I will do my best to not spoil the movie in reviewing Bandai’s S.H. Figuarts K-2SO from Star Wars: Rogue One.
It should be safe to say by now that you know there is a new droid in Star Wars: Rogue One — K-2SO, played by Alan Tudyk. I need to quickly mention that two of my favorite actors from A Knight’s Tale have played androids/robots in Disney movies, the other being Paul Bettany as Vision. At some point I expect the universe to burp and both of them will be voicing droids in Star Wars where one droid “fong” the other.
I had to spend a bit of time on Wookieepedia today looking up some info about K-2, since I have no previous relation to him. Turns out its first appearance was in 2014 in a game called Star Wars: Commander. Never heard of it, but there you go. Doing some further research on Wookieepedia, these are security droids meant to protect something or someone of value. We saw them in the Prequels and the Clone Wars cartoon. This might be a spoiler, but the one in Rogue One is a captured and re-programmed one, which you can pick up on from the TV commercials as he seems to be hanging out with the rebels. That’s all I say about the droid and the movie, as any further into this and I’ll be spoiling him. The character is really cool, a lot of fun and probably one of the better developed roles.
S.H. Figuarts K-2SO is not the only release of this action figure. Hasbro has one, Bandai model kits has one, I think there are more, or maybe not. Seriously, I lose track with these multiple releases. I don’t have the model kit or Hasbro’s; I have the S.H. Figuarts one. I made a decision to collect Bandai’s offerings, and up until now was only going to stick to Original Trilogy and Prequel characters. But this figure, along with with Han from Force Awakens have killed that plan. Bandai has me by the balls.
Since I just got this figure today and I’m trying to crank this article out before deadline, I have not had a ton of time to reflect on the figure. My first impressions are as follows: the figure is quite tall and will work with both S.H. Figuarts, Hasbro The Black Series and Mafex. He’s not super tall like the model kit or Hasbro’s but tall enough that he works. I’m not huge into scale like I used be, I’m more into “does it look redonkulously too tall or too short,” and I believe that K-2 works scale-wise.
The plastic has model kit quality to it. It feels really light and fragile. Some of the joints have me worried that my man-hands might break them off with little effort. That might just be me being super cautious since I am rushing this article, but buyer beware. On the note of articulation, holy crap in a hat, this guy has some serious movement. It’s not all perfect, the hips are kind of finicky and there seems to be no hinged crotch, but there is a good range of motion there.
The waist and chest have horrible range, I was really disappointed. The elbows and knees both have single joints but offer a great range of motion. The shoulders have a huge range of motion and there are bicep, ankle, knee, wrist swivels that make for some great poses.
There are multiple hands in this set, a couple of fists, an open hand (for slapping people silly), and what look to be gun hands. The gun hands are a bummer, since most of the guns that I have have trigger guards, and K-2’s hands don’t have a pointy index finger, none of the guns fit. Bummer. There is a base included in this set, which is probably more for vanilla displays since this guy has long legs and small feet and looks like he could fall over pretty easily.
The real question that everyone wants to know is “When is Robo going to do the video review?” And the answer is, he isn’t, I am. No, I know, that’s not the question that you are asking. You are asking, “Pabs, is it worth the cost to buy this figure over the model kit or Hasbro figure?” And the answer is no. It isn’t, as mentioned, I am pretty much keeping to one manufacturer. That’s a choice, but I don’t think this figure offers anything that the others don’t already offer. The sculpt might be a bit sharper, and the paint apps look a bit fresher, but not really enough to justify the cost. I am happy I have this figure, but you might think it’s overpriced, and I would agree.
That said you can pick this figure up here:
