Having fallen in love with Thandie Newton in Westworld, I went in to Solo prepared to see a movie where Newton’s Val was basically the third lead. That didn’t quite happen, but I did end up loving every second she was on-screen as Val and immediately connected with the character and bought into her relationships with the rest of the gang. Consequently, I was extremely pleased to see her Black Series figure announced and shocked at how good the prototype turned out. Let’s take a closer look at Val!
First off, I do want to thank Hasbro for pretty much nailing the Black Series releases for Solo for my money. They have released or announced almost everyone on my two top 5 most wanted lists from this movie and so far they’ve all been excellent figures. If I had a more Kessel Run appropriate Qi’Ra and Cloud Rider Weazel I’d be set. I mean, I’d buy more than that, but that’s my most wanted stuff.
Now Val comes in your usual Black Series packaging and though I usually breeze by this bit because I’m not a MIP guy, I do want to say again how much I love the illustrations on these card backs. Is it all the same artist all along? The style looks consistent. If anyone knows, I’d love that information.
Val comes with one blaster. It’s a looking cool gun that kind of feels like a sawed off shotgun and has a nice detailed sculpt and two-tone paint job. The grey color isn’t super convincing as a gun metal, but it’s passable. I don’t recall her using it in the film, but after I shot these pics I looked it up in the Solo visual dictionary and she actually attaches a bunch of equipment to this base weapon to make her grappling gun.
She also uses a scout trooper blaster in the movie, so I would have liked the grapple attachments and the pistol to come with her. One of my Scout Troopers is not going to be pleased that he has to donate his weapon to Val. Screw those guys, though. Serves ’em right for blasting me from a mile away in Battlefront II.
Anyway, The sculpt on this figure is extremely good. Hasbro has been killing it lately with these figures and this is no exception. The likeness is very nice and from some angles it’s almost creepy-good.You have to get super up close on the figure in order to see the printing, which is great.
The body captures a ton of very cool costume detail and utilizes different soft plastic pieces for all the wires, cables, and tubes.
The pieces are all soft, so it allows for good motion and the skirts even allow her to sit. She also has her goggles around her neck, though they don’t function, you can’t put them on her, they are just around the neck for looks.
The articulation is pretty much Black Series standard, though I do like how the elbows get more than a 90 degree bend and the feet can hinge forward. Val has:
- Swivel/hinge shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, and ankles
- Ball and socket double barbell neck
- Ball and socket mid-torso and lower neck
- Swivel thighs
- Double hinged knees
The wrists hinge up/down for the right hand and in/out for the left which works well for blaster holding poses. The neck attaches to the body as a seperate piece, though at first I wasn’t sure if it was meant to be a joint. I got a little wiggle out of it and not much more at first, but more movement as I’ve played with the figure more. My only complaint about the figure is that the ratchets are big and the articulation very tight on the wrist hinges.
Finally, the paint is good. The face printing effect is superlative and assists with the likeness and the outfit details are fairly crisp too. They also chose this beautiful plastic for her skin tone that works perfectly.
Overall, I’m extremely pleased with this figure’s sculpt, paint, and movement and it’s a great feeling to complete my Beckett gang.
