What can I say about The Book of Boba Fett that hasn’t already been said? Aside from the two episodes of The Mandalorian that got shoe-horned into the middle of it, the show was a profound disappointment, and a huge waste of an opportunity. It had a few flourishes of greatness surrounded by a whole lotta nothing. It felt like someone playing a Boba Fett tabletop RPG and not knowing what to do with it. Someone visits Boba at his throne. Boba leaves his throne. He walks somewhere, he gets attacked or something else happens, then he goes back to his throne. Pepper liberally with flashbacks, and there ya go. With that having been said, at least the two figures I’m checking out today had their moments to shine in The Mandalorian, before their own series would sputter out of the gates.

These figures actually come from both series, with Boba billed as from The Mandalorian, and Fennec from The Book of Boba Fett, but they both work well as being from The Mandalorian: Chapter 14, The Tragedy. As usual, you get some nice character art on the angled side of the boxes. Let’s start with Boba.

I was funning around on Twitter with this figure by asking when Uncle Fester became a Jedi, because straight out of the box, I wasn’t all that impressed. The robe looked puffy, and with Boba’s bald head nestled on top, that was the image that came instantly to mind. But after fiddling with the robes and checking out what’s underneath, I really opened up to this figure quite a bit.

On more than a few occasions, I’ve beaten up on Hasbro for not using softgoods enough in this line, so to criticize them on one of the examples where they do, is probably a little disingenuous of me. With a little futzing, I actually think the robe looks fine. It’s well tailored, I like the rough edges, and the hood is a little tough to control when it’s down behind his head, which is pretty much where I want it to be all the time. I actually would have preferred if Hasbro stitched it down to make it look better, but I guess it’s nice to have the option to be worn up.

I was extremely surprised and delighted to see how much sculpting there is under the cloth. You get a tunic with flared shoulders, and textured with vertical stripes, and sculpted robes hanging down around his legs, with the same rough-cut edges as the cloth robe. He has a wide belt with cartridges for his rifle and a shoulder strap, and finally a working holster for his pistol hanging on his right hip. I think the boots are supposed to be the same ones he wears when he’s kitted out in the Mandalorian armor, or at least they look familiar.

I think the head sculpt is OK, with a solid likeness to Temuera Morrison. It makes use of the modern printing technology for the facial features, which looks fine to the naked eye, but gets a little blurry as you punch in closer. I think my favorite thing about the portrait is the scars, which are sculpted rather than just painted. You also get some whiter skin tone around them.

Boba comes with three weapons, the first of which is a pistol that fits into the holster. The design is pretty distinctive, with what I presume is a scope running along the top of the barrel. The grip is also painted wood.

Next up, you get his Tusken Cycler Rifle. This is a great looking accessory, with some decent detail in the sculpt. I like the gold painted bands that are spaced along the barrel. The stock is painted brown, and the scope is painted gray. The carry strap is a plastic, and does a good job at not being too obtrusive. On the downside, it’s tough to get him to assume an aiming posture by drawing the gun up to his cheek.

And finally, Boba comes with the Gaffi stick that we would later see him craft in The Book of Boba Fett flashbacks. I don’t have a lot to say about the stick, other than it is cast in very soft plastic and it’s prone to bending and warping. There’s a string tied around it at each end to serve as a carry strap. OK… Let’s move on to Fennec!

Overall, I enjoy Fennec Shand as a character. She’s stoic and seemingly bad tempered at first, but she softens up a bit as the series moves on. Unfortunately, she’s mostly written in the same key as Boba, and while she serves to offer him some contrary advice from time to time, I think their relationship could have used a bit more chemistry. With that having been said, I dig her character design, and this figure does a fairly nice job bringing that to life in plastic. Her outfit has a very layered look to it, with a sort of half-tunic over her shoulders and chest, and a skirt hanging off her waist down to about her knees. There’s a lot of great texture work going on here, with some opposing geometric patterns in both the tunic and skirt. She also has a control box sculpted onto her belt, and a smaller, simpler one sculpted on her right chest. The costume is a mix of matte and gloss black, with some orange accents and striping. The deco here reminded me of something, which I couldn’t put my finger on until I sat down to write this and realized it’s similar to the deco used for the evil Programs in TRON: LEGACY.

The portrait isn’t quite spot on, but it’s not terrible. There’s a passing resemblance to Ming-Na Wen, but I don’t think it’s a slam dunk. If you handed me this head out of context, I’d say I would have a pretty good chance of identifying who it’s supposed to be, so I guess that counts for something. They did a decent job with her hair, especially the few strands that are sculpted down the right side of her face, and the ponytail, which snakes from around the back of her neck and down the front of her right shoulder. My biggest gripe here is with the ears. They look weird and unfinished.

She comes with her helmet, which is cast in soft, pliable plastic and easily slides on over her head. It’s a perfect fit, with the eyes lining up with the slit right where they should. It’s painted black and orange, and it’s a simple sculpt that matches the simple design of the screen used prop, and reminds me of a cross between a knight’s helm and a motorcycle helmet. I do think it looks a little funny with the ponytail hanging out from under it, but that’s not the figure’s fault. With all the fighting Fennec must do, it doesn’t seem like a good idea for her to have something that an opponent could grab hold of in a scuffle.

I was a bit worried that the nature of Fennec’s costume would hinder her articulation, but the skirt doesn’t get in the way much at all, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that she’s a fun figure to play around with.

Other than her helmet, Fennec only comes with one other accessory: Her sniper rifle, with a plastic carry strap. I love the design of the gun, but the carry strap is rather awkward. It’s pretty chunky, and it’s hard to get it to sit right on the figure without it getting in the way. Fortunately it’s only pegged into the rifle, so you can take it off. I’ll most likely cast it aside and display Fennec holding her gun most of the time. As for the rifle itself, it’s cast in black plastic, with no additional paint operations, but you get some great detail in that sculpt! The scope is extremely intricate, and you can even see what looks like a fire selector just above the trigger guard area.

All in all, I think both of these figures turned out pretty well. This isn’t really the version of Boba Fett that I was jonesing for the most, even though this was how he looked when he had some real badass moments kicking the shit out of Stormtroopers on Tython. This figure will really just be a placeholder until I get the figure of him wearing his armor. As for Fennec, I don’t think there’s any need for her to get another figure, as this one does a fine job capturing the way she looks through most of the series.