Black Series Mimban Han Solo and Battle Droid
Toy Fair is such a fun time, isn’t it? So. Many. New. Toys. I know my head was spinning as Robo and I made our way from appointment to appointment, and a lot of companies brought out the big guns this year. But now we are in the Toy Fair hangover phase because we have SEEN a lot of brilliant new stuff, but most of it will not be available for a few months, so it is hard to not want to walk out of Javits with an arm full of prototypes. So, having a new series of Star Wars Black series hit this weekend was just what the toy gods ordered.
I loves me some Star Wars toys, and it seems like it has been ages since we got a new Black Series assortment, but if you remember back to SDCC, that is by design. While I hate waiting for toys, SWB assortments have been reduced on an assortments per year basis, but the actual assortments have more new figures in them (so no more/little re-releases) so it all balances out. Frankly, if this resolves the peg warmer issue, I am all for it, and while the wait can be agonizing, scoring a new assortment with so many new figures is a blast, and man, this is a GREAT new wave.
This new wave runs the gamut of selection in terms of the movies it covers, and while Solo is still the most recent Star Wars movie, The Phantom Menace is celebrating its 20 year anniversary in 2019, so there is a lot of cool representation for the Prequels as well. Included in this series are Vice Admiral Holdo, Dryden Vos, Mace Windu, Padme Amidala, Han Solo (Mimban), and the Battle Droid. Between Matt K and me, we were able to snag everyone except for the elusive Master Windu, so while I am going to cover off Han and Battle Droid today, I am sure you caught Matt’s feature of Padme yesterday, and we will have the others later in the week.
I am such a sucker for army builders in SWB, it is not even funny. I have so many Stormtroopers, Clone Troopers, Fleet Troopers, etc. I am a bit ashamed to admit it, so getting two more figures to potentially build is a fun and slightly scary outlook for sure. I am going to need like, a bazillion of the Battle Droids, but since the Mimban Han can go into full incognito (face obscured) mode, I will likely get a few of him as well, so I can build a Mudtrooper squad. However, if you are building ranks or not, I think you will likely find both of these to be excellent figures.
I will start with Han because I have to say that the “Mudtrooper” look is my favorite new Star Wars trooper design since the Shore Troopers in Rogue One. Don’t get me wrong, the Range Troopers are pretty rad, too, but this is function within the Imperial military that is DESIGNED to get scuffed up and dirty, marking it more and more clear that those trooper in the OT were pretty damned spoiled hanging out in the Death Star all day. The Mimban scenes in Solo really showed the Empire’s fight at the ground level and made it clear that even after the Emperor’s power grab at the end of Revenge of the Sith, war throughout the galaxy was still very much hell.
So, of course that is where Han was relegated to when he didn’t get to train as a pilot, and if I am being totally selfish, I am glad, because it gave us a chance at a new trooper look on a planet we had not previously seen. Plus, you know, he never would have me Chewie. I will admit that I instantly loved this figure upon opening it, and while it isn’t completely perfect, it is still working on just about every cylinder and it takes advantage of all of Hasbro’s strengths. Hasbro does troops really well, and the scuffing and dirtying of the uniform enhances the wonderful sculpt, and Han’s face is showing that they are getting better and better with the face printing technology. Even if you are never going to display Han’s mug uncovered with this figure, it is still a cool and distinctive new look for your Imperials. All around, this figure looks great, and while the sculpt is most certainly impressive, the paint work is just a great with the aforementioned scuffs and scrapes, but also with the clean lines around the mask and the shading on the boots. This figure takes some real cues from General Veer’s Hoth invasion uniform and amps up the details with some additional armor and face mask elements.
Speaking of, I LOVE how the helmet, goggles, and aspirator are all removable and the latter two can be worn together or separately from each other. Obviously, you would want eye and lung protection on any planet where a specialized “Mud” trooper is required, so it is good to have options. I love how the mask fits and stays perfectly on the helmet and the tubing runs back and plugs into the back pack, These are some great details to seal everything up and make me feel just a little claustrophobic. The ONLY nitpick I have with the uniform is that the cape doesn’t stay on as securely as I would like, but if that little thing should be a pretty good indication of how great this figure is.
I really love Solo, and I am glad that Hasbro has done a great job covering off most of the important characters and looks from the film. Let’s hope it continues and the can play catch-up with R1 as well.
Moving on to the Battle Droid, along with Padme, this was probably the figure I was looking forward to the most in this series, but also the one that caused the most concern. For the most part, I enjoy the Prequels, and I absolutely love some aspects of the films, so getting a chance to build up a glut of “clankers” for my Jedi and clones to fight is something that really appeals to me. That said, the Battle Droid designs are a bit wacky, and with their spindly limbs and top-heavy proportions, I was concerned for how these would turn out. I already have several of Bandai’s battle droid figures, and those can be a bit fidgety, so I was prepared to have some issues.
I am glad to say that, while he is still a little fidgety, overall, the execution on this guy is pretty damned good. Yeah, you are still going to have to work to get him to balance at times, but the fact that this guy as a bit less articulation than his Bandai counterpart works in his favor, and my fear of potentially soft and rubbery plastic was completely unfounded. This guy feels much more solid than you would expect, and this unique articulation scheme can get him just about anywhere you need in terms of posing (he can do the “deactivated” crouch for Pete’s sake). I know I said he has less articulation than the other battle droids I have, but he still has a TON, the removed points are appreciated because this guy can certainly hold his gun a lot better than Bandai’s offering.
When going over the articulation on this guy, I cannot help but saying, “this is what IG-88 SHOULD have been.” The joints make sense for the build with no weirdness like in IG’s shoulders, and just because the build of this guy is incredibly thin, especially in the limbs, points were not sacrificed, and the engineering is tight with strong joints. Heck, even ball (or partial ball) joints were retained in pivotal spots like the neck and shoulders, so I only find the hips range in moving in and out somewhat limited. That is awfully good for a figure with a design so counterintuitive to add a lot of joints and engineering, and if the feet were just a little bit bigger, he would likely not have any balance issues at all. As it stands, he can, well, stand fine, but you will have to work at it a bit more than normal figures.
While I was expecting the figure to come with the standard-issue droid blaster, which he does, there are a few things I was not expecting about him, and most of those revolve around the backpack. First, the two antennae are extendable from the pack itself, so you can have them up or down or any place in between. That is a nice touch that Bandai did not offer (just a swappable “down” piece), but also, the backpack is actually removable on this figure. I was NOT expecting that, and there is actually an additional antennae piece to attach to the back of the droid without the pack, and that actually pops out from the attachment piece. I am pretty damned impressed with all of this and it affords you some diversity even right out of the package.
Another big thing this figure has going for it is something a little less tangible: this lifeless kill bot has a ton of personality, but in a GOOD way. I know Papa George tried to inject personality into these guys with humor that often fell flat in the movies, but this figure has a lot of wear and tear to him so he looks like he has quite a bit of history. Again, I hate just doing a comparison for every little point, but the Figuarts droid was pristine so he was rookie for sure, while this one has seen a lot fire fight. So, if you have both versions (or all three if you count the SHF Geonosis version), you are going to have some nice variance already. Plus, this one is significantly taller than the import, so that might cause a display issue if you have OCD about height and scale. That said, I would still take all kinds of repaints and specialty/rank designations for more battle droid releases in the future. It is not possible to have too many of this guy, so bring them all on.
This new SWB set is pretty darned great, and I think these two figures are certainly the highlights. The battle droid turned out better than what I was expecting, and Han is definitely the surprise of the wave, and might be the best figure overall. Like I said, since both of these are technically army builders, you will probably want a few of each, and certainly don’t sleep on these, I have a feeling they will go fast. Get on over to Dorkside and get them locked in.
