Scale and IG units is a little tough to gauge because the original IG-88 was an inanimate chunk of metal bolted to a floor and IG-11 is mostly CGI, however a lot of us were left with the impression that the Black Series IGs were a little too small. I had been hoping for another take on IG-11, so I jumped on this pre-order immediately, let’s take a look at Bandai’s IG-11!
The S.H. Figuarts line has a pretty classy gloss black packaging with a large front window and some good photography. It’s a little smaller and feels a little pricier than the usual domestic packaging, but that doesn’t save it from the recycling bin.
The figure comes with a bag for baby Yoda, removeable bandoliers, two grip hands, two blaster holding hands, and a panel that can swap onto the chest to depict IG’s self-destruct chest grenade. The guns are beautifully detailed and have a slick metallic finish. The grip hands are a little gummy, so his fingers don’t really grip stuff too well, but the trigger hands hold the guns well.
The grenade panel is a really tiny little piece that’s not too tough to remove, but seems to stay on pretty well. I feel like it doesn’t look as much like a grenade in the chest cavity than a half a sphere on top of the chest and could stand to have a little more depth to it.
The bag for baby Yoda is actually a lot stiffer plastic than I would have expected. Figuarts Yodito fits in there easily if his arms are out, but getting both arms in there was a bit tricky and I ended up popping one of the arms off trying to get both arms in the bag.
The sculpting on this guy is exquisite and the details are all so super sharp and are just a joy to examine.
The details also feel way more on-model than the Black Series figure. The figure is designed to pop apart at the arms and head so you can swap the Bandoliers for the Yodito bag, but having just watched his episodes again recently, I’m glad he can go without because there are a few scenes in Chapters 7 and 8 where he doesn’t wear either.
The bandoliers are one piece and do tend to want to ride up a bit and you have to pull them down over some of the pipes on his back to get them to lay right on the shoulders.
The scale is tough to judge for certain because of the nature of the character, but in my estimation at 7 and 3/4 inches tall, he’s a smidge too tall standing straight up and down. I think he looks just fine once his knees are bent a bit or in action. I also like the way he scaled with the Black Series Scout Trooper more than Mando.
The articulation is pretty good, and while I have a couple things I don’t like, I think overall what he has works well and makes for a very stable figure who stands well even when loaded down with Baby Yoda. IG-11 has:
- Swivel/hinged head, shoulders, wrists, and ankles
- Ball and socket hips
- Single hinged elbows and knees
- Swivel waist, mid-torso, and head segments
- Bicep swivels
The head is pretty cool because while it hinges forward and back and swivels where it meets the neck, it has two segments that can spin independently like they spin in the show. The ball and socket hips don’t spread apart very wide, but gets to where I needed them to get some character appropriate action poses and almost sit normally on a Black Series Speeder Bike.
It is a little disappointing that his legs can’t kick forward 90 degrees at the hips and the knees and elbows also only get 90 degree bends, but I was able to get the character specific poses I was looking for. The Black Series figure has a hinge forward at the torso that I sort of miss in this guy, however all of this articulation is really tight and holds poses well. The rocker ankle joints help with stability a lot.
Paint is pretty great on this figure with a lot of different metallics and some perfectly grungy weathering. Figuarts stuff tends to skew clean, but this guy has the perfect used-universe feel with dirt and grease stains.
Overall I love this figure. I’m a huge fan of IG-11 and this does him justice. It’s just so pretty that my scale quibbles disappear even though I think it is probably a bit too tall to scale with Bandai’s or Hasbro’s Mando properly. It’s also really tough, solid and stable for a Bandai figure, not too fiddly or complicated. I was little worried that I had to pop the head and arms off to swap bandoliers for bag, but the connection points are really solid. It’s definitely way more than I want to normally pay for a figure when you factor in shipping, but ultimately this re-do feels worth it to me.
