It’s always a strange proposition buying figures for a film you haven’t seen yet, let alone variants of characters you know little to nothing about, but that’s where we Star Wars collectors find ourselves again this year and each year for the foreseeable future. I’m pretty excited for the December release of Rogue One, so I ordered this Target exclusive set from Target.com with little to no hesitation. Let’s take a look at the Target exclusive 3-pack of The Black Series’ Jyn Erso, Cassian Andor, and the Death Trooper Specialist.
In the back of my mind, I seem to recall a time where multi-packs featuring characters with a lot of reused parts would come with a price break, but at a retail price of $60, you pretty much pay full price for all three of these 6-inch scale figures, even though one, Jyn Erso, is a re-release with no new features.
So if you got the wave one or SDCC exclusive Jyn, you know what to expect. It’s exactly the same as far as I can tell. Check out my thoughts on this figure here if you are interested.
I think she has a slightly nicer eye paint job, but it’s looking the same otherwise. I still think the likeness is decent, if a little soft.
It would have been nice to get a slight variant, like perhaps the hood down or some new arms and vest to show a jacket-free look. Including her baton weapon might have sweetened the deal a bit too. As it is, it’s a bit of a waste for folks who already bought Jyn, and, honestly, it feels like a bit of appeasement to the whole “where’s Rey” movement.
The Death Trooper Specialist is the same figure from wave one with a new belt/pauldron piece. It’s a single piece made of soft rubber and I feel like the soft plastic hurts the shape of the pauldron a little. It’s a little too rubbery and doesn’t hold a nice shape.
He comes with the same weapons as the wave one Death Trooper, which is fine, but we’ve seen the Death Troopers with the specialist gear carry larger rifles in the trailers, and I would have liked one of those.
I do like the way the web gear and pauldron bulk this character up a bit, and I think he looks a little more substantial than the wave one figure.
Cassian is in his Rebellion Officer’s uniform, which looks really cool to me and is such a perfect Star Wars-feeling design. I know a lot of comparisons have been made to Starbuck and Apollo’s uniforms from Battlestar Galactica, but the details are 100 percent “Star Wars.” Look at that shirt! He goes to the same tailor as Han Solo!
I love the jacket sculpt, and the holster is made of a soft plastic so the figure retains leg movement. The sculpt looks to be the same head as the wave one figure. The likeness is there, though a little soft, but I really see it in profile. It’s hurt by the paint job.
This is not news for Hasbro, but I do give them a bit of a pass for Cassian because the close-cropped beard, while a bitchin’ look, is really tough to recreate effectively at this scale. I’m thinking of all the amazingly awful Viggo Mortensons from the Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring line.
Cassian comes with a neat gun that splits into three pieces. The main body is similar to the gun he has in wave one, but there are some pegs to attache a different barrel and stock. It’s a fun little gimmick and it makes me wonder if this somehow plays into the film because the 3.75 Black Series Jyn has a similar weapon.
Cassian has the standard black series articulation:
- Swivel/hinge shoulders, elbows, neck, wrists, hips and ankles
- Double-hinged knees
- Swivel thighs
- Ball/socket head and mid-torso
Cassian is a pretty solid figure and fun to play with and pose. In general, I’m pleased with the set, but I probably would have bought multiples for army-building Death Trooper Specialists and Rebel Soldier-types if not for the extraneous Jyn. For now, I think I’ll just get a Bandai model kit to round out my Death Trooper Specialist squad.
