but Tarkin was never a super mobile sort of dude, so I guess that’s okay.  The paint work is okay in some spots (mainly on the head), but really bad in some others (mainly anything that’s yellow).  Seriously, I’ve painted customs that looked more professional than this.  Maybe the yellow’s so off because it’s not actually following any sculpted lines?  Tarkin was packed with a standard Stormtrooper short blaster, which is better than nothing, I suppose.

STORMTROOPER

tarkintrooper3The Stormtrooper’s comic design was more or less the same as the movie look, which makes this figure a bit more reliant on replicating comic shading than anything else.  The figure stands about 3 3/4 inches tall and has 13 points of articulation.  Not an awful amount of articulation, but slightly disappointing.  See, this figure is a repaint of the CommTech Stormtrooper, which was, at the time of this figure’s release, 7 years old.  That’s not an insane age for a Star Wars mold, and it’s a decent enough sculpt, but the issue that really arises is one of consistency.  The comic versions of Han and Luke from this same line were both also sporting the Stormtrooper armor, but those two figures were built on the body of the Vintage Collection Stormtrooper, which was quite a bit more advanced than this one.  Why didn’t Hasbro just use that body for this guy too?  Wouldn’t that make more sense?  Then he’d at least be able to hold his gun the right way.  Oh well.  The main selling point on this guy is the light blue shading of the paint, which showcases the whole dynamic lighting thing of the comics.  It’s replicated pretty well here, though, as with most figures of this nature, it really only works from select angles.  The Trooper is packed with a Stormtrooper longblaster, which, as I noted above, he can’t actually hold.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Like last week’s Baron and Hobbie, this pair came from my Super Awesome Girlfriend.  This is actually a set I almost picked up a few times back when it was new, but never got around to.  Now I understand why.  I’m not an advocate for leaving toys in the package, but this is definitely one of those times where I was more impressed with something before I took it out and played with it.  Both figures are perfectly fine, and I’m happy to have them, but the execution could have been so much more!

#1220: Baron Soontir Fel & Hobbie Klivian

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , ,

BARON SOONTIR FEL & HOBBIE KLIVIAN

STAR WARS: COMIC PACKS (HASBRO)

baronhobbie1

On top of the usual movie faire, a lot of the success of Star Wars is due to its continued presence in other media during the periods between films.  Star Wars has had pretty much a consistent comics presence ever since Marvel first adapted the first film.  Dark Horse Comics took over in the ‘90s and had a rather lengthy and very successful run with the license.  There were lots of different series over the years, but one of the most popular by far was X-Wing Rogue Squadron, which followed several of the X-Wing pilots we met throughout the Original Trilogy.  When Hasbro renewed the Star Wars license following Revenge of the Sith, one of the ways they kept things fresh was with comic-based figures, and a number of them were based on Rogue Squadron, including the pair I’m looking at today.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Baron Soontir Fel and Hobbie Klivian were pack 12 in Hasbro’s Star Wars: Comic Packs, and they were officially part of the 30th Anniversary line as well.  The two included figures are based on their appearance in issue #24 of Star Wars: X-Wing Rogue Squadron, which was included in the set with them.

BARON SOONTIR FEL

baronhobbie2Baron Soontir Fel.  Now that’s a name I haven’t heard in quite some time.  No, wait, scratch that, that’s a name I’ve heard never.  Yeah, I got no clue who this guy is.  Going by the gear, he’s a TIE Fighter pilot, so that’s cool.  Obviously, he plays a part in Rogue Squadron, so…yeah.  Anyway, the figure stands a little over 4 inches tall (he actually seems  a little out of scale), and he has 16 points, which was really good for the time.  The sculpt for this figure is actually pretty strong, but it’s also a little odd, because it feels less like a Star Wars sculpt and more like one of the GI Joe: 25th Anniversary figures.  That’s not really a knock against the figure himself, since I quite liked a lot of the 25th Anniversary line, but it does make him stand out quite a bit from the rest of his peers.  It may have to do with his pack-mate being a bit older in style (more on that in a bit).  In terms of his sculpt, there’s a lot of cool stuff going on.  His jumpsuit has some awesome texture work, and all of the various parts of his uniform are quite sharply detailed.  His helmet and chest apparatus are removable, revealing his head and the rest of his uniform beneath.  The head sculpt is sufficiently smug and Imeperial, so that’s cool.  I also like that the helmet is pretty decently scaled to the body, and is probably one of the best trooper helmets I’ve seen at this scale.  As far as paint goes, the Baron is pretty solid.  He’s mostly grey and black, but all of the application is nice and clean, and he looks decent enough.  In addition to the removable helmet and chest piece, the Baron is packed with a small blaster pistol, which is the same style as the Biker Scout.  It’s a cool piece, and it can be stowed in his holster.

HOBBIE KLIVIAN

baronhobbie3Okay, I kinda know Hobbie.  I think.  I recognize the name.  He’s not really distinctive enough that I could point him out to you in the movies, but I know he’s in there, so that’s good, I guess.  The figure stands just under 4 inches tall and has 10 points of articulation.  He’s a lot stiffer than the Baron, which is a little sad.  A lot of that has to do with being built on the body of the 2004 Dutch Vander figure.  The line made a lot of leaps and bounds between Vander’s release and Hobbie’s, which made Hobbie feel a little out of place at the time.  He’s not really helped by being packed with Baron Fel, who was rather ahead of his time.  Nevertheless, Hobbie’s certainly not a bad figure on his own merits.  He’s got all the basic X-Wing pilot gear, and the sculpt is really sharply rendered.  I love the amount of detail they were able to get into all of the folds and wrinkles on the jumpsuit.  Also, he comes from an era when Star Wars figures were really good at hiding articulation, so his sculpt is at the very least very aesthetically pleasing.  His only truly new piece is his head, which is rather on the generic side.  He’s sporting a cap under his helmet, which aids in the generic-ness.  Honestly, this feels like the closest you can get to a straight up generic X-Wing pilot.  In terms of paint, Hobbie is once again pretty solid.  The colors all match up to what you’d expect from an X-Wing pilot.  In particular, I rather like the custom details on the helmet.  The figure includes his removable helmet, as well as a later pistol.  No holster for this guy, but his arm’s in a permanent gun-holding pose anyway, so I can’t really see many people posing him without it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

These two were a gift from Super Awesome Girlfriend.  She got them for me last summer during a visit to Yesterday’s Fun.  Honestly, they’re the sort of set I might have overlooked on my own.  And that would have been too bad.  They’re not going to blow anyone out of the water, but they’re certainly a fun little pair, and a worthy addition to my collection!

#1214: Cassian Andor & Imperial Stormtrooper

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

CASSIAN ANDOR & IMPERIAL STORMTROOPER

STAR WARS: ROGUE ONE (HASBRO)

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Hey look!  More Star Wars stuff!  Yeah!  ….Sorry, sometimes I run out of things to say, so that’s the best intro you’re gonna get out of me.  Let’s just get to the figures already!

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Cassian and the Stormtrooper are a Toys R Us-exclusive two-pack, which started hitting in early January of this year.  Really, the only exclusive part of the set is pairing; both featured figures have (more or less) been released elsewhere, with Cassian being included with the U-Wing and the Trooper being a standard Series 1 release.

CASSIAN ANDOR

cassiantrooper3This guy’s really the main reason I grabbed this set, since I never picked up the U-Wing.  Thus, my only small-scale Cassian was the Eadu version I looked at back in December, which wasn’t my favorite.  This figure stands a little under 4 inches tall and has the standard 5 points of articulation.  Where I felt the last Cassian was sporting one of the line’s weakest sculpts, I think this may be one of the better ones.  The build is appropriately scrawny, and more in line with Diego Luna’s build than the other Cassian figures have been.  The details on the clothing are also really crisp and sharp, which is especially good given the scale.  The face still isn’t a spot-on Luna likeness, but it’s probably the best one of the bunch, certainly better than the Black Series sculpt.  A slightly better paint job might due its share to fix the resemblance, I suppose.  Speaking of the paint, it’s not terrible.  In fact, going by reports online the cleanness of the application on this figure is much better than that of the U-Wing cassiantrooper5figure, which gives this particular version a leg up.  There are still some parts, the beard in particular, that could stand to be a little more consistent, but at this scale and given the rest of the line, this is pretty good.  Cassian includes his small blaster pistol (sadly, it’s solid silver plastic, a bit of a step-down from the Series 2 figures).  There’s also yet another grapple contraption and a big missile launcher, which I’m lumping in with Cassian, but could honestly go with either included figure.

IMPERIAL STORMTROOPER

cassiantrooper4Remember my review of the Rogue One Series 1 Stormtrooper?  Yeah, this is pretty much the exact same figure.  Not that I’m complaining, of course.  I loved the figure the first time around, and as a troop builder, it’s the sort of figure that I don’t mind having multiples of on the shelf.  There are some slight changes in the paint; he ends up somewhere between the single version and the one packed with Baze.  He’s got the black details on the abdomen that the single release was missing, but still lacks the details on the back of the helmet.  The figure sports the same accessory compliment as the single release: the blaster and the chest-piece.  The pauldron is white this time instead of orange, which is a nice change for variety’s sake, though it’s not like I’ll actually be displaying him with that piece in place.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Big shock, I got this here Toys R Us-exclusive from a Toys R Us, back in early January.  I’d been patiently waiting for its release, since I wanted a brown-jacket Cassian, and didn’t really want the U-Wing (especially after seeing how small a role it played in the final film).  There’s not really anything new here, but its certainly still a fun little set, especially if you haven’t been following the line super closely.

#1210: C-3PO

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

C-3PO

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES

c3pobs1

Hasbro’s Star Wars: The Black Series has been running almost 5 years now, and over the course of that 5 years, we’ve gotten the main look for just about every major character from the Original Trilogy.  However, one major character has been pretty consistently absent: C-3PO.  Now, obviously, with a character like Threepio, it’s not a question of if he’s going to be made, but rather when he’s going to be made.  You don’t just willy nilly leave out one of two characters to appear in every film in the franchise.  So, when his name popped up as one of 2016’s upcoming figures, no one was really surprised.  Well, that is, not until they saw the figure, standing there in all his red-armed, The Force Awakens-glory.  Why would the first release of this much anticipated character be what is undoubtedly a one-off look?  It turns out Hasbro had more up their sleeve, and a regular Threepio found its way to release.  I’ll be looking at that figure today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

c3pobs2This C-3PO figure is Walgreens’ 2016 Star Wars: The Black Series exclusive.  This has been a point of contention for a lot of fans, since many of them think this Threepio should have had the main retail slot, and the Force Awakens figure should have been made the exclusive, citing the second version as a less necessary variant.  While I can’t argue with that, I can sort of understand why the figures ended up the way they did.  In 2015, Walgreens got stuck in the Emperor’s Wrath Darth Vader as their exclusive, and sales on him were pretty soft.  With that in mind, I can easily see Walgreens pushing for a higher profile exclusive.  On Hasbro’s side, I can see them feeling that Threepio might be more easily acquired for some fans as an exclusive item shipped in solid cases of himself, as opposed to being stuck in a revision assortment of the main line, which may or may not get put out (I can attest to having seen more of this guy out in the wild than I’ve seen of his red-armed counterpart).  In addition, Threepio has traditionally been a slower seller than the rest of the main characters, a fact Hasbro is likely banking on.  Ultimately, it’s not the ideal solution, but it’s workable.  The figure stands 5 1/2 inches tall and has 21 points of articulation.  Early reports had me worried that this guy wouldn’t be very posable.  The final figure lacks any elbow joints, but this ends up having little effect on the posability, and the rest of the joints offer a more than serviceable range of motion.  Threepio’s sculpt is shared with his Force Awakens version, but is otherwise totally new.  It’s a very strong sculpt, and does a really solid job of capturing Threepio’s basic design.  There’s a lot of really sharp detail work, and he’s definitely one of the best figures in the line in terms of working in the articulation.  The arms do seem a touch long when compared to the legs, but it’s only barely noticeable, and far from the worst case of this in the line.  Threepio’s paint is pretty decently handled; Hasbro let fans know from the get-go that this figure wasn’t going to be vac-metalized like many of the smaller Threepios have been.  Some fans were a bit let-down by this, but I find myself not minding that much.  While the process is fine on smaller figures, it can rob a sculpt of a lot of its best details, and on larger, more articulated items, it can also be rather susceptible to damage.  I was happy to see they opted for gold paint instead of gold plastic, as it allows for a brighter sheen and a more consistent application of the color.  The only part that seems a bit odd to me is the eyes; rather than the usual flat yellow, they’ve been done with three white dots on each eye.  It’s not terrible looking from far away, but looks quite strange up close.  Threepio includes no accessories, which is a real letdown, especially since there are technically no new sculpted pieces here.  The communicator from the Death Star would have been nice, especially since they already have the tooling for it. Oh well.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

News broke on this guy back around Rogue Friday, and I pretty much immediately started looking for him.  I didn’t have much luck, but on a hunch, I stopped at a slightly out of the way Walgreens on the way home from grabbing some dinner last month.  He wasn’t in the proper action figure aisle, but I remembered that a lot of Walgreens stores had a separate Star Wars end display, and, sure enough, there he was.  Odd choice of distribution aside, this is a really good figure, easily the best Threepio that Hasbro’s put out.  Hopefully everyone that wants one can get one!

c3pobs3

#1207: Lando Calrissian as Skiff Guard

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

LANDO CALRISSIAN AS SKIFF GUARD

STAR WARS: THE POWER OF THE FORCE II (KENNER)

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Man, the Star Wars characters sure do like disguising themselves, don’t they?  At some point in the franchise, just about every main character has gone incognito (even Chewbacca).  And, of course, toy companies love this, since it’s a pretty easy way of milking another variation of the main characters to make into an action figure.  Lando Calrissian was actually the very first character to get such a figure (well, technically.  He and Leia as Boush were released at the same time, but Lando’s date stamp is from ’82, while hers is from ’83).  That’s not actually the figure I’m looking at today, though.  It seems Lando’s disguised look is more enduring than some of the others, seeing as it makes up roughly a third of all of his figures.  Today, I’m looking at Kenner’s second stab at this particular look.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

landoskiff2Lando was released in the first assortment of the 1997 series of Kenner’s Staw Wars: Power of the Force II.  It was the second version of Lando in the line and his fifth figure overall.  As touched on in the intro, this figure is based on Lando’s Skiff Guard disguise from the opening of Return of the Jedi.  Honestly, even as a disguised look, this is the most action-oriented design we saw Lando in, and I think that’s where a lot of its appeal comes from.  The figure stands about 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 6 points of articulation.  Lando comes from later in the POTF2 line, which was after the sculpts has calmed down a bit and worked out some of the ‘90s over-stylization.  He’s still a fair bit more jacked than Billy Dee Williams ever was, but that was on par with the rest of the line.  His head sculpt was the same one used for the Bespin version of Lando (and later the General version as well).  It’s not a spot-on Billy Dee Williams, but it’s still closer than most of the likenesses at the time.  And at least it was consistent, right?  The body sculpt was all-new to this figure.  Apart from the aforementioned “jacked” nature of the build, it’s a decent enough translation of the onscreen design.  He also ditches a lot of the pre-posing from earlier in the line, instead getting a more natural pose, and thereby offering a bit more versatility.  Lando’s paintwork is generally pretty solid.  Nothing spectacular, or particularly noteworthy, but it’s certainly well-done.  The colors are all well matched to the costume from the movie, and all the application is pretty clean.  There are some slight mismatches between some of the paint and molded elements, but nothing super awful.  Lando originally included a removable mask and vibro-axe, but my figure hasn’t had either in well over a decade.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

This is my very first Lando action figure, though he didn’t technically start out as mine.  He was one of a handful of Star Wars figures that I helped my Grandmother pick out at KB Toys back in the day so that my cousin Patrick and I would both have some figures at her house to play with (since we spent at least one day of the week there).  Eventually, Patrick grew out of his Star Wars phase and neither of us was spending as much time there, so Lando and the others eventually came home with me.  He’s the only one that made it through all of my various collection purges, mostly due to being the only Lando figure I owned for a good long while.  He’s actually not a bad figure, and he’s probably aged better than most of the others in this line.

#1204: Director Krennic

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , ,

DIRECTOR KRENNIC

STAR WARS: ROGUE ONE (HASBRO)

krennicsmall1

So, now that we’re in February, we’re sort of in that slow time of the year for toy collecting.  It’s been over a month since the onslaught of product pushed out for Christmas, and we’re still a couple of weeks away from all of Toy Fair’s cool reveals.  Of course, that just makes it the perfect time for me to catch up on some overdue reviews of things I got before the new year, now doesn’t it?

Back in December, I took a look at one of the two figures of Director Orson Krennic, the primary antagonist of Rogue One.  Well, I did manage to find the other figure, so now I’ll be taking a look at him too!  Yippee!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

krennicsmall2Krennic was released as part of the second series of Rogue One figures from Hasbro.  He was apparently only one to a case, so he’s been the most difficult of the series to track down at retail (which is why he’s the very last Series 2 figures I’m reviewing.)  His figure stands a little under 4 inches tall and has the usual 5 points of articulation.  For some figures, the lowered articulation can be very limiting, but for a character like Krennic, who seems to spend a lot of his time just standing around, it’s actually not terrible.  The smaller Krennic has another all-new sculpt, but, like his larger counterpart, I wouldn’t be shocked to see this put into use for some other Imperial Officers at some point.  While this figure isn’t packing any ground breaking detail work, the quality of the sculpt is still really solid.  All the important uniform details are there, and the head even has a passing resemblance to Mendelsohn (I actually think it’s a little better than the larger figure in that regard).  The figure is topped off by a plastic cape, which is quite nicely rendered, and easily the highlight of this particular figure.  Krennic’s paintwork is pretty good overall; the colors match the onscreen look and the application is fairly clean.  The eyes are a bit goofy; he looks like someone just told him they don’t like Star Wars; but they’re actually a bit cleaner than this scale usually gets.  Krennic includes his custom blaster pistol, which is sporting a good deal more paint than the average weapon in this line, and he also comes with the requisite giant missile launcher, which is just as silly and goofy as you’re all expecting it to be.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Krennic was the source of much searching after I got the rest of Series 2 back on Black Friday.  I ended up finding him while killing some time at a sort of out of the way Target.  He was my consolation prize for not breaking down and buying the AT-ACT while it was on clearance.  Having already gotten the Black Series figure, there’s not a ton of new ground with this guy, but I’m still happy to have found him, if for nothing more than completion’s sake.

#1197: K-2SO

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

K-2SO

STAR WARS: ELITE SERIES

k2diecast1

By now, it shouldn’t surprise anyone to pull up the site at see K-2’s name at the top of the page.  He was by far my favorite part of Rogue One, and one of my favorite parts of the Star Wars universe in general.  I’m steadily working my way to owning every possible action figure version of this guy.  I’ve already gotten the obligatory 3 3/4 inch and Black Series figures, plus the Lego Constraction figure, and even the Pop! figure.  The line I almost always overlook is the Disney’s in-house line of die-cast figures, available exclusively at the Disney Store, but, as with Poe, I did track down the die-cast K-2 figure, which I’ll be looking at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

k2diecast2K-2 was part of the assortment of Rogue One-related Star Wars: Elite Series released back on Rogue Friday.  The figure stands about 7 1/2 inches tall and has 19 points of articulation.  If you read my Poe review, you’ll probably remember that he was in a 7-inch scale.  Now, if you reference my Black Series K-2 review, you’ll note that I gave that figure’s height at 7 1/2 inches.  No, I didn’t mess either measurement up; these two figures are the exact same size, which means this guy’s actually 1/12 scale, and thus not actually in scale with the rest of the Elite Series figures.  In Disney’s defense, in order to be in proper scale with the rest of the Elite Series, K-2 would have to be almost 9 inches tall; the materials cost alone would mean he’d have to be in his own unique price point.  At this size, he’s still about a half inch taller than Poe, meaning he won’t look horribly out of place.  The flip side of all this is that this figure is perfectly scaled with The Black Series, so if you aren’t happy with your Black Series K-2 or are unable to find that particular figure, you have a second option.  In terms of construction, K-2 is mostly metal, with plastic being used only for his head and hands.  Like Poe, this means he’s a little more restricted in terms of motion than, say his, Black Series counterpart.  However, unlike Poe, where the there were some issues with looking a little too soft due to the metal parts, K-2 seems to do alright on the details.  If anything, he’s the one figure that it makes total sense to do in die-cast, being a droid and all, and his more geometric stylings lend themselves far more to this style of figure.  Another improvement over Poe: all those pesky screws on the back now have covers.  You can still see where they are, but they stick out a whole lot less.  In terms of accuracy to the source material, I think this figure’s actually a little closer to the movie design than the Black Series figure.  The head’s certainly superior on this figure at least.  The rest you can sort of chalk cup to differences of materials.  About the only real negative is the way the neck articulation has been implemented; rather than sticking with the movie design, there’s now a trench running just above the neck, allowing you to place his head straight up, which is just the most unnatural looking thing.  In terms of paint, this K-2 gets the proper gunmetal grey finish that his other figures have lacked, and also gets the proper grey detailing on the shoulder joints.  Aside from that, though, he’s a bit of a step down from the Black Series figure, loosing out on a lot of that figure’s really cool weathering, and also getting an inaccurate Imperial logo on both shoulders.  K-2’s only accessory is a display stand, which is the same as Poe’s.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

K-2 was picked up for me by my Super Awesome Girlfriend while we were out at the mall.  I caught sight of him through the window of the Disney Store on the way to another store and made a note to go back for him, but she snuck off later and grabbed him for me.  I’m a little disappointed that he’s not truly in scale with the Elite Series not because scale matters all that much to me, but more because him being the same size as the Black Series figure now leaves me eternally wondering which one I prefer.  If you want posablity and playability, go with the Black Series, but if you just want a cool looking K-2 for the shelf (and something you can possibly fend off home invaders with), you could do a lot worse than this guy.

k2diecast3

#1194: First Order Stormtrooper Squad Leader

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

FIRST ORDER STORMTROOPER SQUAD LEADER

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

fosquadleader1

It’s been almost a week since the last time I looked at a Star Wars toy.  And I amassed quite a number of them towards the backend of last year, so there’s just sort of this pile of them waiting to be reviewed.  Here’s one off the pile.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

fosquadleader2The First Order Stormtrooper Squad Leader was part of the early 2016 Snow Gear assortment, alongside unmasked Kylo Ren and Nien Nunb).  The figure stands a little under 4 inches tall and has 5 points of articulation.  In terms of construction, the Squad Leader uses the same basic tooling as the standard FO Trooper (and by extension, all of it’s deviations, reviewed in the First Order Legion set), which is sensible.  As I noted when I reviewed it before, it’s a pretty strong sculpt, and accurately recreates the First Order armor from the movie.  The main appeal of this figure is the web-gear, which is unique to this guy.  It’s a combination of the Heavy Artillery Trooper’s ammo vest with an Officer’s pauldron.  It’s different enough to keep him interesting, which I guess is the point.  Paintwork for this figure is pretty much on par with the other FO Troopers I’ve looked at.  There are some fuzzy lines here and there, but by and large he’s pretty good.  The Squad Leader includes a basic blaster rifle, as well as a much larger blaster that’s part of the build-a-whatsit.  It’s kind of a cool piece, though it’s actually taller than he his, so getting him to hold it is kind of tricky.  Still, better than a lot of the pieces included with these figures.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Being part of one of the later assortments of the Force Awakens line, this guy never really showed up at retail in full force.  I ended up getting this guy from Cosmic Comix during their Biggest Sale of the Year! (TM).  I like the Heavy Trooper look, and I liked this variation of it, so I got him.  Is he really different from figures I already own?  Not really, but he’s still pretty fun.

#1188: Lando Calrissian

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , ,

LANDO CALRISSIAN

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES

landogen1

For Day 22 of my post-Christmas reviews, I’ll be taking a look at the last of the Star Wars-themed figures I got this year, before once again returning to the world of Marvel (spoilers for tomorrow’s review?)  Today, I’ll be looking at everyone’s favorite suave scoundrel.  No, it’s not Han Solo, why do you ask?  Okay, so it’s everyone’s *second* favorite suave scoundrel, Lando Calrissian!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

landogen2Lando was released as part of Series 5 of Walmart’s exclusive smaller-scale Star Wars: The Black Series line, the same assortment that brought us Wednesday’s Admiral Ackbar figure (along with Ahsoka Tano and a Royal Guard).  Like Ackbar, Lando is a re-release of an earlier Vintage Collection figure.  Also like Ackbar, I don’t have the earlier figure, so this one is new for me.  The figure stands just shy of 4 inches tall and has 24 points of articulation.  The Vintage Collection was where Hasbro finally started adding in some additional hip movement for some of the figures.  Lando was from later in the line, when they started adding it to non-Jedi/Trooper characters.  At this point the movement was still rather primitive when compared to lots of other small-scale lines like this, but progress is progress.  The sculpt is generally pretty decent.  He’s based on Lando’s General look from Return of the Jedi, which isn’t my go-to Lando look, but it’s a decent enough choice.  The uniform is pretty solid and matches up with the onscreen costume.  The holster is a separate, removable piece, which is actually pretty convenient, since it had a tendency to switch shoulder from shot to shot.  The head sports a passable Billy Dee Williams likeness.  It’s hardly perfect, but it’s about as close as any other likeness this line’s ever given us.  The cape is cloth, and that’s probably the one major detractor about this figure.  It’s not awful; the actual cape bit is decent enough, but the clasp, which is rather thin in the film, is replaced here by a rather thick spandex band.  It’s totally inaccurate and ends up covering a good portion of the rather nicely sculpted collar.  Lando sports some pretty decent paintwork.  Nothing particularly spectacular, or super exciting, but the application is quite clean, continuing the upward trend from Hasbro as of late.  Lando includes a small blaster pistol, which can be placed in the holster.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Just like Admiral Ackbar, Lando was a Christmas present from my Super Awesome Girlfriend, though there’s no special reason behind me getting this guy (aside from an offhand confirmation of “yeah, I like Lando”).  While this isn’t my first choice of costume, this is otherwise a pretty solid figure, and I’m glad to add him to my collection!

#1184: Admiral Ackbar

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

ADMIRAL ACKBAR

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES

ackbar1

For the 18th day of my post-Christmas reviews, I’m ducking into the galaxy far, far away for a quick stop.  This time around, I’m heading back to the original trilogy and looking at the best trap-detecting commanding officer in the whole Rebellion, Admiral James Tiberius Ackbar.  No, he’s not really James Tiberius Ackbar, but that felt appropriately Admiralitorial.  Onto the figure!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

ackbar2Admiral Ackbar is part of Walmart’s current exclusive Star Wars: The Black Series.  His assortment (which also included Lando Calrissian, Ahsoka Tano, and a Royal Guard) hit around Rogue Friday.  Ackbar is a re-release of the previous The Vintage Collection Ackbar.  I don’t have that figure, so this one’s new to me.  Yay!  The figure stands about 4 inches tall and he has 18 points of articulation.  He’s based on Ackbar’s Return of the Jedi look which, at the time of the original figure’s release, was the only Ackbar design (since then, he’s appeared in both Clone Wars and The Force Awakens). It’s a very good recreation of his on-screen design.  In fact, it’s probably one of Hasbro’s best Star Wars sculpts, even seven years after its initial release.  The best part is definitely the head sculpt, which perfectly captures Ackbar’s distinctive head prosthetics.  The paintwork on Ackbar is solidly handled.  Like yesterday’s Spider-UK, Ackbar showcases a definite step-up in the overall paint application from Hasbro.  There are some slight differences on this guy’s paint compared to his TVC figure  The black details on his head and hands are a bit less subtle, which is a slight detractor, but the rest of the paint is a lot bolder and crisper, which makes him just look a lot better put together.  Ackbar is packed with a baton and the control panel from his ship (which is rather on the random side, but better than nothing, I suppose).

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Ackbar was a Christmas gift given to me by my Super Awesome Girlfriend.  We’ve been playing through Lego Star Wars: The Force Awakens, and Jess particularly loved Ackbar’s extra sassy personality in the game, dubbing him “Sassbar.”  When she found out there was a new Sassbar figure out, she told me I had to get it.  True to form, she went the extra mile and actually got him for me.  I’ve always had a soft spot for the good admiral, and I gotta say, this is easily one of the best Star Wars figures Hasbro’s ever put out there.  He certainly warranted the re-release, and I’m happy it allowed me to get him!