I was fortunate enough to pick up Zuckuss from the Disney Store last week and Dengar arrived from Hasbrotoyshop last night, so my Black Series Empire Strikes Back Bounty hunter group is finally complete! Since the Black Series line really started with a Boba Fett figure, completing the ESB Bounty Hunter group has been a goal for this line for me all along and I’m so happy to have them all that I felt the need to celebrate a little with some pics and words. Read on for more on the Black Series Bounty Hunters.
Bounty Hunters, @#$% Yeah! Why are you so obsessed with this group of figures, Matt? They don’t do anything but stand around for a few minutes, and even Boba Fett, the most popular of the group, only has a total of 27 words in the whole original trilogy and is killed accidentally by a blind man. What’s the deal?
Like a lot of Star Wars collectors, for me, it all goes back to those original figures. I wouldn’t know the name of any of those guys if I didn’t have the toys. They were great looking little figures and fired up my imagination. Many a back yard battle was fought and won by Bossk, 4-LOM, Dengar, Zuckuss, Boba Fett and IG-88. Nostalgia for those mostly forgotten adventures is a big driver for my interest today.
I also devoured all of the Bounty Hunter related EU from the ’90s. I loved stories like Tales of the Bounty Hunters, The Bounty Hunter Wars by KW Jeter, Bounty on Bar-Kooda by Cam Kennedy, and even some of Shadows of the Empire for all the expanded stories about these mysterious creatures. So now I’m old enough to have nostalgia for that nostalgia driven exercise. It’s nostalgia inception and it’s powerful stuff. Fortunately, the new figures are very well done for the most part, especially these last two figures.
Boba, with his weapon gauntlets and jet pack, was my favorite vintage figure. My vintage Fett figure was incredible worn from play, so much so that a MOC version is a little startling to me in it’s brightness. The Black Series hunters kicked off most auspiciously with an SDCC exclusive version of Fett in a premium box with a bonus Han in Carbonite figure.
It’s still a great sculpt, though his articulation doesn’t quite live up to current standards in that his hip movement is hindered by too stiff plastic pouches and his rangefinder doesn’t move. Check out Benty’s Boba Fett review here.
Bossk was a favorite figure of mine as a kid and his Black Series update Bossk was another successful figure with great detail, articulation and paint, but a little tough to find.
I’m glad he’ll be seeing a re-release for anyone who missed out. He’s been great fun for years and manages to sneak his way into a lot of my Star Wars figure review shoots. Check out my original review here and Robo’s video review here:
IG-88 is a bit of a blemish on Hasbro’s bounty hunter record as he’s a bit undersized, the head sculpt isn’t 100% on model and the elbow articulation is hindered by the soft rubber coverings on his elbows.
The hip and foot design make any pose other than standing straight up and down pretty difficult and unconvincing. I realize all he does in the film is stand around, but the IG series droids have been shown in other media, particularly The Clone Wars, to be fairly agile and mobile.
Some swivel/hinge hips and feet would have helped this figure immensely. Check out VeeBee’s review here and video review here:
The recent release of 4-LOM had us within striking distance of completing the crew and felt like a triumph in relation to IG-88 especially in terms of movement.
Check out VeeBee’s written review here and Robo’s video review of 4-LOM here:
Zuckuss had this really neat removeable jacket that I used for years on tons of different figures. It was this strange, pleather material that didn’t look much like the hunter’s coat from the film, but I really liked.
The new coat is a little more accurate, though that’s tough to say definitively since I haven’t seen a ton of really clear pictures of the Zuckuss costume.
The figure is mostly covered up in the cloak, but what is visible is really well done. The texture and detail crammed into the head and armor is quite beautiful and given a nice wash to highlight it.
I’m really impressed at how they got the little detailed dots inside the center of the gas mask. That’s impressive molding and casting.
He’s a fun one too because I still confuse his name with 4-LOM because their names were swapped in the original toy line. I know 4-LOM and Zuckuss are a team from the old EU and I’m pleased to see that carried through into their few new canon appearances.
I can’t remember if this was explicitly stated, but I always imagined 4-LOM was a protocol droid from Zuckuss’ planet, that’s why they are similarly bug-eyed.
Even covered in the fairly thick cloak, Zuckuss moves well and has some effective double elbow articulation. I’m also really pleased at how they sculpted and articulated his trigger hand in order to properly hold this style of rifle in a few firing poses.
Check out Robo’s written review here and Robo’s video review here:
Dengar is also quite an achievement in engineering. For such a thick, heavily armored character, the articulation is all surprisingly effective.
I love the range of motion he gets in the elbows and it feels like Hasbro has been paying attention to functional, attractive articulation more and more lately. I appreciate the effort, because it makes playing with these toys a lot more fun.
Dengar’s sculpt is also well done, with the bulk of his armor and jumpsuit well represented. The choice to make the head wrap a seperate piece from the face what wise and gives the head a lot more depth than detail than I’m used to.
The back pack is pretty impressive, especially when I think back to the vintage pack. Back then, it was a bit of a techno-tumor poking out of his spine, but now it’s a very detailed pack with straps and bedrolls and such.
I used to think of Dengar’s pack as like a jet-pack, but working as a giant fan that propelled him onward, though looking at it now I’m not sure what the purpose would be.
I did like the look of Dengar with Luke’s Macro-Binoculars and was able to clip it to his thin plastic belt piece at a spot where it wasn’t glued down.
The blaster pistol is a nice inclusion. Even though It’s something I hadn’t really noticed about Dengar’s design until I saw the Hot Toys version, I’m glad to have it as it reinforces the idea of Dengar as a walking tank of a man, bristling with weapons of destruction.
Check out IBentmyManthing’s Dengar review here and Robo’s Dengar video review here:
I’m pretty pleased with this set of figures, though there are several other bounty hunters from throughout the saga that could use a figure like Aurra Sing and Zam Wessel from the prequels and Cad Bane, Embo, and Sugi from The Clone Wars. Interesting that the sequel trilogy doesn’t have their own colorful Bounty Hunters. Maybe Episode IX.
