We continue our look at the latest 6-inch scaled Black Series figures today with Ahsoka Tano from Star Wars Rebels! This figure is based on Ahsoka’s look from the Disney XD series, but sculpted in a more realistic style to fit in better with the movie-based Black Series figures. As a big fan of Rebels, Ahsoka, and the more articulated Black Series figures, I’ve been looking forward to this figure quite a bit. Let’s take a look!
Ahsoka, for those unfamiliar with the character, was introduced in the Clone Wars cartoon series as Anakin Skywalker’s Padawan learner. This served as a bit of a shock to fans who had already seen all the prequels where no mention of Ahsoka was ever made. Anakin and Ahsoka had a contentious relationship at first and many fans found her cheeky attitude abrasive, but the character grew into a fan favorite over the course of the show.
I know some still don’t care for the character, but I liked her from the beginning, and her growth is a high point in the series for me. The Clone Wars needed some characters where you didn’t really know what their fate was to keep it interesting.
This figure is based on her appearance in Star Wars Rebels, and while she hasn’t had much relative face time on that show, I’m glad to get this version because it’s her coolest costume yet.
Accessories
Ahsoka may claim to be no Jedi any longer, but she carries the weapon of a Jedi, two white bladed lightsabers. One saber has a bent handle and longer blade and the other has a straight handle and a shorter blade. Both blades are removable from the hilts and can be swapped between the two.
The hilts have rings that correspond with little clips on Ahsoka’s belt so she can hang them there as she does on the show. I love little details like this. The hilts are pretty rubbery to accommodate the swapping feature, but hold the sculpt well.
Sculpt
Ahsoka is a pretty stunning figure. The head sculpt is beautiful and the horns and tails have great skin texture detail to them. I feel like they did a great job in translating the slightly exaggerated Rebels style into a more realistically proportioned character.
The armor looks like it does on the show and features a lot of cool, textural detail. Ahsoka cuts an impressive and realistic feminine figure. Sometimes companies will over-sexualize their female figures or make them a little too small in proportion to the male figures, but they got it exactly right here.
Articulation
Ahsoka’s movement is really impressive except for one spot, the head. As you would expect, those head tails get in the way of a lot of head movement. She’s mostly down to a head swivel. The combination of soft plastic and cloth at the hip armor/skirt allows for good leg movement, and the mid-torso articulation is one of the more successful versions of this articulation I’ve seen from Hasbro. Ahsoka’s articulation breaks down like this:
- Ball-and-socket mid-torso and neck
- Swivel-hinged neck, shoulders, hips, ankles, and wrists
- Double-hinged knees
- Swivel thighs
Paint
Paint is pretty great on Ahsoka. All the tattoo detail on her face and head tails is solid. They keep it simple but effective here. I did notice, after looking at close up pics, the blue of her eyes does bleed over to her lower lid a bit, which gives her a bit of dead stare.
Overall
I love this figure. She’s well done on pretty much all fronts with only one minor complaint being the head articulation is limited. I can cut slack there because the character design makes it hard to create an accurate sculpt and allow for full movement.
I like this figure so much more than the 4-inch scaled version I recently picked up. I think it’s a great representation of Ahsoka in Rebels, and having a sort of “live action” version of the character draws the show more into the shared Star Wars universe for me. I don’t think we’ll see these characters in a live action film, but I like that I can place the Rebels, and by extension Clone Wars, crew with my Black Series movie figures.
You can also check out Robo’s video review here:
Those are absolutely badass photos.
One of my favorite Star Wars characters, and the only Jedi beside Yoda and Luke that I like.
I finished watching the clone wars! Very disappointed. I spoiled the ending because I read the plot a while ago but decided to watch anyway. The whole thing felt rushed and baris offee was a paperthin character. Ahsoka’s part was well done, as was Anakin’s. The council also really sucked and just seemed overly ignorant and uncaring in the investigation, anyways looking at more art I see your point on the head size. I hope they make a Clone Wars Ahsoka.
Great photos! Still waiting for my figure to arrive…
Yes. Read those comments. FO pauldrons are a different shape to those on OT stormtroopers, and they are easy to get, so having somewhere cast them up would be kind of pointless. I would like somewhere to cast OT stormtrooper pauldrons, not FO pauldrons.
That is looking increasingly likely.
I suppose you can categorize what I say, and respond, however you see fit. Oddly, one of your earlier posts included all of the following: “Extra guns and stuff are nice, but pauldrons are where its at.” and “I’m missing a pauldron on a figure. FO pauldrons are a different shape as well.:(” and “it would be so much easier to buy an extra FO snowtrooper and use the pauldron from it and then have a spare snowtrooper.”
Maybe I can’t read either.
I know, I meant the paint app, you can think it boring but its not simple, lots of small lines and patterns on her head a least.
Fair enough, I love pilot Luke too, I just think its only fair if we’re pointing out flaws to point out his too. I think his main advantage comes with his accessories (and the paint apps on his helmet are amazing its true). The sculpts of the TBS6″ have generally been pretty great, often ruined by poor paint. I’m not trying to say its a bad figure, not at all, its definitely one of the best. I just personally think Ahsoka beats him (and Maul) by a small margin.
Oh the Sandtrooper is a great figure, I love it and have six.:) But you will almost always find that the wash wasn’t applied to the crevices of the figure evenly so you end up with a situation where the bits where sand would naturally accumulate are white while the flatter surfaces which would dirty up less are dirty. On something as simple as a wash it is a pretty big problem though its not like it hurts the aesthetics of the figure unless you look closely, and even then not much.
Thanks!
Definitely worse, yep.
To address your issues (I won’t offer it the dignity of calling it an argument):
I did not make an ad hominem attack, saying someone needs their head examined is not an insult here, its an almost friendly remark about rechecking your perspective. I’m not talking about taste, he is welcome to prefer the simpler paint apps on the Sandtrooper. But he is wrong to say that Ahsoka’s more complex design is simple. Objectively wrong. It is not a simpler paint app design than the Sandtrooper, it is much more complex than painting a few bits black on the flatter planes of an armoured figure.
Yes, he disagreed, and he is welcome to consider pilot Luke a superior figure if he wants.
Perhaps you can better utilize your time by not having hysterics every time someone has a minor disagreement over toys on the internet.
Why would I do that? I don’t want more First Order pauldrons.
The problem with your stance is that it makes no sense, you re saying the problem with my stance of praising almost perfectly applied, complex paint apps is that somehow Hasbro might decide the praise of one woman on the internet means they can suddenly abandon the progress they have made with improving those paint apps. That is ludicrously fallacious.
As call outs go this is one of the more pathetic I’ve seen/
I love the Sandtrooper figure, it is a wonderful sculpt but the paint apps while great are neither complex nor exceptionally well applied, if you can’t even guarantee getting a shading wash in the crevices of a figure you have a problem. This is also a widely held opinion on the figure, Paul Harrison over at JTA mentions it in his review for example.
I never said her character design was boring and simple, I simply said that I thought the “paint application” was boring and simple. Even the reviewer agrees it’s a simple paint job.
And I just really like Pilot Luke and the Sandtrooper. Even if Luke’s hair is off (not sure how much of a duskier blonde is required), it doesn’t detract from the amazing sculpt (which, regardless of paint work, Hasbro has pretty much nailed) or the execution of the figure as a whole. That head sculpt is widely used across the customizing community and captures the pre-accident Hamill pretty well I think. As far as a 6 inch offering is concerned, he’s really great and I think credit should be given where due. The figure uses a number of colors and paint techniques (wash, gloss, matte, dry brushing , metallic) and is painted neatly throughout. Also impressive is the detailing on his helmet as well as how clean the paint apps on his face are.
As for the Sandtrooper, I respectfully disagree. I think it looks great!
Remind me, is “little manchild [edited to “thing”]” better or worse than being a “fangirl” of a show meant for elementary schoolers?
Calm down you over-emotional little thing lol.
The true sign of an inability to defend one’s position is to use ad hominem attacks instead of actual arguments. Claiming that someone “needs their head examined” for disagreeing on your point that you can’t even objectively defend is ludicrous. Seems to me that you are a poster of generally contrarian thoughts for the sole purpose of rabble rousing. DL disagreed with your point that this above-average figure is the best produced to date–he even validated your point by agreeing that she’s “a very solid offering.” He offered examples of better figures, largely supported by many posters here and others elsewhere. He then pointed out the flaws in the Ahsoka figure. He didn’t attack you. He didn’t suggest your need for a medical assessment on a matter of opinion. I think you need to do everyone a favor and retire from posting on this site (or on the internet). Perhaps you can better utilize your time by ripping on the casting creations of other and demanding new First Order Pauldrons.
The problem with your stance is that it will lower the bar for what Hasbro produces in the future. If Ahsoka becomes the lofty, normally unreachable goal, then we are far more likely to get Obi-Wan-quality figures instead of the far better Pilot Luke or Sandtrooper iterations.
You can express your opinions. That is an (apparent) right on the internet. But you’ve skated by for far too long without someone calling you out. Please look elsewhere to post your rambling, ill-supported arguments.
Wave 2 Han is an excellent figure.:)
It’s better than the Sandtroopers lol, its just a wash and they managed to mess that up so it often sits on the raised surfaces and misses the recesses. Also no offense but I think anyone who thinks her intricate facial markings and lekku markings are boring and simple needs their head examined.
The two sabers means she doesn’t NEED double-hinged elbows, unlike 90% of the Black Series. Sure would be nice though. In the most Wilford Brimley voice possible… It sure would be nice.
Awesome figure, if I ever see it at retail (which is probably a 1 in a million chance) then I might pick it up… I won’t go out of my way to find it though. I’m much more interested in Kanan; I don’t watch Rebels but I like his character design a lot. I have a feeling this is going to be a very valuable, sought-after figure… until Darth Revan comes, at least.
And the action shots are absolutely fantastic. Wonderful photography, Matt!
Well I can’t really argue about likeness since Ahsoka has no real world counterpart to cross reference the sculpt with. I just think her paint application is boring and simple.
Ahsoka and Kanan are really great. It’s hard to top the series 2 Han Solo for me. It’s the best Han figure I’ve ever owned after decades (holy crap I’m old) of collecting this stuff and he’s my nostalgic favorite character.
Me too! She’s my most anticipated of the upcoming slate of figures.
I’m sure it will even out. I’ve seen people pay upwards of $50+ for this figure. It pays to be patient. 🙂 I can’t wait to see the Black Series Sabine!
Pilot Luke is far from perfect, not the best likeness and wrong coloured hair, I’d probably put him in third place after Maul. Ahsoka is better. The Sandtrooper is certainly the best trooper they have produced, Ahsoka is still more intricate and has better paint than just slapping a brown wash on, something which isn’t done all that well on a lot of them.
I’ll agree she is a very solid offering but is far away from being the best TBS6 figure. Pilot Luke and Sandtrooper are just absolute gems as far as paint (washing and detailing), accessories, and sculpt. I want Hasbro to return to THAT standard and not something that’s just “better than” the recent status quo.
Best TBS6″ figure to date, in my opinion. I was worried they would mess it up but the sculpt is perfect and they managed to not ruin it with the paint apps, which are excellent as well especially by Hasbro’s inconsistent standards.
Thanks! Yes, it’s just early days. Hopefully more shipments will hit soon.
Well, her face is smaller on Rebels than it was in Clone Wars and I think that’s a combination of Rebels having a different style than Clone Wars and also her age. In addition to that, they are trying to make a more realistic styled figure here so her features aren’t as exaggerated as they are in Clone Wars.
Awesome pictures! I’m still trying to find this figure. It’s going to be scarce for a while.
I mean, this IS her 16 years after we last see her in The Clone Wars, so I’d imagine her face should be a little smaller, proportionally.
I haven’t watched rebels yet. Trying to finish clone wars. Is her face a little small? It’s HUGE in clone wars lol.