The second wave of 3 3/4-inch Rogue One figures are starting to trickle onto the pegs in these parts, so I thought it long past time that I take a look at the first wave. In fact, I’ll be looking at a lot of Star Wars figures over the next few weeks, so I can get caught up before the movie hits. Also, this week is going to be crazy busy for me, so rather than look at all four figures today, I’m going to tackle two today and two tomorrow. Yes, keep in mind that I’m only looking at the Rogue One figures in this wave. I passed on the Kylo Ren and I’ll check out the two Rebels figures later on down the road. So, let’s get this rebellion going with Jyn Erso and K-2S0!

OH, BUGGER! I was sure I had a shot of the packages before I opened them, but nope. So, here’s the best I could do. It’s a shame, because this is my first time showcasing the single carded Rogue One packaging. Anyway, you get the idea. It’s very similar in structure to The Force Awakens packages, but it’s now branded for Rogue One with the image of the Death Trooper in the upper right hand corner. Like the TFA cards, there’s some amazing character art on these packages, making me a little sad to be tearing them open. Also worth noting, the Build-A-Weapon gimmick has been replaced with individual weapons and gear for the figures.

First up, we have Jyn Erso. The 6-inch Black Series figure I looked at was based on her appearance on the planet, Jedha. Here she’s bundled up for Eadu, which seems to be a snow planet. This certainly isn’t the flashiest figure, but there’s some cool stuff going on here. She’s wearing a drab poncho with a sculpted hood down the back and some little bits of equipment sculpted across her chest and on her left hip. Her pants have some sculpted rumples and she has a pair of brown boots. I dig the little torn hole in the back of it, that’s a nice touch. I want to say that I get a little Princess Leia in Endor poncho vibe off of this figure, but then I don’t want to be one of those people for whom everything new in Star Wars has to be a call back to the original films. Maybe it was intentional, maybe it wasn’t.

Articulation is the standard 5-points, although the neck is ball jointed, rather than a simple swivel. Her feet seem to be slightly pre-posed so one is supposed to be a little in front of the other, but even taking that into account, I find it really difficult to get her to stay upright without a figure stand. Also, since her poncho extends past her hips, it gets in the way if you put her in a sitting position. I don’t have any Rogue One vehicles, but my guess is she’ll be difficult to seat into a vehicle because of this.

The head features a sculpted helmet with goggles. The sculpt is very, veeeery soft and I’d be hesitant to even refer to it as a likeness to the actress. We’re in very vintage territory here, even down to the way the eyes are painted. In short, the portrait here is nothing special, but I suppose it’s passable enough for this scale. On the other hand, this close up does showcase some of the nice silver paintwork on her sculpted gear.

Jyn features a sculpted holster to hold her little pistol and she can wield the pistol in either hand.

She also has a gas mask that comes on the figure, but is obviously removable. The tank tabs in near her left hip and the you can pop off her head to get the mask on and off the neck. I found it a little tricky to get it onto her face, but once there it looks pretty good. It’s a cool accessory and it reminds me a bit of the breathers in the mail away accessory pack Kenner had back in the day for The Empire Strikes Back.

Jyn’s giant gimmick accessory is a huge missile launcher. As ridiculously big as it is, I kind of dig that it has an eye piece that is positioned in front of her face when she is holding it. Of course, since the poor girl can barely stand up on her own, putting this in her hand doesn’t help. If she actually fired it, I could imagine the kickback throwing her back several feet into a wall. Moving on to K-2S0…

I had a few pre-conceptions about how this figure would turn out and all of them were bad. Most of all, I expected flimsy, warped, gummy limbs and I’m pleased to say that isn’t the case at all. His spindly arms and legs are actually straight and fairly strong, and he actually stands better than Jyn does. And speaking of standing, K-2SO is a damn big figure for this scale, appropriately towering over Jyn. The articulation is a little bit different than the standard 5POA. The shoulders still rotate, but the hips are ball jointed and the head is positioned on two ball joints.

The sculpt here is excellent. Hasbro managed to pack all sorts of details, particularly in the mid section of the droid. I also like how they left the knee and elbow joints empty slots. The paint is passable. The Imperial emblems on the shoulders look good and there’s some nice silver dry brushing. The orange around the arm sockets, however looks pretty rough.

K-2S0’s only accessory is his gimmick piece and that’s a zipline with a claw on the end. Much to my surprise, I actually don’t hate this thing, although I think it would have worked better as a backpack. I may try giving it to one of my 6-inch Black Series figures. It may scale better with them.

All in all, this is a decent pair of figures. There’s nothing terribly exciting here for me, but I like them well enough. I know, that’s not a resounding endorsement, but I tend to have more fun just playing around with these then I do shooting them for reviews. While I know the 5-POA business is still rubbing a lot of collectors the wrong way, I can honestly say, it’s grown on me and I get a little jolt of nostalgia whenever I open a new one, even if that sentiment isn’t always reflected here. I think this is a big reason why, if you’re going to go back to vintage articulation, you really need those vehicles to help enhance the figures. But maybe that’s just me.

Tomorrow, I’ll be back to look at the second half of this wave: The Stormtrooper and the Imperial Ground Crew.