I’m up to the fourth and final release in the second wave of Hasbro’s 6-inch Black “Force Awakens” figures. This time, I’m checking out the Guavian Enforcer. I won’t get into specifics, but I will say that unlike Constable Zuvio, these guys not only had some screen time, but amazingly enough were actually mentioned by name. In fact, with two of the figures in this wave now in my collection I can finally recreate one of the cooler scenes from the film. But I’ll save the super spoilery picture for last.

There’s the in-package shot. I don’t have a lot to say, except the red and black on this guy matches the packaging new Black Series boxes pretty dead on. The back gives you a little snippet about how these guys work for the Guavian Gang. If that’s a name that strikes fear, I’m guessing that in a galaxy far, far away, guavas are something very different than in our galaxy.

I didn’t know what to make of this guy before seeing the movie, but I really dig the design. The crimson suit features all sorts of texture and wrinkles as well as a wash to bring out that lovely detail. He wears a high belt of pouches across his stomach and a complex network of belts and straps around his waist. I’m not sure what’s going on with the cable pumping something either into or out of his left knee, but who cares? It looks cool. The back of the suit has a subdued circuitry-like pattern etched into it. There’s also some decent texture on the boots. If I had one complaint about The Enforcer’s design is that the feet are kind of small.

The head is just crazy. Is it a robot or a mask? I’m sure the whole history of these guys has already been published in some book somewhere. If not, it will be soon enough. There’s a little silver dry brushing to show a worn slash across the front. The recessed machinery that’s exposed around the center dot of the mask looks great. The articulation here is right in line with what the 6-inch Black Series has been offering lately. The arms are ball jointed at the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have swivels at the thighs, and double hinges in the knees. The ankles are hinged and have lateral rockers. There’s a ball joint in the torso and again at the neck. He’s pretty fun to pose!

The Guavian Enforcer does his enforcing with two beefy guns. One looks like a big pistol, while the other looks like a drum-fed grenade launcher. He can hold them in either hand. The sculpts are decent and they’re both painted in a matching gray and silver.

What else can I say, other than I like this figure a lot. Next to Phasma, he’s my favorite figure in the wave, but then there wasn’t a whole lot of competition here. I’m sure Hasbro hoped to sell him based on speculation alone before the movie was released, but even afterwards, I think the design is cool enough to make him a fairly popular figure. And like I said earlier, now I can finally recreate this awesome scene…

“Make your escape, Solo. I, Zuvio will hold off Darth Guava’s deadly enforcers. You must get Qui-Gon’s remains back to the ship so McCoy can revive him with midichlorians  from the magic Tribble blood!”

I’ve got two more figures to look at in this, the second wave of The Force Awakens 6-inch Black Series, and since I let one day slack to actually go see the movie (twice!) I’m going to try hard to get them both in today. I’m starting this afternoon with Poe Dameron in his X-Wing Pilot Suit, a figure that I was truly excited to open up after seeing the movie. Not to worry, I’m going to be really respectful about not including any spoilers, but let me just say, I really loved this character and Oscar Isaac’s portrayal of him. He was instantly likable and I hope to see a lot more of him. Let me also say how sad I am that the first figure I look at after seeing the amazing film has to be such a let down.

The package shows off the figure well and that’s a good thing, because it allows you to take a good look at him and decide if you really want him or not. But I’m getting ahead of myself…

Try not to look at the head too much, because I’m going to deal with that in a bit. Going from the neck down, I think this is a solid effort. It’s a pretty good rendition of the new style of X-Wing Pilot suit. You get a lot of elements that add depth and credibility to the sculpt, like the belts hanging off his waist and wrapping around his legs, and the additional chest piece and connecting hose. The suit itself is nicely textured and rumpled in all the right places. It’s nothing we haven’t seen before, even in the 3 3/4-inch line, but like I said, all in all a solid effort. I was eager to put the figure next to my X-Wing Pilot Luke from the first wave and see the differences in the suit designs, but more than anything it showed me how wonky the scale in this line has been. You can scroll down to the end for that picture, but suffice it to say Poe looks like a giant compared to Luke. Yeah, Luke was a short guy, but c’mon! And then there’s the head sculpt…

Seriously, Hasbro? This is the head sculpt you went with… for a collector line. I have only two questions: Did you pay the guy who sculpted this? And if so, is it too late to stop payment on the check? This is just terrible. It looks like someone gave a flight suit to Humphrey Bogart’s homely brother, who also happened to be stoned… and possibly recently suffered a stroke. It looks nothing like Oscar Isaac. If this guy asked me for the keys to an X-Wing, I’d make him walk a straight line for me before I let him get behind the stick. As bad as the sculpt is, the paint isn’t doing it any favors either. Collector line, my ass. Don’t invite people to dinner, Hasbro, if you don’t know how to cook.

Articulation here isn’t bad. The arms feature rotating hinges in the shoulders and elbows. The wrists have swivel cuts, which are a bit further up the arm to facilitate the arm swap, which I’ll get to with the accessories. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have double jointed knees, and swivels in the thighs. The ankles feature some funky-looking hinges and have lateral rockers. There’s a ball joint just below the chest, which is discretely placed under the vest piece. The neck has both a hinge and a ball joint, but the head sits rather strangely on the figure and has a hard time looking up.

Accessories include a pistol, which fits in his holster, a helmet, and two swappable hands. The pistol isn’t terribly remarkable. It’s OK, but his hands aren’t really sculpted to hold it straight. It looks like it’s drooping or like he’s about to drop it, even with the finger in the trigger guard.

The helmet looks good on its own, but it doesn’t fit the figure all that well. It looks like it’s designed to be worn with the visor above the eyes, but even then, it’s an awkward fit. Then again, it might just be an optical illusion because of the asymmetrical deco.

The extra arms feature the hands without the gloves. A nice bonus, I suppose, but frankly I’d rather they invested the time and money in a decent head sculpt first.

It’s been over a year. You tell me, is this line showing improvement? 

Poe definitely got the short stick when it came to this action figure. Finn’s and even Rey’s were better than this and while the Target Exclusive jacketed version of Poe didn’t have a great head sculpt either, I still think it was loads better than this one. It’s a shame, because I really liked him a lot in the film and I was really looking forward to getting this figure on my shelf. I would have been content with a decent 6-inch version, but as of right now, Hot Toys, looks like the ball is in your court.

Nope, no changebots today. As mentioned yesterday, I’m doing a Star Wars thang for the rest of the week. Yesterday I looked at what was easily the most anticipated figure in the second assortment of The Force Awakens Black Series, and now I’m looking at what was probably the least… Constable Zuvio!

Now, don’t get me wrong, I definitely wanted this guy. Getting figures based on Star Wars characters I know nothing about is a fond memory of my childhood, as is making up convoluted backstories about them that turn out to be wrong. I have a feeling Constable Zuvio will have a slightly bigger part to play than the Squidheads and Prunefaces of my youth, but maybe not. I’ll know in a couple of days.

Zuvio is a somewhat short and stocky humanoid and I really dig the look of this guy. He’s got a filthy poncho and his wrapped arms and legs lead me to believe that he’s yet another resident of Jakku. The paint on the figure is mostly aimed at weathering and soiling to make his outfit look rather ragged and blasted by the elements. He’s got yellow wash on his legs and some green gunk on the bottom of his poncho.

You can’t see too much of his face, just a couple of piercing eyes and a rather flattened nose, the rest is wrapped up in a scarf. His flat helmet and shoulder armor have a very Star-Warsy look to me. Again, there’s a lot more of that great weathering here. The paint on the armor is chipped away revealing the bare metal under it and the helmet is pitted and distressed. These little aspects of the figure really drive home the whole “used future” aesthetic of the original Star Wars films.

Zuvio comes with a back pack that features a rather clever design. It pegs into his back, but has some partially sculpted straps that tab into slots on his poncho to make it look like it’s properly secured to him. It’s the first time I’ve seen something like this and the effect works pretty well. Again, we see some more weathering on the backpack.

The articulation features a lot of the usual points I’m used to seeing in my 6-inch Black figures. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. The legs are ball jointed in the hips, double hinged at the knees, and have swivels in the thighs. The ankles are hinged and have lateral rockers. It feels like there’s a ball joint buried in his torso. He can definitely swivel at the waist, but I think I feel a little more movement in there as well. Lastly, his neck is both hinged and ball jointed. The plastic poncho is slit on the sides so as not to inhibit the leg articulation too badly.

In addition to the backpack, Zuvio comes with another one of those staff weapons that seem to be so popular on the desert planets of the Star Wars Universe. This one is a little more primitive than others we’ve seen. It looks like the blade is roughly forged. There’s a lot of detail on it, particularly in the handle and it has a sculpted carry strap as well.

Constables… in… Spaaaaaaaaaaace!

With the highly popular Phasma, a main character, and a troop builder all taking up the other three-quarters of this wave, I have a feeling Zuvio has a future in peg warming. If that happens, it’ll be a shame because he really is a great little figure and a pretty cool character design. With so many of the “background” characters populating the 3 3/4-inch line, it’s nice to get some exotic aliens in the larger scale, so Zuvio is welcome on my display shelf any day. And speaking of the little guys, tomorrow, I’ll take a break from the 6-inch Black line and check out some of those 3 3/4-inch figures!

As literally everyone knows by now, the new Star Wars film hits tomorrow, so I’m hijacking the rest of the week to look at a bunch of figures from The Force Awakens. Yeah, that means no Transformers Thursday or DC Friday and I’ll likely be taking the Star Wars content right through the weekend. I thought it only fitting to start off with that one elusive figure that has been so hard to find for so many collectors and especially for me. You see, I’ve been a patient little collector. After pre-ordering Wave 2 of The Black Series’ Force Awakens figures, I’ve been seeing them everywhere. That is all but Captain Phasma. And so for weeks now, I’ve been leaving the other three figures on the pegs, knowing that if I bought them and cancelled my pre-order, I’d probably never get everyone’s favorite chromed Stormtrooper Commander. Thankfully, the waiting has paid off and the assortment landed on my doorstep this week as my last Pile of Loot for 2015.

Phasma comes in the same kind of window box we saw used for the first assortment. The red they added for the TFA figures really jazzes up the Black Series packaging, but I don’t think the diminished window space was value added. Of course, the little blurb on the back about the character tells us nothing we don’t already know about her, which is… well, pretty much nothing. Quite frankly, I love this time before the film hits when we get to speculate about the characters, even if sometimes the reality doesn’t live up to what I work up in my head.

I’ve got to go all unconventional here and start with the paint. I was almost certain that I was going to be let down by the paint on this figure. And no, I wasn’t expecting anything like an actual chromed out vac-metal finish. Hasbro has used some truly awful looking silver plastic in the past. Just look at that Legends Ultron from the Iron Monger BAF Wave. However, I’m very pleased to say that the finish on the armor looks quite nice in hand. It looks closer to that wonderful stuff they used for Generations Leader Class Megatron. It has a really beautiful brushed steel quality that looks rather akin to a suit of medieval armor. There are a few scuffs here and there, but nothing bad and the black applications are reasonably sharp.

Of course, the other reason I started with the paint is because the sculpt here is going to be readily familiar to anyone who has already picked up the 6-inch Black First Order Stormtrooper. No, the sculpt is not identical, there are some subtle differences, particularly in the codpiece and on the lower leg armor, but there are probably more similarities than not. It is still, however, a brand new mold because Phasma does stand a good head taller than her troopers. The only real big addition is the cape, which looks great on the figure and sports some nice sculpted detail, including what appear to be patches. The painted red trim on my figure’s cape is a bit sloppy, but not terrible. The cape is theoretically removable by doing a head pop, but my Phasma’s noggin is on there pretty good and I didn’t want to risk snapping the neck post by trying.

Speaking of noggins, Phasma’s helmet is the other fairly big departure from her rank and file subordinates. It’s less rounded along the edges and adds some sculpted striping to the dome.

The articulation here is right in line with the regular Stormtroopers, but here’s a quick rundown anyway. The arms have rotating hinges in the shoulders, elbows, and wrists. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have swivels just above the thigh armor, double hinges in the knees, and both hinges and lateral rockers in the ankles. There’s a ball joint in the torso, right below the chest armor, and a ball joint in the neck. Articulation is good on paper, but as with the regular Stormtroopers, the armor can render some of these points rather restrictive, most noticeably for me in the hips. I wouldn’t call it disappointing, because it’s exactly what I expected, but when I play around with her articulation, I always want her to be able to do just a little bit more.

Phasma comes with one accessory and that’s her blaster. It appears to be a repaint of the weapon released with the Snowtrooper, giving it the longer stock. The detail on this gun is great and the gold and black deco looks snazzy. It’s still a little too rubbery for my liking, but I guess that’s better than having pieces snap off of it. The weapon features a tab so that it can be secured to Phasma’s right thigh when not in use, just like we saw with the Stormtroopers.

I can’t express enough how relieved I am to finally have Phasma in my collection and I’m thankful we’ve got e-tailers out there who will sell complete waves instead of just cherry picking the good stuff out and marking them up. This is a great looking figure that’s only held back by some of the hindered points of articulation, and if you know me then you know that such things are not often a big concern for me. Now, whether or not the character will be worth all the bother is yet to be seen. And from what we’re hearing, we may have to wait for the next movie for Captain Phasma to get some real screen time. It’s unlikely that I’ll get out to see the film until early next week, but I’ll confess that my excitement is building a little more with each day.