The next all-new figure in wave 4 of The Force Awakens 6-inch scale Black Series figures is Resistance Pilot Ello Asty. I think the main thing we’ve heard about him prior to the film is that his name is a reference to the Beastie Boys’ album Hello Nasty, but he does have a figure in this and the 3 3/4-inch line, so prior to seeing The Force Awakens, I thought he might have a significant role. I go into a little bit of spoiler talk after the jump, so beware of that if you are still fighting the good fight.
Asty is an Abednedo, a new alien species created for The Force Awakens and we don’t know much about him other than the little in his Star Wars.com data bank entry that states he was a hotshot pilot who didn’t always know how to work in a team. It looks to me like he gets shot down in the battle over the Starkiller base and gets two total lines. It’s more than Constable Zuvio, that’s for sure, but he’s kind of like the Porkins of this battle.
The neat thing about the Abednedo aliens is that they show up in a few spots (Jakku, Hosnian Prime and the Resistance Base) in The Force Awakens, making them the first new prevalent background aliens for this new trilogy.
Accessories
Asty comes with two cool accessories: a blaster pistol and a removable helmet. The pistol appears to be the same one we got with Poe Dameron, which makes a certain amount of sense as standard military equipment. The design of this gun is kind of neat because it feels like they have taken a real-world weapon (it looks a little like Magnum PI’s gun to me, but I’m not a gun guy) and added greeblies to it, similar to how they created Han’s blaster from an old German pistol. The gun fits nicely in Asty’s hand and also the holster attached to his belt. I love a good holster on an action figure.
The removable helmet works perfectly. It’s nicely detailed and pops on and off the head easily while staying in place well. It also doesn’t seem overly large on the head, and the head doesn’t seem too small without the helmet. It may just be me, but the left hand seems to have been engineered in a way that it holds the helmet easily.
Sculpt
The sculpt is fantastic with lots of detail packed into the wrinkly flight suit and alien skin texture. He looks on-model as far as I can tell and that’s no mean feat with a removable helmet feature.
Articulation
Asty has pretty standard Black Series articulation with:
- Swivel/Hinge neck, shoulders, elbows, hips, ankles and wrists
- Ball-and-socket head and mid-torso
- Double-hinged knees
- Swivel thigh
He gets pretty good movement from those points, though there is a slight awkwardness around the elbows. The figure doesn’t quite get a 90-degree bend at the elbow, but the plastic is soft enough that you can kind of force it. It’s a playable figure for sure.
Paint
Paint is good with a decent wash on the head sculpt and outfit to bring out details. The odd thing is, opposite of Hux, his skin is painted flat. My impression of the creature in the film and stills is that he’s got a bit of a gloss to him. The helmet features some very detailed prints and writing, though the helmet seems a little clean for any equipment used in the Star Wars universe.
Overall
Asty is a nice, solid, playable figure, if not on the top of my want list and I’m glad to have him. Seeing how great this figure turned out, I can’t help but pine for figures for other pilots from the saga like Wedge, Nien Numb and Porkins. If they could do a removable helmet like this on a Nien Numb figure, he could do double duty as a TFA and a ROTJ figure, and that would be amazing.
