I am happy to see that the latest Black Series is now hitting various retailers as I was overdue for some Star Wars goodness. For some reason I spread my pre-order on this wave across three different outlets, so I only have two figures from the wave I ordered from Amazon so far. Today we are going to take a look at one of my more anticipated figures from the wave, Kit Fisto.
The box is the usual Black Series packaging, though mine got absolutely demolished during shipping in a bubble wrap-lined envelope. Fortunately the box did it’s job and protected my precious plastic from damage. It’s almost funny how smashed this box got without messing up the figure.
Kit comes with a saber with a removeable hilt and that’s it. It has a decent amount of detail and it looks like a re-use of one of the blades that came with General Grievous. I don’t think it’s a perfect match for his saber, but it’s not a detail I would have noticed if I didn’t specifically go look for it, especially since his massive mitts cover the thing in his hand.
The annoying thing about this hilt for me is that it doesn’t have the peg to attach to the belt. The hole is there, but there is no peg on the saber. For the above pic I got it to stay on the belt by pushing one of the buttons into the belt hole, but it falls of super easy. I also would have loved an extra force-push hand for his right hand. Kit Fisto is arguably mostly known for that scene in AOTC where he knocks down 3PO and smiles, so I kind of want him to be able to do that as a figure.
Kit Fisto re-uses the recent Padawan Obi-Wan body with new hands and a head. I think the body makes a lot of sense for most of Kit Fisto’s costume, unfortunately the collar isn’t right. He’s usually depicted wearing a mandarin style collar and that’s missing and while I don’t think the boots are 100% correct either, that’s less of a concern for me and he does seem a little short.
I like the face sculpting a lot. It seems to me to be based on Kit from Episode III, but the more benign expression recalls to me his vibe from The Clone Wars Cartoon.
I also really like how his left hand is not completely a grip hand, but can also be used as a force choke/mind trick hand too which adds some nice pose and display variety.
Articulation is pretty effective however there is some annoyance because the Y hips are back due to the Padawan Obi re-use. Kit has:
- Swivel/hinge shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, and ankles
- Swivel thighs
- Ball and socket head, lower neck, and waist
- Butterfly hinged pics
It is nice that the skirt doesn’t impede articulation and the butterfly hinges allow for easier saber holding poses due to the use of softer plastic. The tentacles also allow more movement than I was expecting. While he can’t look up well due to his squid-like mane, his head can tilt and swivel pretty good.
Paint is probably my biggest issue with this figure. I often wish Hasbro would include more washes or drybrushing to bring out the details on these figures, but the heavy wash of brown/red on the face has almost ruined the figure for me. His face looks way more brown than green and stands out against some of the tentacles. While the film mask does have some brown low-lights, this is just way overdone. The gray patterns on the skin also don’t seem as uniform or plentiful as they are on the movie mask and they skipped painting the tips and ties on the back tentacles.
Despite all the nitpicks I have with this figure I still had a lot of fun playing with him. It’s a solid figure in terms of fun factor, if not screen accuracy, and doesn’t seem up to par with recent efforts like Count Dooku or the Hoth Trooper.
I personally don’t have an issue with parts re-use where it makes sense (most lines I collect use it a whole heck of a lot) but the Black Series set out to be a more faithful interpretation of Star Wars characters with the best detailing and accuracy and it seems like they are stumbling a bit with this wave.
