I’m a huge fan of the Star Wars animated shows Rebels and Clone Wars and I’ve long been advocating for show-specific animated characters making their way into the Black Series, so I was ecstatic to hear Cad Bane announced. I’m very grateful that I was able to score the con-exclusive version that includes the techno-service droid Todo 360, so let’s take a look!
The box is similar to the new Black Series style with the kicker ramp shap and artwork highlighted by a single color, the color indicating what part of Star Wars these figures hail from. The box is slightly fancier than the usual box and instead of a window, there’s a matte black cover and the figure slides out on a tray. That tray won’t fully slide out, however, and that matte black picks up fingerprints easily, so I’d suggest MOC collectors handle with care.
The set includes Bane, Todo 360, two blasters, a removeable hat, and a removeable bag.
Todo 360 has a very nice metallic paint job and is pretty well articulated for such a tiny figure. He has ball joints in the ankles, hips, shoulders, and neck and a swivel at the mid-torso.
The swivel has a lot of range, but you don’t really need all of it. Todo’s head takes up most of his mass, so I was a little worried he couldn’t stand, but the ball joints and wide feet make it pretty easy. I do wish he came with a flight stand and little jet effects for his feeties because he did a lot of flying about in his episodes.
Todo has that prequel bot aesthetic and is so cute he makes a nice contrast to Bane’s lean and mean look.
The guns have sharp sculpting, fit well into the holsters and hands, have shiny metallic paint, and match the source material well.
The hat is removeable and it sits solidly on the head, though I did find I would knock it off often when I picked the figure up to pose him. The hat got a little warped in the box, so the back is a little wobbly. I really like that they made the hat removeable so you can adjust it how you like. It’s also a fun way to show that Cade Bane is having a tough time because his hat got knocked off. The little tubes at the jaw line attach via pegs to the holes in the face.
Sculpting on Bane is wonderful and they managed to capture the feel of the character well without being a straight copy of the Clone Wars character model. They’ve adjusted the look somewhat to bring him out of the cartoon, but he still has the lanky proportions and surly expression you expect to see from a Cade bane. They also added a lot of nice texture detail to the outfit that helps give him a more realistic feel.
Bane has the articulation we’ve come to expect from the Black Series with:
- Swivel/hinge shoulders, elbows, knees, wrists, hips, and ankles
- Ball and socket head, neck, and mid-torso
- Swivel thighs and ankle boosters
- Butterfly hinge pecs
The lame swivel/hinge knees only get a 90 degree bend and the legs are thin enough that this could have easily been double hinged knees. The ball joint where the neck attaches to the body has a lot more range of motion than the ball joint in the head, but between the two, it’s got a very nice expressive range. His mid-torso ball joint wobbles okay, but doesn’t get much crunch action. Here’s where the ball-jointed waist joint we see in the G.I. Joe Classified figures would have really come in handy.
Paint is very good on both of these with nice metallics where needed and drybrushes to bring out those texture details on Bane. There is a little slop on one of the collar points on my figure, so it’s not perfect, but mostly good.
Overall, I love this set, but for the deluxe price, I do wish it came with some jet booster effects for Bane and and Todo. It seems like there was a time where Todo would have been included with the regular release Cad Bane similar to the way Rey came with BB-8, but I guess those days are done.
