With the release of the stunning new The Rise of Skywalker trailer, this seemed like a good opportunity to go back and finish taking a look at my Force Friday Black Series haul with Rey & D-O and Supreme Leader Kylo Ren. C’mon, let’s get Reylo.
Of course these two come in the standard numbered black series boxes, which according to some early figure releases will continue into the triple digits. I have to say I’m impressed with how long they’ve stuck with this packaging in the fickle retail world.
Kylo comes with a depowered saber hilt that plugs into his belt, a lit saber, a cape and two removeable hood pieces. The hood pieces attach at pegs on the cape and allow for up/down hood looks.
It’s not quite as successful as I would like for the hood up look as it doesn’t form fit with the mask well and is a bit overlarge. There’s a pretty sizeable gap between the top of the head and the inside of the hood and I can’t figure out how to get it to sit any lower. It almost looks better with the unmasked head from the TLJ Kylo.
The lowered hood look works a lot better. The pieces hook on pretty securely, though the hood up piece is a little fiddly to get settled.
The cape is also removeable and is a pretty solid chunk of plastic with nice draping cape sculpting that has an interesting, almost leathery texture to it. That thing must weigh a ton in real life. Since it drapes around the body you do have the semi traffic-cone issue of a plastic cape. His arms do get some movement in there, but you are limited because it starts to look odd if the arms are moved too much.
The figure, outside of the cape and head appears to be re-use of the The Last Jedi Kylo figure. As far as I know, this is accurate to the film, but a little dull for me as a collector since I already own a few of these figures. In this case, I suppose my beef is a little more with Lucasfilm than Hasbro. The mask is a little different with the red battle damage repair marks, so there’s that.
I think something that would have plussed this figure up for me would have been an unmasked Kylo portrait with a completely new sculpting that used the face printing to full effect. I don’t love the head from the TLJ Kylo, but it you can swap this cape onto that body with no issue if you prefer hooded capes.
While Kylo is a bit of a bummer, true to the characters’ natures, Rey is a true joy. Rey comes with her usual coterie of accessories including her saber, blaster, and staff. New additions include a removeable backpack and the new droid, D-O.
The saber does have a little metal bandaid sculpted to show that she has repaired it after the events of TLJ, but it’s barely noticeable.
The staff pops apart into two pieces, with the extremities linked by the flexible plastic strap. I’m not sure why this was done, but I’m going to theorize that this allows the strap to be more flexible while the center piece is stiffer plastic.
The gun looks nice and sharp and fits well in the holster. The pack is one piece of flexible plastic and is fairly bright white that I think could have benefited from a slight wash, but is otherwise cool. I love removeable gear with my figures.
D-O comes with a very important tiny little piece of white plastic that helps you keep him standing.
It’s taped to the bubble, packed right under the D-O figure and can be easily discarded if you aren’t paying attention. Without that plastic bit, balancing him is nigh impossible without some blu-tak or something similar.
D-O is articulated as much as he can be with a ball jointed head and antennae and the main wheel of his body does spin. I think the weathered paint work is pretty impressive for such a tiny little guy.
The sculpting for Rey is fantastic. Sure, her outfit is very similar to previous ones in a new color, but the detail and realism here feels pushed to the limits of the form.
This feels especially true of the portrait which has an almost spooky likeness of Daisy Ridley. The likeness is lights years ahead of previous incarnations.
It’s superb and my only critique is that her expression seems a little placid for Rey’s usually determined fighting face.
The articulation is what you expect from Black Series figures with a slight variation. Rey has:
- Ball and socket head, torso, and shoulders
- Swivel/hinge shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, and ankles
- Double knees
- Thigh swivel
The articulation is mostly functioning well, however the forward leg movement is blocked somewhat by the shape and thickness of the skirt piece.
The shoulders are a little weird. Where they hinge out, there are super stiff and I had to heat them up to get them moving, however where they attach to the body has a little play. It seems like they are ball and sockets inside the torso where the arm attaches, but I don’t think it helps the range of motion much.
Paint is decent here with the face printing really being the star of the show. The outfit is mostly solid colors, but looks good and I don’t find myself missing detail washes like I usually do for these costumes. I do have one little flaw that bugs me as there is a bit of paint missing at the hairline.
Overall this pair is a mixed bag. Ying and Yang, the light and the dark, if you will. Kylo’s mostly re-use, goofy hood, and boring costume retread leave me feeling like I should have listened to my first instincts and skipped this figure. Conversely, even though Rey’s look is not a huge change from her previous costumes, the figure itself is a vast improvement on previous figures and D-O is a fun little robot accessory.
