I’m a huge Rebels fan and I have a lot of love for the original Thrawn trilogy of books by Tim Zahn, so this SDCC exclusive set was my number one priority this year. I’m so lucky to have friends that helped my grab this hard to obtain set, so let’s take a look at Thrawn!
Normally I give pretty short shrift to packaging in my pics as I just don’t care about it. I’m here for the figure itself. Thrawn here is definitely different in that the packaging is a big part about what I like. The figure and all the artifacts are packaged in a gatefold box that resembles Thrawn’s office in Rebels. The outside has a wonderful drawing of Thrawn, which is set off by a piece of blue plastic that is frosted with Thrawn’s Chimera symbol.
It is far and away my favorite bit of figure packaging. All the accessories are nicely highlighted in their individual slots.
The accessories include a lightsaber, a statue of two lizards, a clone trooper helmet, a temple guard helmet, a chunk of carved rock on a stand, Hera’s Kalikori from Rebels season 3, and the cup of a carpenter.
The clone trooper Helmet looks like Commander Gree’s, and it’s called out as such in behind the scenes materials on Rebels, but the paint job isn’t quite right. The ridge along the top of the helmet should be white. It’s also a lot larger than the helmet from the recently released TRU exclusive Gree. Looking at reference, sometimes Gree’s helmet looks silver to me, so I think I like the deco on the Gree helmet that came with Gree best. This helmet does fit nicely on a variety of figures.
As a Kanan fan, I was most looking forward to the Temple Guard mask as he wears one during the season 2 finale. It seems designed to fit Kanan, though it’s a little overlarge due to the thickness of the material. It still looks damn cool to me.
I think this rock was described as a chipped ritual stone in behind the scenes material. I love that it comes on a stand and that you can remove it and place any of the other artifacts on the stand if you want.
This thing is a Kalikori, which is a Twi’lek family heirloom from Hera Syndulla, the leader of the Rebels. It can also be removed from the stand.
This statue is pretty fun because the lizards are a reference to the old EU Thrawn books. In those books, Thrawn captured lizards called Ysalamiri which had the power to negate the Force. Thrawn doesn’t employ Ysalamiri in Rebels because the Rebels writers didn’t agree with the concept of Force-negating creatures, but the statue is a fun nod to the creatures and features prominently in many Thrawn scenes.
I’m not sure whose lightsaber that is, but it’s got a lot of paint detail. That cup was included in an episode as a nod to The Last Crusade. I’m not sure I’ve ever got a figure of an in-joke before, nevertheless it’s a good-looking little accessory.
Thrawn also comes with his blaster, which matches the design in Rebels perfectly. It was really warped due to being rubberbanded down into the holster, but a little heat fixed it up nicely.
The sculpt is quite nice and I think they successfully translated Rebels Thrawn into a more realistic style. He’s got a great self-satisfied expression on his face that makes me want to punch him. It’s perfect for the know-it-all character. Thrawn stands a little taller and straighter than Krennic and doesn’t appear to share any parts with the good Director.
I would say that paint is the main flaw on this figure. His eyebrows are a bit overdone and don’t quite line up with sculpt. I think I may have to repaint them. It’s not as bad as some of the Jango figures, but it is a flaw.
The articulation is Star Wars Black standard and he gets a decent range of motion out of that single elbow. I kind of wish they had made the right hand an up/down hinge rather than in/out. The tunic is a nice soft plastic that allows for good leg movement too.
Overall this set met my expectations, the only downside being that the eyebrows aren’t quite right. The packaging and accessories make this Star Wars Rebels fanatic smile. I’m super happy to finally get a villain from Rebels in the Black Series and hope we can eventually get the Grand Inquisitor and the Seventh Sister as well. I can’t wait until I can reunite Hera with her Kalikori.
