Hasbro started the ball rolling adding Rebels Characters to the six inch Star Wars Black series with upcoming Kanan, Ahsoka and Sabine figures and I could not be happier. Rebels is my favorite Star Wars thing going right now and I’d love to see more characters sprinkled into the Black Series line as it continues. Here’s my current top ten:
Runners Up
Rebels versions of Movie Characters
I love Rebels, but I have the 3 and 3/4 inch line for exact representations of the animated style and I prefer the the more realistic takes on the animated characters that they are doing in the Black Series. Some movie characters have appeared in Rebels like Tarkin, Leia, Lando, C-3PO and Bail Organna. While I’d really like figures of all of these characters, they aren’t on this list because they are on some other lists I’ve done. Plus, if I got a Rebels costume Black Series Lando figure before a classic Cloud City version or General or even Skiff Guard I might have to pitch a fanboy fit.
Ralph McQuarrie Versions of Droids
Rebels has re-purposed some original McQuarrie concept art for C-3P0 and IG-88 for a couple of really cool droid base bodies that they have re-used several times. The 3P0 has been repainted as Lando’s droid, a senate guard, and an imperial protocol droid. The part of me that loves droid repaints is enthralled by this re-use.
10. Zare Leonis
Zare is a character introduced in season 1, episode 4 of Rebels as a young man infiltrating the empire in order to find his sister, a possibly force-sensitive Imperial Cadet that disappeared while on training maneuvers. It’s implied that she was taken away by The Inquisitor for nefarious purposes. Zare also has a series of young reader books that chronicle his adventures undercover in the empire. As a character, he’s tough, smart and exceedingly brave and a figure of an Imperial Cadet would be a nice addition to the shelf.
9. Azmorigan
Azmorrigan is a criminal associate of Lando Calrissian. He’s also based on cool McQuarrie art, this time concepts for Jabba, and has a similarly disgusting visage. He’s also voiced by the great James Hong of Big Trouble in Little China fame. I’m a big fan of the criminal underworld in the Star Wars universe and love to see new characters added to this mix. Azmorrigan is also a little oddly shaped and would add a neat variety to the shelf.
8. The Fifth Brother
This big bruiser is one of the new inquisitors introduced into season 2. His imposing, shark-like visage represents a brand new alien to the Star Wars Universe and he’s also got one of those Star Wars helmets that looks equal parts cool and goofy. I’m all for adding new Inquisitor fodder to kick Kanan and Ezra’s butts all around the galaxy.
7. Cikatro Vizago
This criminal has an army of assassin droids at his beck and call and runs his own group, The Brotherhood of the Broken Horn. The Rebels deal with Viszago to get information and also to get jobs to make a living. I like that the Rebels have to try to deal with the criminal underclass without tarnishing themselves. It’s a subtle conflict for a kid’s show. Viszago is a Devaronian, one of the original cantina alien species, and his demonic look is striking. I’d love to see him translated to a more realistic style.
6. Ketsu Onyo
Ketsu is a bounty hunter who worked with Sabine prior to Sabine joining the rebel cause. She’s only appeared once, but the design of the costume is really striking. She’s voiced by Firefly’s Gina Torres, which is kind of fun since Rebels initially reminded me of a Firefly in the Star Wars universe. She uses a cool vibro-axe that doubles as a blaster to devastating effect. I fully admit, I’m into this character mostly because the design is cool. Boba Fett factor all the way.
5. Captain Rex
Rex is a character from the Clone Wars, and as a casual viewer of that series, he never made that much of an impression on me. Since Rebels started, I’ve had my eyes opened up to a whole new generation of Star Wars fans, fans that treat Rex with the same reverence as I treat Han and Luke. Upon completing a Clone Wars re-watch, I can kind of see where those fans are coming from, Rex has a few great moments and one very good story arc in that series. I’ve really connected with him as an old man in Rebels. His conflict with Kanan and mentorship of Ezra have been interesting to watch. He’s also got this gruff exterior common to the old soldier character type, but there is a bit of twinkle in his eye and a sense of humor that wasn’t there before.
4. Seventh Sister
The Seventh Sister is the other new Inquisitor introduced in Season 2 and my favorite of the two. She is smart and knows it and doesn’t mind rubbing it in the face of her fellow Inquisitor. She takes joy in her evil deeds and prowls around her defeated enemies, playing with them like a cat does with a mouse. The costume design has an odd random design choice that feels perfectly Star Wars to me. Her mask and helmet look like Vader’s from the front, but from different angles you can see it has a pointy tip to it. She also has neat little pops of color on the palms of her gloves and inside the lining of her helmet. Between the pointy black hat and greenish skin, I do feel like she is very much a wicked witch of the west in the Star Wars universe. She even has little probe droids that serve as her flying monkeys.
3. Agent Kallus
Agent Kallus is an Imperial Officer that is trying to track down and destroy our Rebel group. He’s a member of the Imperial Security Bureau, the Empire’s version of the Gestapo or KGB, which is a concept carried over from the old expanded universe. The thing I like about Kallus is he is a clever leader, but also a man of action, oftentimes taking up arms directly against the Rebels crew. This is a bit of an unusual thing for Imperial officers who tend to let their Stormtroopers do all the heavy lifting. Kallus even has special armor and weapons he carries into battle, including a Bow Rifle stolen from Zeb’s homeworld during it’s destruction. Plus, his sideburns match the shape of his helmet, so he either grew them to match the helmet or had the helmet made to protect the sideburns. Either way, you have to respect the commitment.
2. The Grand Inquisitor
The big bad from the first season, the Inquisitor is a Pau’an, a singularly creepy alien design from the prequels that works well for a dark Jedi. Voiced by Jason Isaacs of Harry Potter fame, the Inquisitor (these guys never get proper names for some reason) kicked Kanan’s butt every time they met in battle, effectively serving as his Jedi Master for the first season of the show. I like how his look is a mix of Imperial uniform (Jodpuhrs and high black boots) and Vader’s black armor.
1.The rest of the Ghost Crew (Hera, Chopper, Zeb and Ezra)
Yeah, I kind of cheated here. I don’t feel the least bit bad about it, either. Kanan and Sabine are on the way, so I really need Hera, Chopper, Ezra and Zeb to complete the team. I know the way the Black Series runs, it will take years to finish the group, but I can live with that. The remaining crew are my top priority for any future Rebels characters in the Black Series, but I can’t really rank them in order of preference. I love them all and need them all and each character has interesting and funny things to do in the show. It would be cool if we could get Chopper packed with Hera or Ezra as they are smaller characters. Maybe Hera would be best, because licensors tend to leave her out of Rebels products and I need my team leader. I’d also like Zeb to have a bow rifle that can transform into the staff mode. If not transformable, include two separate sculpts to represent both modes. Zeb will be interesting to see how they make him more realistic as his design is the most outlandish of all of the main character designs.
Well, those are my choices for who to include from Rebels in the Black Series. I realize that as a Rebels fanboy, I probably want more of these than most folks, but be sure to let me know in the comments who you want to see.