Hasbro’s new(ish) face printing tech has taken the Star Wars Black Series line to a new level. Add to that some articulation upgrades and the price point and it’s went from “back up characters and troopers” to “I need the whole wave!” But it’s not perfected quite yet. Take Bespin Han Solo, for instance…
Don’t get me wrong (and read all of this before saying I hate the figure), it’s a valiant effort. In fact, you can see Han at many angles here. But my big qualifier is the straight on, staring a character in the face test, and I feel this sculpt comes up a little bit short.
But before I bore you with that, I’ll say the body is fantastic. I couldn’t ask for a better Bespin Han. THe elbows are hinge and swivel, but they do come up past 90. The right wrist is up and down swing, as a good blaster hand should. And the figure sports the new neck we’ve been seeing lately, with the dumbbell joint at the skull and the hingey ball at the bottom of the neck. This allows for great up and down as well as tilt side to side.
And I’ll go even further and say the face paint/print is great. There is nice detail to the eyes along with some glossiness to set it apart from the matte skintone, which achieves a nice life-like type quality. My problem is the asymmetrical nature of it.
Now I know, I know, the human face is naturally asymmetrical. And in Harrison Ford’s case, he’s talented enough to pull off some awesome looks. But I’m sure you all remember the meme from a few years ago showing Ford both happy and angry. This figure replicates that to a tee.
I get the feeling Hasbro was trying for a cocky type smirk, I think it just missed the mark a bit.
Here’s taking each side of the face and mirroring it to give the same expression all the way across.
Now saying all of that, which was mostly a joke taken too far, I DO like the figure. It’s not perfect, but not a lot of Harrison Ford figures are, even when it comes to Hot Toys. He’s just got one of those faces. One that’s so burned into our brains that any little imperfection sticks out at us like a sore thumb. This is completely acceptable for the $20 price. Hell, I’m buying more. And I guarantee we’ll see it again on the 40th ESB vintage card, maybe with “updated” face. And I’ll buy it again. Twice, one to keep carded since I’m a sucker for that.
Yup, that’s my motto. Nitpick the the little things, buy 8 of them.
Package
Figure
Blaster
Comparisons
Head Swaps
Action, or kind of standing all cool
