There wasn’t quite as much to react to with Star Wars as there was with Marvel Legends, but there were enough noteworthy things to gush over that I can squeeze out yet another article on.
There seems to be such a gulf between releases that I’m forgetting what we’ve seen and what we haven’t seen. And there’s so much toy news in general that keeping up is almost a part-time job. For instance, I couldn’t remember seeing that Skiff Guard Lando that was shown off, but a little research shows that it debuted around NYCC 2017. I think my brain was so blown by Dengar and 4-LOM at the time that I might have blanked out on Skiffdo. Seeing him at Toy Fair was like seeing him for the first time. So basically like a Madonna song, except with more Lando, which makes everything better.
Speaking of bounty hunters, with Zuckuss making an appearance at Toy Fair, the last of the Empire Strikes Back bounty hunters is headed to our collections. Ahhh … sweet sweet bounty hunters.
If you had asked me what single goal I had for the Star Wars Black Series way back when it debuted, I would have easily told you it was to get the entire bounty hunter roster that stood there menacingly while Vader strolled around and warned about disintegrations. It was such a small moment in a great movie, but it’s one of those scenes I can point to and say “that’s Star Wars.” We didn’t know anything about them, and we would never learn anything about them inside the confines of those cinematic walls. It was enough that they were there. They were the essence of that lived-in world. For someone like Darth Vader to consider these six individuals important enough to hire meant that there was something special about those guys. Every Star Wars toy line worth it’s weight in plastic has to have those scum in it, and now the Black Series feels a little fuller.
It’s been a while since we got the Hoth versions of Luke and Han and even longer since the regular Empire version of Luke, but we haven’t had any version of ESB Leia. Hoth Leia breaks that cold streak, and, as a bonus, it appears to be the best version of Leia so far, with an accurate and determined sculpt. Of course, now that we have her we need a Bespin Han. Am I never satisfied? It appears not. Oh well.
We got a look at Vice Admiral Holdo and some Porgs and Droids and some other things as well, and they all look great, but what I really want to talk about next is the Gamorrean Guard.
I mean, just look at the guy. Look at him! His mouth is articulated. Didn’t expect that, but love it.
There has been a decided lack of Jabba-affiliated creatures. We have Jabba himself, but we are sorely lacking major components from either his palace and his skiff. We don’t even have a Bib Fortuna yet! I don’t know how this toy line can look at me with a straight face when we have a Jabba but no Bib. Jabba needs his Bib. Dude drools a lot.
Speaking of drool, man, those Gamorrean guards were disgusting. The drool was literally just dripping off their disgusting mouths while they waddled around and guarded the place. And they kind of did a shitty job of it too, because it seems like everybody managed to get in there unhindered: Boussh, Luke, the Droids, Pauly Shore. Jabba might as well have fired the pigs and put in a revolving door, for as good as they were.
But regardless of their on-job competency, their absence has been an overpowering thing that has lingered over the Black Series as a line. Each time we can scratch another figure off of that vintage checklist it feels great. I was only able to get a single Guard when I was a wee kid, but I’m damn sure going to get a couple when they hit the shelves. You need at least two for guard duty, and another one to feed to the 6-inch scale Rancor that I suddenly really really want.
Between Spider-Ham and the Gamorrean Guard, Hasbro was super focused on pigs this year.