I’m a Boba Fett Fan, but that has very little to do with his actions on the Big Screen. Sure, he looked great in Empire and seeing him fly in Return of the Jedi was mind blowing for my developing brain, but I became a Boba Fett fan because he had the coolest action figure I’d ever seen. Adding the toy colors to a Black Series figure was always going to get my attention. Let’s take a look!
I don’t think that I ever really thought about how inaccurate the colors on the original Boba Fett figure were compared to the film until I was much older. It didn’t matter to me since the toy occupied way more of my mind back in the day when VHS wasn’t common and you couldn’t watch the movies whenever you wanted.
I’ve seen quite a few toy color Boba Fett customs and non-toy products in the vintage color scheme over the years, most recently Adrian Vasquez (@vaz-sw.pics) has been making some very excellent custom black series Fetts in the vintage color scheme. Check out Robo’s video featuring the customs here:
He even sculpts the visor down onto the helmet in the vintage style!
Hasbro doesn’t go quite as far as Mr. Vazquez, this Fett is the original Black Series Boba Fett in new colors only.
There’s no new sculpting and the biggest change outside of the paint is that there’s no cape and he includes an Imperial blaster rifle (Boba Fett came with the Imperial Rifle back in the day).
Since the main appeal of this figure for a lot of people is the vintage color scheme, I think it’s fair to nitpick that a bit. The main grey of the costume doesn’t feel quite right to me and I think it leans a bit more blue in the original figure. I also think the yellow bits were a bit more mustard-y in the original figure and overall the figure was a lot more glossy.
That said, I don’t have a vintage figure next to me in the same light, so it could be closer than I think. I also don’t mind the more matte finish.
It’s interesting to me on a project like this how far they decide to go for vintage fidelity. It’s a series of decisions. Glossy or Matte? Silver range finder or no? Paint the hand missile or leave it the same color as the body like it was on the original? Paint the toe spikes or not? Decals or no decals?
This Boba Fett sculpture has way more battle damage than the original figure, so should they have ignored that or highlighted the damage with extra paint hits like they did? There is even a bit of a wash to dirty up the jumpsuit a bit.
It’s interesting because I like the little extra bits of paint, but it would make just as much sense to me if they left it off. With the added detail, this version of Fett does feel more like a complete action figure that I think he would without it, though there is a bit of slop on some of those details.
One thing I wish they had changed about the original Black Series figure for this version is the left hand. On the vintage figure his fingers are stretched out on his left hand and I kind of miss that detail.
The main draw for a lot of people is probably the packaging and it is really nice as far as these things go. The vintage feel goes great with the 40th A New Hope figures and this has a nice holo foil to it so I wonder if they might do a regular carded version of Fett for the upcoming The Empire Strikes Back 40th figures without the repainted Fett and the holo-foil.
The figure is a repaint of that early Black Series Boba Fett so he’s got all the upside (beautiful sculpt, nice accessories) and downsides (leg articulation is hindered by the belt) of that figure.
Despite my nitpicks, I do have to say that playing with this figure hits the right nostalgia buttons for me, and as a carded piece it looks pretty fantastic so I’m glad I got it.
It does seem weird to get this ahead of Return of the Jedi version, but he goes nice with the prototype Fett and I would buy this figure again repainted in Droids or Holiday Special cartoon colors.
