Disneyland’s new Star Wars themed land, Galaxy’s Edge, is open in Anaheim, but you need to have a reservation booked last month in order to enter at this time. I was at Disneyland last week with no reservation, so I was in the weird position of being so close, but unable to enter the galaxy far, far away. Fortunately some of the exclusive merch was available at other places in the park and I soothed myself with a little Black Series retail therapy and picked up this Smuggler’s Run four pack. Let’s take a look.
Smuggler’s Run is the name of the new Star Wars Land ride where Disneyland Guests can pilot the Millenium Falcon. The figure set includes Clone Wars era pirate Hondo Ohnaka, Rey, Chewbacca, and two porgs.
The box is another slim, long box with the typical Black Series line drawing portraits of each character on the front, back, and inside flap. The color scheme is a little different from the typical black series box as it has more green tones to match the packaging in the Resistance themed area of the park.
The flap is held closed with velcro and opens up to reveal the contents of the set and another configuration of the outside illustrations.
Chewie looks to be a re-release of the original The Force Awakens Black Series Chewbacca which itself shared a lot of parts with the original Episode IV Black Series Chewie.
So if you have those figures, you know what you are getting here. He comes with his bowcaster and a removeable bandolier
The difference I’m seeing between this and those older figures is that the hands and the bowcaster are cast in a much softer plastic. This is a plus in that it’s easier to get the gun in Chewie’s hands, but a minus in that the gun is pretty rubbery.
Chewbacca’s articulation is a little different than a typical black series figure articulation with:
- Ball and socket torso and head
- Swivel/hinge shoulders, elbows, hips, wrists, hips, knees, and ankles
- Thigh Swivels
The head and torso movement aren’t great on this figure and don’t get much range of motion, it’s more like a swivel.
Paint is also pretty minimal and I don’t think the starting plastic does a great job matching Chewie’s fur color at all, but it’s on par with the other black series offerings, though it does seem a little lighter around the eyes. So far, I think the best Chewbacca figure from Hasbro has been the Solo version.
Rey is also familiar as she appears to be a re-release of the Episode VIII figure and comes with her blaster, staff, and lightsaber.
Like Chewie, the plastic seems a little softer in parts, making her sculpted skirt a bit easier to move around.
The improvement, I think, is in the paint job as Rey appears to have the photo-real paint.
I think it’s an improvement on the previous two releases paint work if not as eerily good as the recent Island Rey.
The blaster is cool, but the holster is a tough plastic and it doesn’t have much give so the blaster doesn’t fit in there well.
This figure will probably replace my current Episode VIII Rey on the shelf just because the face printing improves her so much. The hair print is a little off-center on my figure, but I find that less objectionable than the eye paint on the other figure.
The porgs were a little surprising to me as I didn’t look closely at them, assuming they were re-releases of the previous porg accessories, but they are both new portraits!
One has a cute little screeching expression, similar to the screeching porg that co-pilots the Falcon with Chewbacca in the film, and the other looks like the sad porg that guilts Chewie out of his grilled porg dinner. Both have ball socket wings and swivel feet and are pretty fun for such tiny little things.
Porgs are nice, but the real reason to buy this set for me is Hondo Ohnaka!
Hondo is a character that has grown on me over the years through appearances in The Clone Wars and Star Wars: Rebels. He’s a pirate and a scoundrel, though occasionally he does the right thing. From time to time.
Apparently he is a big part of the story of the new Millenium Falcon ride, Smuggler’s Run and even has an animatronic character in the ride queue.
The figure doesn’t look to be based specifically on Hondo’s appearance in the cartoons, but rather concept art from Galaxy’s Edge.
I think the figure matches this art even better than it matches the final animatronic as there seems to have been a few tweaks between concept and design.
His look feels like a bit of a hybrid between his look in Clone Wars and Rebels with the longer coat of Clone Wars and the longer face spikes from Rebels. I guess the idea is that Weequay’s face spikes grow longer with age.
The figure is really detailed with nice textures across the clothing that communicates a variety of different material. His face is appropriately craggy and he has a great silhouette.
I especially like the sharp tech details in the goggles and how well his eyes shine through the translucent green lenses. The articulation is Black Series standard with:
- Ball and socket head and mid-torso
- Swivel/hinge shoulders, elbows, hips, wrists, and ankles
- Swivel thighs
- Double hinged knees
This articulation moves well. I think there might be a ball joint at the base of the neck where it attaches to the torso, because it seems like a separate piece, but it doesn’t move much.
The ball joint at the head does get a lot of nice tilt movement even though Hondo has a bit of hair. The knee articulation works well, but it looks fairly awkward when bent, somehow more chunky and segmented looking than the usual double knee. The left leg movement is hindered slightly by the holster since it is glued to the hip.
Paint is great with sharp details on the outfit, goggles and face printing. There is a nice matte quality to the figure and some washes to bring out detail in the outfit.
Hondo comes with a blaster that seemed familiar, but took me a while to figure out that it was a repaint of Krennic’s from Rogue One. I’m not sure if it’s a new sculpture or just better paint and materials because it looks sharper than Krennic’s Blaster.
Hondo is a fantastic figure and my few critiques don’t dampen my enthusiasm for the figure at all. Don’t tell Hasbro, but he’s almost worth the cost of the set in and of itself to me. It is a shame for collectors that you have to re-buy a few common figures that have already been released a few times to get Hondo, but I could see why this set would be popular for a park visitor as I’ve heard that Rey and Chewie actually walk around the land.
