The latest wave of Star Wars Black has started hitting online retailers with an interesting case mixture of Sand People, Lando, Royal Guards, K-2SO, Director Krennic, and Qui-Gon Jinn. I wonder why they didn’t double pack the Sand People and Royal Guards in the case in lieu of Krennic and K-2, but it is a nice spread of characters across the Star Wars saga. Let’s take a look at Qui-Gon Jinn!
I’ve become more of a prequel fan as the years have passed. I feel like the Clone Wars added to my appreciation of the films. One thing about the prequels that I never had to be convinced of was Liam Neeson’s Qui-Gon Jinn. Neeson had the proper gravitas and sold every one of his lines as the perfect representation of a Jedi.
The figure comes with a lightsaber with removable blade and an extra hand. The saber can attach to the belt and holds the blade securely. Maybe it’s just me, but the translucent plastic seems a particularly vivid green. The extra left hand is posed in a perfect Jedi mind-trick pose. It pops out easily and I found that it can serve well as a force-push hand as well. I really love that they included the extra hand and hope they do more of this in the future.
The sculpt is really nice and I especially like textures applied to all of the clothing. The likeness is instantly recognizable as Neeson, if only slightly cartoonish. I think the solid beard paint might lend a bit of cartoonish quality to the face. I’m also not sure about the sleeves of the robe. It looks a little awkward when the arms are raised up.
The paint is interesting. Hasbro tried something new here, sculpting and painting the eyeballs as a separate piece that is inserted into the face. I’m not sure if I like it. On the one hand, it adds more depth to the eye and prevents the whites from overlapping the eye lids. On the other hand, the eyeballs look a little too black to me.
There is a nice bit of overspray on the Jedi robes that adds a realistic feel. I feel like the hair is a little more gray than it should be. The articulation is Hasbro Black Series standard with the following articulation:
- Ball/socket neck and torso
- Swivel/hinge shoulders, neck, hips, ankles, elbows, and wrists.
- Double-hinged knees
- Swivel hips
The neck is hindered a bit from looking up by the hair, and the hips are slightly impeded by the skirt. The skirt does have a slit up the side that allows for good movement for crouching, but looks a little odd when moving the legs straight forward. I like that the elbows have slightly more than a 90-degree bend, but I’m disappointed by the torso movement. It’s more swivel than anything.
Overall, this is a good representation of Liam’s Qui-Gon, and I don’t think I’ll bother trying to grab the Figuarts version. The main downside for me on this figure is that he doesn’t come with the long robes. Qui-Gon wears the dark outer robes a lot in the film and when he’s not wearing those, he wears a poncho, so one or both of those would have been good to have.
I have a cloak from Rickhor 409 on eBay and I’d probably buy a poncho if somebody made it. I cut a super quick poncho for some of the below shots, but I’d like a nice one.
