Well, at least partially.
Diorama artist Stephen Hayford has posted pictures of his latest acquisitions from the Star Wars Black series and they give us a glimpse of what articulation we can expect from both IG-88 and the Wampa.
First, let’s take a look at IG-88.
Let me get this out of the way. I never realized our favorite assassin droid had O-face. Sure, it’s always been there, but now that I’ve seen it I can’t unsee it. I also don’t remember the holes in the side of the head going all the way through. I’m no IG-series droid expert though.
Okay, articulation. You can see that the shoulder caps are open on the ends and shows a hinge. Swing out action for the arms, baby!
If you look at the back of the legs, those are definitely double knee joints. The elbows seem to be hinge and swivel and the ankles are hinged with quite a bit of movement. One of the perks of a bare bones droid sculpt, hinges are actual hinges and don’t look odd from an action figure articulation standpoint. I’m going to guess that there are swivels at the neck and thighs. There doesn’t seem to be any movement in the torso.
The thing that will irk a certain person with a bent man-thing is the apparent lack of outward movement in the hips. Don’t take that as gospel though, on both of the pictures Stephen posted the arms are blocking a good view of the hip itself. It may very well be a DCUC type joint with a hinge that swings out. We won’t know until we see more pictures.
I do dig that back holster for the blade and gun. I like all my toy accessories kept with the figure when I can.
Then there is the Wampa.
While the Wampa does have a lot more articulation than I expected, it does look like the one point we all feared would be limited is indeed just a swivel to accommodate an action feature. The right arm.
To make it removable Hasbro decided to go with just a pin joint. The left shoulder is a hinge and swivel, as seen in the first picture. Overall, a little disappointing but at least they went the extra ten feet and made it bloody.
The rest of the articulation looks to be standard. Swivel at the neck, probably, since that fur is going to hinder and up and down movement if it is a ball. Floating joint in the torso but there seems to be two break points. Hinge and swivel at the left shoulder, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, and ankles. And then swivels in the upper thighs.
I’m just happy the horns ended up painted. The initial prototype missed this and I was worried it would make it to the final figure, even though later pics did feature them painted.
Looking at Hoth Luke, he’s missing wrist articulation just like the Hoth Han with Tauntaun we reviewed just a few days ago. It’s an odd decision, and even odder here since Han can be justified (ever so slightly) by the fact that he’s holding the Tauntaun reins.
You can follow Stephen Hayford on Facebook, and be sure to check out his diorama work at LifeInPlastics.com.
