Sometimes it can feel like the Star Wars Black Series is moving at a snail’s pace. I know we’re getting plenty of characters, but with so much media to draw from I sometimes feel like kicking the back of the seat and whining about whether we’re there yet . . . ”there” being the Lando system.
While the smoothest man in the galaxy is still missing, the Black Series is still chugging along. This Toy Fair showed off several figures from different areas of the property.
Let’s start off with the ones I’m least familiar with. We’ve seen Ahsoka Tano from Clone Wars and Kanan Jarrus from Rebels previously, but this is the first time we’ve seen Sabine Wren, also from Rebels. I’m kind of behind in my watching so I haven’t seen either Clone Wars or Rebels, so I’ll bow to the will of the people if these are good choices or not.
Sabine is Mandalorian, which means she gets immediate cool points for that. The figure itself has an almost realistic animated feel to it as if it’s living right in the middle of two different reference points. I don’t mind that at all, and even if I’m unfamiliar with her, she’s going to be a nice addition.
The other figure from a source I’m unfamiliar with is Darth Revan from the Knights of the Old Republic game. I really only need to hear the word Darth here and he’s got my attention. I need Sith, Sith and more Sith. The Star Wars universe has a ton of Siths here and there so the more the merrier. He’s got a nice imposing presence and looks great holding his two lightsabers. One is purple. Mace Windu’s going to have a fit.
Jumping back into more familiar territory, we got a look at the Force Awakens C-3PO, with red arm. I can’t tell what’s going on with his hip articulation, but it might not be totally T-hip-useless, so that’s all I need to buy him. What the hell, I’m getting C-3PO in every other 6-inch scale toy line that’s putting him out, so I might as well get a couple from Hasbro as well, right?
Sequels, prequels, cartoons, and video games are all fine, but the Original Trilogy is where my heart beats, so it was good to see a couple figures from the movies that establish the core of my Star Wars love affair. One of them I’ve been dying to see.
First up, Princess Leia finally gets a figure that isn’t based around Jabba’s fortress. First we got a Slave Leia and then Leia as Boushh, so it was getting a bit ridiculous waiting for a regular Leia. Here we have A New Hope Leia at last.
Leia is . . . well, she’s not had the greatest luck so far, a lot of which is based around paint jobs and their effect on the factory figures. My first reaction is that I don’t see Carrie Fisher there at all. The rest of her is basically covered in soft goods, which I know pisses off many but doesn’t bother me at all. This actually looks more successful than the upcoming farmboy Luke figure. The dress looks scale-accurate and looks to be fitted pretty well. But the face . . .
It took a bit of staring to really find Leia there. I think she’s not being helped by the paint job. There’s too much “blush” accentuating the wrong part of her face, which is giving too much definition to what was a fairly young Carrie Fisher still carrying some chubby cheeks from her teenage years. If you strip that away, I think there’s a more successful Leia there than initial impression brings. A good paint job should bring out the Leia we all know. Of course, factory paints being what they are, I doubt we’ll be getting a good paint job, but at least her hair has a nice cinnabun flavor. It actually looks more like an early Marvel comics Leia than a movie Leia at this point. Weird. Either way, It’s nice to be putting together the gang. Time for an old Ben now, dontchathink?
While we’ve managed to get a 6-inch scale TIE Fighter, I highly doubt we’ll be getting a scale accurate AT-AT. I mean, that would be nuts. So we’ll have to settle for a driver. I love everything about Hoth, so I’m pretty ecstatic to be getting an AT-AT Driver. I have fond memories of slotting my vintage one into the mammoth AT-AT that was almost as big as me and shooting down some dirty rebels. His time onscreen was limited to an extreme bit part, but that’s what toys are for — to expand the screen time indefinitely.
While I loved the AT-AT Driver, my love for him pales in comparison to the supremely creepy Snowtroopers. Again, I just didn’t get enough of them in the movie. While the regular Stormtroopers were formidable in their numbers, the Snowtroopers were on a whole other level. There weren’t that many of them onscreen at any one time, but there was this larger-than-life presence they had that the regular Stormtroopers never did. They’re like snow ghosts, creeping along with their weird helmet-hoods and peering out at the world with their slitted black eyes. While I’ve managed to avoid extreme army-building for the vast majority of the various troopers, I did manage to build a decent army of Stormtroopers. I can easily see doing the same with Snowtroopers. Offer these in cases and I’ll probably bend.
Some of my attention has been drawn to the sometimes superior versions of various Star Wars characters coming out of Japan. But as they’re hitting a lot of the major characters, there are some characters I will no doubt never be getting from Figuarts or MAFEX. That’s where Star Wars Black Series continues to be important, by giving us things like the At-AT-Driver or Snowtrooper, or characters from other media like Sabine and Darth Revan. It’s a big galaxy out there; make it all. Just . . . maybe make it a little faster.