Nov 10 2014

Star Wars Black: Chewbacca by Hasbro

I’ve had the most recent wave of Star Wars Black 6-inch sitting on my receivings pile for a while now so I’m going to bookend this week with two of the figures from this assortment. No doubt, Hasbro has made some erratic character choices for the initial waves of the series. Three versions of Luke and where the hell is my C-3PO? Well, R2 may be waiting for his prissy counterpart, but at least this last wave has finally reunited Han Solo with his trusty shaggy chum, Chewbacca. I’ve been looking forward to this release ever since I opened Han, so let’s get to it…

Hasbro has made some tweaks to the packaging for this new wave, but the changes are mostly superficial. Chewy still comes in a black window box, which is designed to stand on the shelf or hang on a peg. The figure comes on a clear plastic tray and the packaging is still totally collector friendly. His bowcaster is mounted, partially disassembled, at his side. Of course, the changes are bound to piss off collectors who have been keeping their figures boxed and like to line them up on the shelf. Ah, but I pitch the boxes, so I care not!

So straightaway, I really dig the sculpt on this Wookie. Just looking at the figure and taking it all in, I think it looks great. Is it a huge improvement over any of the 3 3/4” Chewie offerings? Yeah, I think he is! I love the way his sculpted hair looks appropriately shaggy, particularly around his wrists and ankles and Hasbro did a nice job using that sculpted shag to conceal some of the jointing. I also dig the way they actually sculpted his hands and feet under all that hair. Look… Wookie Feet! (Remember that password, Kyle Katarn, it might come in handy later!) The bandolier strap and satchel are sculpted in a separate piece and if you want to remove it, you need only pop off Chewie’s head to do so. Oh yeah, did I mention he’s really freaking tall? Han barely comes up to his shoulders. Nice!

This figure has caught a lot of criticism over the head sculpt, most particularly the open mouth mid roar. Fans seem to have preferred Hasbro went with a more neutral expression. I’m actually quite pleased with the way the expression came out. It’s not quite a full roar, more like Chewie’s just talking. Whether I decide to pose him just standing next to Han or repelling a squad of Stormtroopers, I think the expression can work for either. In the end, I suppose it comes down to just a matter of taste.

The paint on the figure isn’t terribly complex. You get a couple shades to the fur which gives him a combination milk chocolate and dark chocolate look. Maybe the dark is a little too much on the upper legs, but it’s nothing I’m going to really complain about. There’s also some grey on his fingers and toes, which is something I’ve never noticed on any previous Chewie figures, but I like it. The only drastic departure from the fur is the metalic silver paint used for the cartridges and fixtures on his bandolier.

If I have one issue with Chewie it’s in the articulation, but before I get to that let’s run down the points. You get rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, wrists, knees, and ankles. The legs are ball jointed at the hips and have swivel cuts in the thighs. Chewie features two sets of ball joints in the torso and a ball joint in the neck. What, no swivel cuts in the biceps? Yup, that’s disappointing. As I expected the sculpted hair certainly interferes with how much some of the joints will move, but you can still get a good amount of poses out of him. The head includes a generous triangle of hair that runs down his front and back. You can get a little movement left or right, but much more then that and his head will pop off. I think this was an issue of sculpt over articulation, and in hindsight Hasbro probably made the right choice.

In addition to his bandolier strap and pouch, Chewie comes with his trusty bowcaster. Hasbro has had its share of troubles recreating this weapon in the 3 3/4” scale but they did a pretty nice job on this larger one. It comes in two pieces with the bow pegging into the weapon. Some have reported problems with getting them to stay joined, but mine connects pretty firmly and seems to stay put unless I drop it. It’s a little tough to get Chewie’s right hand to grip it, but he can do it.

I absolutely love this figure! While there were a few compromises between sculpt and articulation, I think Hasbro hit all the right points and delivered an incredibly fun and great looking version of the big walking carpet. I found myself playing with him on my desk a lot longer than I have some of the other figures in this line and that’s always the best compliment I can give. In fact, he’s probably in my top four figures released in this line so far. What’s more he looks absolutely amazing when posed besides Han or crushing loads of Stormtroopers with his bare hands. I only hope that we eventually get a break apart C-3PO with a net so Chewie can carry him around on his back.

Saturday I’ll swing back to more Black with a look at The Dark Lord of the Sith himself!

Oct 21 2014

Star Wars Black: Imperial Shadow Squadron (Target Exclusive) by Hasbro

Well, it didn’t take long to for Hasbro to repaint the Star Wars Black 6-inch Speeder Bike and Biker Scout. I just got around to looking at that set last week and now this new set landed on my doorstep. This new box is a Target Exclusive and contains black repaints of the Biker Scout and Bike along with a repainted Sandtrooper. Why? Because they’re SHADOW SQUADRON! I’m not usually up for these sort of repaints, but I happened to be online when this set dropped onto the website (it didn’t take too long to sell out) and I had a Target Giftcard with some monies left on it, so I figured why the hell not? Let’s check it out…

It may be a special exclusive, but the box is still mostly black and featureless. It’s pretty similar to what we got with the Speeder Bike set only elongated to include the extra figure and weapons. The back drop is illustrated with a still from A New Hope where the Falcon was sitting in The Death Star’s hanger bay. Yup, these Shadow Troops are so damn stealthy we couldn’t even see them in the movie. Why did they have a Speeder Bike sitting on the deck there? Because… shut up! Anyway, the box is still collector friendly and I may just save this package to keep the figures in there because I’m not sure how well they will fit into my regular 6-inch Black display.

Let’s start with the Shadow Scout and Speeder Bike. I just looked at the original versions of these things last week and so I’ll try to be brief. It’s obviously the same figure with a new coat of paint and the new deco consists of black armor with dark gray used for the bodysuit and the abdominal area. You also get some gray and silver paint hits to pick out the details in the sculpt and an Imperial insignia neatly printed on the left of his chest armor. The black alternates between a straight matte finish and some areas with bit more gloss. I really dig how the ankle holster and straps are painted to stand out from the boots. I’m really impressed with the way the deco on this guy came out.

I’ll defer on a rundown of the articulation and just point you toward my review of the regular figure for that. The joints aren’t at all mushy and he is lots of fun to pose. And yes, he still comes with his little pistol and I did manage to avoid snapping the trigger guard this time.

If the Shadow Scout impressed me, the new deco on the Speeder Bike absolutely wowed the hell out of me. I mean… damn. The paint finish on this thing is absolutely fantastic. Once again you get a couple different styles of black, both matte and glossy and the combination makes this piece really shine. Toss in some gray plastic and some silver paint hits and you’ve got a piece that pops like crazy. The Bike also comes decked out with Imperial insignia stamped on each side of the back and a smaller one dead center between the handlebars. If Hot Black Desiato, the lead singer of Disaster Area, owned a Speeder Bike, you could be damn sure this would be it! And yes, I like to think that Hitchhikers exists in the same universe as Star Wars.

The handlebars are a bit warped on mine, but if I display it with the Shadow Scout riding it, it’s impossible to tell. It also comes with the same tringular stand. Yes, the stand still feels all soft and cheap as hell, but damn if it doesn’t work great and add some options to the display.

Lastly, you get the Shadow Stormtrooper Commander looking equally dapper in his black and dark gray deco. This is actually a repaint of the Sandtrooper, rather than the straight Stormtrooper (yes, there are differences in those two sculpts) and he also comes with the pauldron. Once again the deco here just looks phenomenal. The deco still consists of a mix of matte black and slightly glossier black with the bodysuit in dark gray and some grey and silver paint hints to pick out the details in the helmet.. The pauldron looks exceptionally sharp with a matte black surface surrounded by a glossy border. I guess my only complaint here is that he didn’t get an Imperial insignia stamp. I think one would have looked good on his chest armor and that way my OCD wouldn’t be acting up over the fact that the Scout has one and the Stormy doesn’t.

I think it would have been cool if Hasbro had included the holster for the E-11 blaster on this guy. No chance to add a functional holster to a figure should ever be ignored and doing so would have given us a cool hybrid Stormy that was unique for something other than his deco.

The Shadow Stormy comes with his E-11 Blaster and you also get the rifle that came with the original Sandtrooper and the one that came with the original Stormy. The E-11 comes in the Shadow Stormy’s hand, but the rifles are mounted between the figures in a community pot, so I guess they’re up for grabs. I seem to remember in the Battlefront games the Biker Scouts were also snipers, so I’ll likely give him one of the rifles.

This set retails for $50, which is pretty damn good considering the Speeder Bike and Biker Scout alone went for $40. Between free shipping, a 5% Redcard discount, and some scraps left on a Target gift card, I netted this set for $30. I thought when I got it I would feel like a sucker for buying the ubiquitous “cool” black repaints, but once I got these toys open and out of the box I knew I did the right thing. By every right, this set should have been nothing more than a quick and dirty repaint cash grab, but I have to give it to Hasbro, they did a really nice job on it. Sure, they exist because they’re black and black Imperial armor look bad ass, but it genuinely feels like care was put into the re-deco and a lot more that was put into some of the regular stand alone figures… I’m looking at you Prequel Obi-Wan!

Oct 15 2014

Star Wars Black: Deluxe Speeder Bike with Biker Scout by Hasbro

Back when Hasbro first unveiled their Star Wars Black 6-inch line, there was a lot of speculation as to whether or not there would ever be any vehicles. Now that speculation can end because we got one! Even if it may be the only one (that still remains to be seen), the Speeder Bike seems like the perfect way to get a vehicle into the line and bundle it with a figure too! I’ve been particularly excited to get this set in hand to see how it turned out, mainly because I bought a case and got two of these along with the Deluxe Jabba the Hutt.

The packaging is a very simple, no frills window box. Like the boxes for the individual figures, the presentation here is as minimalist as you can get. There isn’t even any writing or art or anything on the side panels or the top. Yup, pretty boring. On the other hand, it’s a confident move to let your toy speak for itself, and that’s exactly what the huge window is doing here. I do find it interesting that the set is called “Speeder Bike with Biker Scout” as if it’s the figure that’s the accessory. I think most would have figured it to be the other way around. Either way, both pieces come on a clear plastic tray with the Scout seated on his ride and held in by rubber bands. I’m a little worried about the dreaded Pre-Posed Warping Syndrome. I can’t wait to bust this thing open and get them out! Oh yeah, the box is totally collector friendly so long as you’re careful clipping all those rubber bands and don’t mangle the tray. Let’s start with the figure…

My rule of thumb when evaluating the 6-inch Black figures can be summed up with, “is it an improvement over the best of the 3 3/4” versions and thereby does it take advantage of the upscale?” In the case of the Biker Scout I would have to say… yeah, sort of. It’s not a huge leap forward, but it I think it does take advantage of the larger size to deliver a marginally better sculpt then what we’ve had in the past and definitely better articulation. Most of the improvements in the sculpt can be found on the back of the belt and the armor for the arms. The underlying body suit also has a more intricate texture. I also like how the shoulder hinges are no longer visible through the shoulder armor. The treads on his boots are particularly impressive. I’ll confess you have to scrutinize this guy quite a bit to find the stand out differences between him and his smaller cousin, but there are some there to be found.

Obviously the bulk of the deco here consists of white armor on a black body suit. The figure does make some use of weathering and panel lining. The weathering mostly consists of some dirt on his boots and a little more of the same color on his chest. I’m kind of torn on whether or not I would have preferred him clean, but what we got certainly looks fine. The rest of the paint hits are used to pick out detail in his armor and it’s all executed with precision. I think my only quibble would be that I wish the black used for his visor was glossy instead of matte.

As for that articulation, I’m happy to report that my Biker Scout doesn’t suffer from any mushy joint syndrome, nor did any of his joints get warped or deformed from being packaged seated on the bike. The arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders and wrists, swivels in the biceps, and double hinges in the elbows. The shoulder armor does inhibit the movement there a bit, but it’s not terribly restrictive. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have swivels in the thighs and tops of the boots, double hinges in the knees, and the ankles have both hinges and lateral rockers. There’s a ball joint just below the chest armor and the neck is both ball jointed and hinged.

On the downside, his gun is a little piece of shit. I think it’s undersized, but that could be just me. The first time I put it into his hand the trigger guard snapped because it’s just weak soft rubber. It still looks alright in his hand, but paying good money for something from a “collector’s line” only to have a part break right out of the box is not my idea of fun. I’ll have to be more careful with the second one when I open it.

Moving on to the Speeder Bike, I’d say this piece is a bigger departure from the 3 3/4” version but mainly because it’s a far more static piece. There are some small improvements to the mold, but this piece also takes a few steps back. There are hinges on the air brakes, but they only allow for a little movement. The undercarriage blaster can still swivel, but those two examples are the extent of the articulation on this thing. The pedals are fixed into place (although they will pull out as they are just tabbed into the bottom) as are the handlebars. On the plus side, I expected this thing to be really soft and bendy and I’m happy to report that’s not really the case. Only the handlebars suffer from soft plastic and it’s not really an issue when the figure is holding them, only when the bike is unoccupied. The deco gets by mostly with colored plastic, although there are some silver dry brushed weathering effects here and there, which are only moderately convincing.

I’m not sure if this will make sense, but this Bike feels more like a prop than a proper 6-scale replica of the Bike. Upscaling the Speeder Bike to the 6-inch range offered lots of opportunities for more intricate moving parts and better defined instruments and such and sadly those opportunities are missed here. That’s not to say, however, that it doesn’t look good because it certainly does. What’s more, the Biker Scout looks fantastic when riding it, thanks to his excellent articulation and the addition of foot pegs on the pedals.

The stand is a frosted translucent cheap piece of rubbery plastic, but damn if it isn’t clever. When I first set it up I was pissed because it seemed like the only way to display the bike was in elevated flight. It took me a few minutes to realize that the other two ball joints work as well. You can plug any of the three into the bottom of the bike and the irregular triangular shape of the stand makes it so that you can display the bike at different heights depending on what side you flip it onto. I was happy to see I could achieve the parked levitating look with the Scout standing beside it.

Both the Speeder Bike and the Biker Scout are very nice pieces and I’m very happy to have them in my growing 6-inch Black collection. They are not, however, toys that take full advantage of the collector’s grade potential of the larger scale and higher price point. At about $40 for the set, I’d say this box is definitely worth the money. The 6-inch Black figures generally retail for twenty and it’s easy to see where another twenty bucks went into the bike for plastic, tooling and paint. I’ll admit to having lowered my expectations of this line a bit since the initial wave came out, but that’s not to say that I’m not appreciating and enjoying these figures.

Oct 7 2014

Star Wars Black: Luke Skywalker and Yoda Dagobah Training (3 3/4” Scale) by Hasbro

The last three features have been all about expensive stuff, so I thought it’d be a nice change of pace to go dumpster-diving in the pegs again where all the “common” toys live. Plus, it’s been a little while since I revisited Hasbro’s 3 3/4” Star Wars Black line, so let’s remedy that today! I’m actually doubling up on today’s feature because figures #21 and #22 are designed to go together. Here we’ve got Luke and Yoda from the Jedi training scenes on Dagobah. I think it’s pretty cool that Hasbro has tied these two figures together and released them in the same wave. It reminds me a bit of when they released the four Dagobah themed figures in the Original Trilogy Collection with matching bases and everything. Wow, that takes me back! Anyway, this line has been a total crapshoot of highs and lows, so let’s take a look at this pair and see where they land…

The next wave will feature a redesigned card, so I can see the light at the end of the tunnel where I’ll never have to look at these dreadful packages again. As one would probably expect, there’s quite a big disparity between what’s in the bubbles here. Besides being a normal sized figure, Luke has all sorts of extras packed in with him. Yoda on the other hand… well, even with the backpack and a couple of other accessories he seems really small in that big bubble. It’s a good example of how things often cost out across a wave of figures like this. You get a little more with Luke and a little less with Yoda, but if you’re buying both it all evens out in the end. Or at least that’s the idea. I’m going to start with Yoda because there’s not much to talk about so I might as well just to get him out of the way…

Based on Hasbro’s original pictures I had no interest in this figure at all. The promo pics looked absolutely terrible. However, when I finally saw him swinging on a peg in a store I thought he looked so much better in person. Now that I finally have him in hand I think he’s decidedly mediocre. The head sculpt is actually not too bad, although I think they gave him way too much hair. It looks like someone shaving creamed the back of his head.

The little softgoods robe is OK for what it is. It’s hard enough to do good looking softgoods clothes on regular 3 3/4” figures and Yoda is so tiny I’m not going to pick apart Hasbro’s effort on the robe. It even has a tiny belt to hold it together. I haven’t taken it off of him, but it feels like Yoda is just sporting a straight up five points of articulation. Again, for a figure this size, I’m not going to quibble.

Yoda comes with his tiny cane, which he can sort of hold in one hand, and he comes with a necklace thing, which doesn’t look very film accurate on him, but maybe I’m misremembering. He also comes with the backpack for Luke, which we’ll get to in a bit. Also, where the hell is his pet snake??? I WANT HIS SNAKE!!! Alright, enough about Yoda, let’s move on and talk about Luke and…

OMG, WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH HIS ARMS??? Yeah, Luke’s got some tragic arms, but as the old saying goes, the road to tragic arms is paved with good intentions… or something like that. That’s certainly the case here. Hasbro wanted to give us a Luke figure with super poseable, double-hinged elbows and even swappable hands. The result is this set of crazy arms. It’s not just me is it? They do look nuts, don’t they? Well, not only do they look really weird to me, but the left arm on my figure keeps popping out at the bicep swivel. They’re also loose as all hell. This wasn’t necessary, Hasbro. It’s an experiment that went horribly wrong.

It’s really tough to overlook those arms, but pretending we can for a moment, the rest of the figure isn’t too bad. I think the head sculpt is competent, but he’s definitely not dirty enough. He’s got some green smudge on his shirt, but he should be dirtied up more to accurately replicate the scene in the film. It’s also awkward that Luke has so much great articulation in his arms, but the ball joints in his knees allow for so little movement. He can’t even kneel down on one knee. And look at those crazy hip joints with the flesh tone hinges showing through his pants. C’mon, Hasbro… you’re not even trying anymore.

Luke comes with a removable gun belt with a holster that can fit his blaster. Check out how unbelieveably large his blaster is. It’s ridiculous. He also comes with a lightsaber hilt and a lit lightsaber. The weird thing about that is the hilt is pegged, but there’s nowhere to peg it onto the figure. He does have this weird thing on his belt that looks like it’s supposed to hold something, but it doesn’t, so… FAIL! His extra hands are flat out and are useful if you want to have him trying to lift his X-Wing or move some rocks around with The Force.

I was hoping there would be some payoff when putting the two figures together, but that’s just not the case. The softgoods backpack is too big and it looks downright awkward on Luke. That belt buckle is freaking huge! It looks like he’s gearing up to jump out of a plane. Remember those Original Trilogy Collection Dagobah figures I mentioned? Well, they did the whole Yoda backpack thing a lot better than this. In fact, let’s do a quick comparison.

The headsculpt has improved a bit, but I like the mud smeared all over the OTC Luke. I also think the backpack looks much better on the older figures. Of course, it’s worth mentioning that you pull apart and plug his top half into it so it is a cheat.

As for the Yodas. Man, that OTC Yoda creeps me the f’ck out! I don’t know what it is about it’s head, but I don’t want to look at it anymore. I think I’ll bury him in the back yard. I do like the articulation on the older figure better. The ball joints in the shoulders and swivels in the elbows are pretty cool, even if there is no articulation from the waist down.

So, this pair was on clearance for five bucks each at an online retailer where I was buying some other figures and I tossed them into the cart. The Yoda is passable, I suppose, if only because I don’t have many versions of him and the softgoods robe tugs on the nostalgia I have for the vintage Kenner Yoda. But even still, I can’t recommend either of these on any meaningful level. In the end they’re just another example of what a wildly inconsistent line this has been. I don’t think I’ve been this disappointed with Star Wars figures since the days of that pre-posed “Attack of the Clones” garbage.

Sep 5 2014

Star Wars Black: Bastila Shan (3 3/4” Scale) by Hasbro

A little while ago Hasbro released Knights of the Old Republic character Bastila Shan in their Vintage Collection. This made yours truly very sad because this figure was very poorly distributed and it was only available for exorbitant scalper prices. The evil scalpers didn’t care one jot nor piffle that I loved KotR with all my heart and desperately wanted some figures because the only way I can express my love for something is to buy little plastic versions of it. The same was pretty much true for all the Knights figures Hasbro released and so I was forced to go without. Fast forward to now and Hasbro has managed to scratch out a few of the bastard points they earned from me by re-releasing Bastila as part of that most dubious of endeavors… the Star Wars Black 3 3/4” line. A line where just about any good figure appearing in it has been repacked or bumped from another line. And that brings us to today’s feature!

As mentioned, the original release of Bastila came on a snazzy looking, albeit completely nonsensical and ret-conned, vintage-style card. This re-release comes on the crappy and thoughtless Star Wars Black card. Don’t worry, I’m not even going to complain about the packaging this time. Hasbro could have dropped her into a used sardine tin and I still would have happily purchased this figure. Now, the last thing I want to do is piss all over this gesture of good will, but it would have been even better had Hasbro released the rest of those expensive and hard to get Knights figures in this line. Even if they dropped one into each wave it would have been a great way to get characters like Revan, Malak and HK-47 into the hands of desparate collectors like me. Oh well…

And there she is! It’s funny how instantly iconic Bastila’s costume has become for me, but then I did spent well over 100 hours on just the first KotoR alone, so at one point all these character designs must have been burned into my retinas. And rightly so, because Bastila is a great character, and certainly among my favorites in the Expanded Universe that I guess doesn’t exist anymore? Huh. Now I’m kind of depressed. Anyway, Hasbro did a wonderful job sculpting the Old Republic equivalent of her Jedi garb. I like this rather sleek and less bulky look, not only because Bastila was easy on the eyes, but because it seems like it would be easier to fight with as opposed to draping yourself in layers of window treatments. I like the scrollwork sculpted into the brown leather portions of the outfit and there’s some particularly nice detail work on the pouches of her belt. The strips of skirt are made of soft plastic and they don’t inhibit the leg articulation too badly.

The portrait here is decent enough. It’s not that amazing a likeness of the in-game model, but considering Hasbro’s track record on the 3 3/4” ladies, I’ll take what I can get. The paint looks fine under normal viewing, but as is often the case with figures in this scale it breaks down a bit the closer you get. Yeah, the skin tone is a little bit waxy, but in the pictures that’s mostly enhanced by my studio lights. I do really like the one wisp of hair that’s drawn across her forehead just below her hairline. It’s a characteristic that was in the game model and a nice bit of attention to detail to include it on the figure.

Despite the mold being more than a few years old, the articulation here is decent for modern Hasbro standards. You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders, elbows, knees, and ankles. There are swivels in the wrists and in the waist. Unfortunately, the hips use the tired old T-crotch, which Hasbro just will not give up on.

Bastila comes with both a lit and unlit version of her double-bladed lightsaber. The unlit hilt is pegged so that it can attach to her belt, which is always a welcome feature. The lit one features yellow blades and she can hold it pretty well in her left hand while her right hand is sculpted to be doing some kind of Force hocus-pocus Battle Meditation mumbo-jumbo.

I absolutely love this figure and I’m thrilled to finally be able to get it at a decent price. In fact, I was able to pick her up from the Interwebs for only $10, which is about a fifth of what she was going for in some of the scalper channels. Hasbro has been putting the bro back in Hasbro lately by using current lines to re-release hard to get figures. They did it in the Infinite Series with Omega Red and I hope they keep it up. The only thing that makes me sad about owning this figure is that it reminds me I’m missing all the other Knights of the Old Republic figures. And that Hasbro never made a 3 3/4” scale Ebon Hawk, but that’s a rant for another day.

Aug 25 2014

Star Wars Black: Toryn Farr (3 3/4” Scale) by Hasbro

I can’t believe I’m back to doing a Star Wars feature a week, but for good or for ill it certainly seems like something I’m collecting again. Last week I checked out the excellent Snowtrooper Commander and today I’m going to keep the Hoth snowball rolling with a look at Toryn Farr, th communications officer at Echo Base. It’s unbelievable but true, Toryn is proof that there are still characters out there that have yet to get the action figure treatment. It’s nice to see Toryn finally honored with a figure, but at this point if you’re a Star Wars character and your first figure is being released after Bespin Ice Cream Maker Guy, you should probably take it as a slap in the face.

There’s the packaging. I still think it’s crap. I think the next wave is the one scheduled for a redesign in which we get a diecut card in the form of a Tie Fighter Pilot. I’ve got some things to say about that, but I’ll wait until the packaging comes across my desk first. Anyway, Toryn looks a bit lost in that big bubble and since her two accessories are black, I can barely make them out. But, screw this whole package design, let’s get her out of there…

I expected Toryn to be a quick and dirty recycle of the Hoth Princess Leia that we got a little while ago in the Vintage Collection line and I was partially right. The body is lifted directly from that Leia and given a slightly darker wash. Oddly enough the hands are both new and the jacket, while very similar in the pattern has a higher collar and a different rank insignia thingy on the left of the chest. I’m not going to pop in the movie and check to see how similar the two outfits were on screen, so just off the cuff let me say that I don’t have a problem with the reuse here. It makes sense that they would both be wearing some kind of standard issue fatigues and the fact that Hasbro bothered to make her a new vest is good enough for me. The new head sculpt is pretty good, especially considering Hasbro’s track record with the ladies. Toryn is sporting some rather intense cheekbones but all in all I think it’s a pretty attractive portrait and a fairly good likeness.

Since the body is shared with VC Hoth Leia, Toryn features the same mixed bag of old and new articulation. You get ball joints in the shoulders, elbows, knees, and neck. That’s all good, but then we scale back with a simple swivel waist and the old T-crotch for the hips. The complete lack of any articulation in the ankles is curious, but considering the character, I don’t know that it’s a critical omission.

Toryn comes with two accessories, a rebel blaster and a set of headphones. I lost the blaster that came with my Hoth Leia so chances are Toryn’s weapon is going to her. I’m cool with Toryn just sitting around taking calls on her headset. “Hi, you’ve reached Echo Base. We’re under Imperial attack right now and cannot take your call. Please leave a message after the beep.” Not to belittle her job, she did give the firing order to disable a Command Star Destroyer. That’s pretty badass!

I like this figure a lot and I think it’s plenty cool that Hasbro is still finding characters to produce. I can’t say as I’ve sat around pining for the day that Toryn Farr joined my collection, but then every additional Hoth figure I pick up gets me just a little more motivated to go out to Michaels, get a crap ton of styrofoam, and build an Echo Base playset. I’m also always happy to see another female character get the action figure treatment, particularly when they’re just in a supporting role.

Aug 19 2014

Star Wars Black: Snowtrooper Commander (3 3/4” Scale) by Hasbro’s

Now that I’m all caught up on the Black 6-inch line, I can start picking away at some more of the 3 3/4” figures waiting to be opened. This time it’s the newly released Snowtrooper Commander and I had a lot of trepidation over buying this one. The Stormtrooper and Biker Scouts that Hasbro released in this line were not all that great and so when this guy turned up at HasbroToyShop, I was hesitant to order a full squad without having him in hand first. I wound up ordering a couple along with some other figures and hoped for the best. Well, those hopes paid off because this is a really fantastic figure! Let’s check him out…

At some point in the near future, Hasbro will be re-branding the packaging on this 3 3/4” line. I don’t know that it will be much better, but I doubt it could be worse. The only good thing I have to say is that the white Snowtrooper stands out nicely against that hideous black card. Also, it’s worth noting that this is a Snowtrooper Commander! It’s been a long time since Star Wars was my number one nerd attraction, so I have no idea what the differences would be between a Commander and a regular old Snowtrooper who is likely to get shot in the face or torn apart by Wampas while storming Echo Base. That having been said, I’ll just be considering these guys my run-of-the-mill cannon fodder variety Snowtrooper.

And here he is out of the package and ready for action. I gotta say, I love this figure! I don’t know how much of this fella is new and how much is recycled. The only other recent Snowtrooper I own in this scale is from the VOTC line and that one is still carded and packed away in a storage tote. I’m pretty sure the pistol holster on his kama is new, and maybe that’s supposed to be one of the things that sets him apart as a Commander. Star Wars collectors feel free to weigh in and tell me how ignorant I am!

The sculpting on this figure is fantastic and it really drives home why I love this design so much. It goes beyond my general love of all things Hoth. I think it’s the hood that just makes these guys all the more creepy and sinister looking than your regular Stormtroopers. Also, and I’m not sure there’s any film evidence to back this up, but I always got the impression that these guys were just better in combat than the Stormies from warmer climes. The chest armor is part of the figure buck, but it’s executed well enough that I could have believed it was layered onto the figure. The shoulders are also designed so that the hinges don’t muck up the aesthetics of the armor like it did with the Stormtrooper and Biker Scout. Everything about this figure shows care and forethought and, at the same time, beautifully showcases all the bad decisions Hasbro made with those other two figures.

There’s obviously not a lot of paintwork here, but what there is of it is crisp and clean and so much better than the hack job they did on the recent Stormtrooper release. Look at his backpack and you’ll see two tiny hits of gold paint… there’s no other gold anywhere else on the figure. They busted out that color exclusively for those two little bits. That’s so cool!

The articulation here is pretty solid with my one gripe being the continued use of that pesky T-crotch, which in this case is less of an issue because the plastic kama inhibits the leg articulation quite a bit. Otherwise, it’s all good. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders and elbows and swivels in the wrists. You also get rotating hinges in the knees and ankles, a ball joint in the lower torso and again in the neck.

Snowy Commander comes with two weapons. First you get a little pistol, which looks a bit too much like Han’s blaster for my liking, but who am I to scoff at an extra pistol, eh? It also fits snugly into the holster. The other weapon is the newer version of the E-11 Blaster that includes the folding stock. It still impresses me that Hasbro was able to do that on such a small scaled weapon. Sure, it tends to fall apart at the hinges, but I’m impressed nonetheless.

And so the 3 3/4” Black line continues to be a total grab bag of wonderful surprises mixed with crap. Buying this line is like reaching blindly into your bag of Halloween candy and hoping to pull out an Almond Joy and not a handfull of razor blades. This figure is every bit as polished as the Stormtrooper and Biker Scout were sloppy and shameful. As you can see, I quickly picked up a couple more and I’m hoping that a simple squad of four will be enough to satisfy me. But if I ever see another one of these guys hanging on a peg in the wild, I doubt I’ll be able to walk by without tossing him in my cart. And if Hasbro can upscale this guy and give him a softgoods kama and a few more tweaks, I’ll be really happy to get him in the 6-inch scale too!

Aug 15 2014

Star Wars Black: Anakin Skywalker by Hasbro

I started out this week looking at the Star Wars Black 6-inch Clone Trooper and I wasn’t all that impressed with him. That’s unfortunate because apart from the extra Stormtrooper, that was the figure I was most looking forward to getting. The only other new figure in the wave is Anakin and the only reason I own him is because I bought the whole case and he tagged along for the ride. This guy has a couple of strikes against him from the get-go. One, he’s a Prequel figure, which aside from the Clones and maybe Jango Fett, I’m not actively collecting. Two, I expected him to heavily reycle parts from the Prequel Obi-Wan, another figure that I was not at all impressed with. I know, we’re off to a bad start here, so let’s take the high ground (so stupid) and just jump in and get this over with.

I’ve got nothing new to say about the packaging. It looks good and does a great job of showing off the figure and his extras. I love the way the lightsaber and extra head just seem to hover there in the package. Anyway, this should be the last time we see this box deco before the redesign in the next wave. Anakin comes with two portraits, so we’ll start off with the noggin he comes with out of the box.

I already said that I was expecting a nearly straight repaint of the Obi-Wan figure and that’s not at all what we got so kudos to Hasbro on that. In fact, I’m really impressed that Hasbro practically did an entirely new sculpt for the Anakin body. Sure, there’s obvious differences, like the bracer on his right forearm, the belt, and the boots, but even the areas on the robes where shared parts would have been sensible have different texturing and fold patterns. After having scrutinized both figures side by side I’m still having a problem finding anything that’s directly recycled without some tweaking. There are also some cool and more subtle differences like the way Anakin’s shoulders crest upward a bit at the ends. I had some issues with the Obi-Wan body feeling a bit too bulky, but I don’t find the same issue here, but I think that’s mostly because Anakin had a bigger build.

The figure comes boxed with his regular head, which I think is a passable enough likeness. It’s certainly about on par with the Lukes and Han from past waves and I’d argue it’s better than the Obi-Wan portrait. I think my only gripe here is that since they included his “evil” Darth Vader head, they might have gone for a less angry looking expression for his normal noggin. The most notable difference in the Vader head is that the messier hair and the eyes, which are painted red. It feels like it needed a little something more to make it stand out. Maybe a paint wash or some dark circles under the eyes would have helped. Still, all in all it’s not bad.

Articulation here is pretty much the same as we saw with Obi-Wan. You get a limited ball joint in the waist and the neck features both a ball joint and hinge. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, double hinged at the knees, and the ankles feature both ball joints and lateral rockers.

As with Obi-Wan, Anakin comes with his trusty lightsaber with a detachable blue blade. The blade is a deeper blue than Obi-Wan’s and it’s also a bit thicker. The hilt is nicely detailed and painted and it’s also pegged so that it can be attached to the belt.

I was originally planning on unloading this figure, along with Obi-Wan to a more prequel minded collector, but much to my own surprise, I liked Anakin enough to convince me to keep him and Obi-Wan both. I can’t say as he’s all that much better than some of the 3 3/4″ treatments, so he still fails the “is the new scale living up to its full potential” test, but he still turned out much better than I expected. I think the plastic sculpted robes look better on him than on Obi-Wan and I really appreciate all the effort Hasbro made to make him a unique sculpt when they could have easily just recycled the Obi-Wan body. On the whole, I think the 6-inch Black series is still a win, but this most recent wave has really shaken my confidence, especially since the best two figures in it are from previous waves. But, we have a new assortment due to ship soon, so hopefully Hasbro can restore this line to a more solid footing.

Aug 11 2014

Star Wars Black: Clone Trooper (Phase I) by Hasbro

The new wave of Hasbro’s 6-inch Star Wars Black has arrived, but those of you expecting all new characters will be disappointed. This new case only adds two new figures to the mix: The Phase I Clone Trooper and Anakin Skywalker with the other two slots in this case occupied by re-releases of the Stormtrooper and Boba Fett. Normally this is where I would get all up in Hasbro’s grill, but reissues of the hard to find Boba Fett and the hotly demanded Stormy were actually a cool move on Hasbro’s part to help get these figures into the hands of collectors. I know I was happy to get another Stormtrooper, even if it meant having to suck down an extra Boba Fett. He’s a great figure and I don’t mind having an extra one boxed. Anyway, today we’re going to check out the Clone Trooper, another army builder that should be in rather high demand.

Hasbro has revealed a redesign for the Black packaging, but it won’t come until the next wave so what we get here is the same old stuff. It’s a very simple window box that shows off the figure pretty well and offers very little else. I’ve complained about the lack of artistic flair in much of Hasbro’s current package design, but the 6-inch Black series is the one line that I think suits it pretty well. I’ve gone on record saying that I was going to be very choosey about what prequel figures I buy, but this figure was a no brainer. I like the clones and the Phase I helmet is my favorite of the designs. It was also a no-brainer on Hasbro’s part as they’re now free to unleash an unending tide of repaints onto us.

So before I get to the actual figure, let me say that there are some aspects of the QC here that is pretty disappointing. My Clone has black marks scattered on his left leg and some on his left shoulder. The shoulder marks eventually rubbed off, but the marks on his leg haven’t. I’ve yet to try a Magic Eraser, but these are $20 collector figures Hasbro, I shouldn’t have to be trying to clean them up when I take them new out of the package. I’ll also note here that the hinges on this guy feel pretty mushy and even the finish on the overall plastic feels like I could easily scar it with my thumbnail. Sigh… it looks like Hasbro has been dipping into the economy plastic again.

I think the sculpting here looks pretty good. While most of the armor is sculpted as part of the buck, the black paint in the joints gives some credibility that it is indeed a suit of armor. The effect may not be as good as we saw with the Stormtrooper, but it’s passable. Overall the black paint is pretty clean, although the pins for the lower pins for the elbow hinges are right in the middle of the black undersuit and they are left white, which is obviously not optimal, especially for a figure in this larger scale. The paint apps on the helmet are not as crisp and straight as I would prefer and it sure would have been nice if they could have gone with a glossy black for the visor.

The articulation is satisfying, at least on paper. The arms feature swivel hinges in the shoulders and wrists, double hinges in the elbows, and swivels at the biceps. The legs have ball joints with swivels in the hips, double hinges in the knees, and hinges in the ankles along with lateral rockers. There’s a pretty generous ball joint in the lower torso and the neck is ball jointed.

For the most part the jointing works fairly well with the armor. The big exception to that is the shoulder armor, which severely restricts the lateral movement of the arms. There’s absolutely no clearance so once the tops of these plates butt up against the torso armor, that’s as far as they’ll go. So granted, the Stormtrooper had a similar problem and I gave him a pass. But, the first time I tested the range of movement on the Clone Trooper, his left shoulder piece popped off with very little pressure and almost no warning. And no, it’s not meant to do that, so I had to glue it back on. Hasbro has done a much better job getting shoulder plates to work with articulation on some of their recent Marvel Legends. It’s a shame they didn’t do it here as well.

The Clone Trooper comes with two accessories, both guns. You get a blaster pistol and a rifle. Both are decent sculpts and while the pistol is a tad soft and rubbery, the rifle is surprisingly firm and stiff. Both of his hands are designed to hold weapons, so you can get some nice action poses with him and his little arsenal. It may be a valid complaint that Hasbro didn’t pack a Phase II head into the mix, but I’ll not take issue with it here.

One point that I will always come back to when looking at these 6-inch Black figures is whether the new scale is justified. Sure, Hasbro’s goal here is to squeeze more money from collectors by introducing a new format. But from the collectors’ point of view, the larger scale should only be justified because it can produce more detailed sculpts, better articulation, better accessories, and better paint. In short, the figures should be better than the 3 ¾” figures, otherwise why bother? In this case, the Phase I Clone Trooper has been done at least as well, and probably better in the smaller format and with the smaller version, you don’t have to sacrifice his interactivity with ships and vehicles.

Obviously, I’m not blown away or even impressed by this figure. Keep in mind, I’ve got about a dozen figures in this series that I’ve opened so by now I’ve set my expectations on what this line will offer and this Clone just falls short. The black marks on his leg armor are annoying, but not devastating. I may still be able to get them off and even if I can’t, well… Clones get dirty in action. I was, however, hoping for firmer joints and that I wouldn’t be reaching for the glue right after opening him. Is he terrible? No. But, in the end, he’s a decidedly average figure and doesn’t match the quality on display in either of my 6-inch Black Stormtroopers or my Sandtrooper. It’s possible I got a lemon, and yes, given the opportunity I will take a chance on a second one, but all in all I was hoping for better.

Jul 29 2014

Star Wars Black: Darth Vader (3 ¾” Scale) by Hasbro

If you haven’t noticed, I’m trying to work one Star Wars feature into each week when possible. I’m doing this not only because getting a box of my old vintage Kenner figures has rekindled my love for the stuff, but also because I have a heck of a lot of Star Wars figures sitting in a pile in the corner waiting to be opened. The 3 ¾” Black line has been hit and miss with me, but mostly miss. Nonetheless, it’s figures like Vizam that give me renewed hope. Today I’m opening Darth Vader because I really need another Vader figure… yeah, like I need a barbed kidney stone lodged in my urethra. Even after my great Star Wars toys purge from a few years back I still have tons of Vaders. Nonetheless, that didn’t stop me from picking up this one last Christmas when Amazon was practically giving them away with a qualifying order.

There’s the packaging and man do I love it. No, wait… love isn’t the right word. Oh yeah, now I remember… I friggin hate it because it looks like garbage. Normally we can rely on the clear view of the figure to help elevate the presentation, but here we have black Vader against a black card. It doesn’t help. I should probably note here that this is Vader from The Empire Strikes Back, specifically inspired by the “We’d be honored if you would join us” dinner party scene. But before you get the cold sweats and flashbacks to the scene specific figures of the Attack of the Clones days, fear not. The specificity of this figure mostly relates to the accessories. I hate to admit it, but even though I own a hundred Vaders in this scale, it’s been so long since I got a new one, I’m rather excited to check this one out.

And here he is out of the package. I’m pretty sure we’ve seen this figure before and I’m pretty sure I own it already. He’s got a few strange quirks about him, but I still dig him a whole lot. For starters, the use of soft goods here is excellent. The cape feels really good and falls about the figure as well as a 3 ¾” scale garment with almost no weight to it can be expected to. But it’s the addition of the second layer of cloth underneath that really makes this guy stand out for me, particularly the way it’s fitted under the shoulder cowl and belted. The cape comes attached via a hole that passes through the neck post, but I found it to fit better if you pass the post between the cape and the neck chain. The helmet looks pretty good to me, but I’m not one of those people who could point out all the differences from one movie to the next. It does have a very nice “new car” shine to it and that makes me happy.

The figure does have a couple of minor setbacks. First, the middle of his cowl seems to be pushed in. It looks like a bantha kicked him right in the plate there. I’m not sure if that’s a problem with just mine or with all of these figures, but it’s hard to ignore it. It doesn’t look as bad when viewed from an angle, but I can’t not see it when viewing the figure dead on. The other issue is the head, which tends to pop off rather easily. I tend to have to push down a bit when turning it to keep Vader’s noggin from separating. I think it has to do with the cape material being between the head and body.

The articulation here is Ok, but not great. The shoulders and elbows are ball jointed and there’s are swivels in the wrist and again in the neck. Vader can also swivel at the waist. Alas, Hasbro is really sticking to the T-crotch design and it feels rather backward when compared to the rest of the figure’s articulation. I’d blame it on this guy being a repack, but the T-crotch has also been plaguing the Vintage Collection too. Beyond that you also get ball joints in the knees and ankles. Vader isn’t exactly an action star, so he’ll still be able to do most of what I want him to, but I would have enjoyed the ability to get him into a wider stance.

Vader comes with three accessories: His lightsaber, a swap-out hand with effects part, and Han’s blaster. The lightsaber is pretty self-explanatory. It looks good, but it is one solid piece, so you can’t detach the blade for a deactivated hilt and even if you could there’s no place on his belt to peg it into.

The other two accessories are meant to recreate the dinner scene at Cloud City where Vader deflected Han’s laser blasts and then force-yanked his gun away from him. I give points to Hasbro for trying something here, but in all honesty I don’t think it works. Effect parts are often hard enough to pull off in larger scales and here it just doesn’t look anything like what it’s supposed to. As for the blaster… I recently realized that the Han that came with my Legacy Falcon doesn’t have his anymore, so I was able to hand it off to him.

There was a time when I thought I would rather stub a cigar out on my genitalia than buy another Darth Vader figure. And it’s very probably that this exact figure is already somewhere in one of my storage totes. Now, with all that having been said, I do like this figure quite a bit. It’s not perfect, and I’ll concede that’s kind of disappointing. How many decades has Hasbro been making Vader figures in this scale now? You’d think they could finally produce one that hits all the right points. An update to the T-crotch really would have been a welcome improvement and it takes a lot of effort to futz with his cape to make it look just right. Otherwise I’ve had some fun playing around with him, and now I think I’m going to stand him up on the shelf in front of my Imperial Shuttle because I have no idea where the Vader went that came with that ship. He was definitely worth picking up on the cheap.

FigureFan Zero

Action Figure Reviews, Toys & Collectibles…

Tag Archives: star wars black

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Star Wars Black: Darth Vader (3 ¾” Scale) by Hasbro

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