One thing I look for as a collector of action figures is completing teams. It’s really satisfying to get all of the figures from logical groupings of characters from comics and films. Recently Hasbro announced the Jim Lee Blue and Gold team completion in Marvel Legends and the Empire Strikes back Bounty Hunters have all been released (if not distributed) in the Black Series. I’m still waiting on my Bodhi Rook to complete my Rogue One team, but I’m very pleased that Hasbro completed the Beckett Gang from Solo so soon after the movie release. Today we are going to look at my favorite member of the team, Rio Durant.
Rio was voiced by John Favreau and portrayed on screen by acrobatic actress Katy Kartwheel with additional animation by ILM masters. I was charmed from his very first trailer line, “Is that a WOO-key?” and the way he leaned into pronouncing Wookiee as if it rhymed with cookie. Rio’s design is also fairly colorful and fun and the extra arms make for a unique figure. I love the imagery of these monkey based Star Wars aliens wearing battered old space suits. Not sure why, but I dig it.
Rio comes in the standard packaging with a nice drawing and a fairly auspicious number on the side of the box. The sculpting is really well done with sharp details that look accurate. I’ve been collecting Rio Durant stuff and this is the first item I’ve bought that actually represented the final Rio design. Rio has a lot of neat little details packed into the sculpt and things like his goggles, belt, strap, headset mic, and pilot life support gear are all seperate pieces that integrate well with the body, but provide depth and detail to the overall figure. The holster is attached to the waist and pegs into the leg, but is not glued into the leg to allow for more mobility.
The head sculpt is a great representation of Rio if a little somber. Rio is full of personality, so he’s often grinning and mugging a bit, so I kind of miss that, but neutral is probably the better choice when you consider this is probably our only shot at this character.
The goggles are removeble and are sculpted to rest on Rio’s head like he wears them in the film, but you can put them over his eyes. It stretches the plastic a bit on the plastic strap, but it works and I appreciate that. Rio comes with two guns, a pistol we’ve seen before with the Death Troopers and a short rifle.
The Deathtrooper pistol is what we see him use in the film (he dual wields two!) and it fits in his holster. You kind of have to finagle it in there because the front clip doesn’t slide into the holster perfectly. Be careful when putting it back to not bend the gun sight back because it can get caught. It’s a nice sculpt, if a little plain in all black.
I don’t recognize the bigger gun from the film, but I really like it. It has a folded up stock and an extra handle for stabilization. I get the feeling Rio maybe isn’t the greatest shot, but he looks neat holding this weapon with two hands and the other in one of his other free hands. All four hands are sculpted with weapon wielding in mind.
The articulation is really fun. It’s Black Series standard with a couple interesting additions and some subtractions I surprisingly didn’t really miss. Rio has:
- Double barbell ball joint in the head and neck
- Bicep swivels (right arms only)
- Ball and socket mid and lower torsos
- Swivel/hinge shoulders, elbows, hips, knees, wrists, and ankles
- Ball and socket ankles
New articulation for Rio includes the lower torso ball and socket and ball and socket ankles. The ankles have the usual swivel/hing joint at the foot, but plug into the legs with a ball and socket joint, so they have a nice range of motion that allows for more simian like stances. For example, in the above picture I was able to balance him on a more pointed section of rock because I could move the ankles into an almost gripping pose on the rock. The ankle hinge is super tight with some tough detents, so I was a little nervous about them, but they seem to be holding up just fine.
Rio is missing thigh swivels, which would normally irritate me, but I think it works out okay with him. I’m not sure why, maybe it has to do with his shorter stature, but the swivel/hinge knees worked okay for me too. I don’t want them forgoing the double knees in the future, however. The ball jointed lower torso is also a nice addition that adds a little bit more tilt to the usual straight swivel.
The extra arms make this figure a lot of fun to pose. I’m not sure why only two of the arms got the bicep swivel, but I’m glad it’s there as it lets the figure reach across the body better. The elbows are also very nice in that they get more than a 90 degree bend. The head has a lot of movement and the barbell joint allows for some subtle posing. Even though he’s attached to his vest via a cord and headset, he has full movement. The only effect of the connection is that in some poses the headset will be closer to his face because it’s flexible.
Paint is good. He’s god some good details on the rings and zippers of his space suit and his life support vest. I also really like the skin tone transitions they do on his hand and face. In general, a bit of a wash would be apreciated on these figures, but they look fine as is. I especially like his eyes.
Overall, this figure is fantastic. I’m having a ton of fun figuring out poses for him. I really want to get him a set of cooking gear like what he uses in the movie and ship for him to fly around in. I also can’t wait to get Val to complete my Beckett gang.
