Hey! It’s everyone’s third-favorite bounty hunter! Now that Boba Fett and Bossk have been hanging out on your Star Wars Black Series shelf for a bit now, the enigmatic robot bounty hunter IG-88 is getting his day in the sun. That means we are just a Dengar, Zuckuss, and 4-Lom away from completing this fan-favorite group.
To say that the bounty hunters hired by Darth Vader to find Captain Solo and the gang in The Empire Strike Back are a motley crew would be an understatement. I mean, the aforementioned Boba Fett and Bossk are certifiable bad-asses, but those enjoying just a few seconds in the spotlight are definitely an interesting group. 4-Lom and Zuckuss are pretty standard fare for tertiary (at best) Star Wars characters, and Dengar at least looks like he is human (beat to hell as he is), but IG-88 is the lone wolf in terms of Droid© hunters in the collective not built off of junked Threepio parts. As a kid, I found it somewhat odd that a bounty hunter would be a robot as that job seemed more suited for shady alien types, at least in the SW universe, so IG has always been a strange mystery to me. I mean, he kind of has that “Tin Man” look to him with his conical head, so as far as I was/am concerned he could have been a stilted mess or a scary mercenary. Too bad we never really got a chance to know for sure, at least not until many years later.
I mean, we don’t really get the backstory (canonically, at least at that point) on how these six were chosen, but since Vader has (pretty much) the entire Empire at his disposal, these dudes’ reputations had to precede them. So, looking at IG, if he were anything, he would barely be able to move, or he would be able to move in all kinds of unnatural ways, giving him insane fighting prowess. I like to think that he is capable of the latter, and if you consider the apparent company he keeps, he earned his way on the list of guys that Darth Vader thinks can track down those pesky Rebels. However, if we are making our judgements about IG based on his new action figure, he would fit more into the former category, I am afraid.
Ever since IG was revealed as an up-coming Black Series figure, there has been a lot of buzz and discussion around him. Since his character design is not like anything we have seen in the line before, the discussion about his build, engineering, and articulation scheme has been pretty intense. Just looking at the press pictures of the figure, it has been REALLY difficult to tell just how his articulation would work and just how many points he would be given. Heck, I was at Toy Fair just a couple months ago, and even though I was only about two feet away from this figure, I could not tell what his articulation breakdown would be. You really have to have this guy in-hand to get the full story.
So, what is the verdict? Well, I suppose I would say that IG turned out a bit better than I thought he would, but the figure is not as good as it could be. I know that can be easy to say for a lot of figures, but while I am pretty happy with the figure, there are a few things about it that I absolutely DO NOT like, and some of the articulation choices are downright maddening. That isn’t to say that the likeness and details are not great, because they are, and, in the end, he can probably move more than any other IG figure that has come before him, but I think there was opportunity to do some really interesting things with the joints that were not fully realized.
To start with the good, this is IG-88. I mean, it is insanely cool that we are getting this guy in the Black Series, and the sculpt is really quite nice. Now, I consider myself to be a big Star Wars fan, but I know my place well enough to realize that I am not an extreme fan who has a working knowledge of every subtle detail of everything in the movies. However, for me, this figure hits all of the details of the character very well. The build is great and he is tall and spindly, just as he should be. There are a lot of mechanical details throughout, so I have spent a lot time looking over the figure, and I have learned a lot more of IG’s design just in doing so. I assume that everything is accurate, even those details that never showed up on-screen. I have gone back and watched the scene in ESB, and everything looks good to me, but, even now, I find myself concentrating on Bossk, heh. The one thing I will point out is that he seems a bit short, but I could be misjudging that just because of the picture I have always had in my head about him being noticeably taller than the rest of the hunters.
IG-88’s body and limbs are very skinny, so I understand some of the challenges that would come with adding articulation to figure. Now, maybe the gang at Hasbro just followed the scheme that was in the actual prop in the movie; it would make sense if that were the case, but if this is indeed the direction they followed, I think some good opportunities were missed. I suppose for the sake of not yammering on and on, I will focus on the good articulation points and those that are not good. Everything else would kind of fall into the standard SWB schema, but since IG is such a strange build, a lot of new methods for movement had to be created.
First, I really like the “rib cage” joint. It provides a great range of back and forth movement, and it also allows for his upper body to turn 360 degrees. This is one of those points that makes his robot build cool because there is no reason why he cannot take full advantage of that capability. The full circle effect can also be utilized for his head and that (admittedly adorable) face of his can turn all around, so nothing can get the jump on him. The neck joint does just turn though, and there is no front to back or side to side capabilities. Like I said, this might just be a limitation of the actual character design, but having that ability would have been cool.
Now, things are pretty limited in a few places, as you would probably expect. He does not have the standard rocker ankles; those just move back and forth and can spin around. His hips are a standard “T-joint,” so again, this limits his legs to only moving back and forth. I know that a ball joint would not have worked for the hips here, but it would have been a great spot to implement the “hip hinge” that was common in the DC Universe Classics line. So, because of this, the entire lower body is pretty stilted, especially in comparison to just about every other character in this line. His knees are also limited as well, and what I thought were double joints at first, are actually only singles. I will argue that, because of the design and the remnants of what look to be joint holes at the top of the knee, there was meant to be a point there. This loss is not as limited as the hips, but I would still have been cool to get.
Now, there are a couple of places where no articulation exists at all. IG has no wrist articulation at all. None. Not even a twist. As you can imagine, this limits his ability to hold his weapons dynamically quite a bit, but more on that later. I don’t see any real reason why this could not have been implemented, and it is a real shame because holding that rifle in convincing fashion gets a little tedious. This limitation is exacerbated by the fact that the only rotational movement in the entire arm comes from the hinge-and-swivel joint at the elbow (aka, elbro). While this does help a bit, it is not much, and even that point is hampered somewhat. See, Hasbro put a soft rubber coil cuff over the elbows to match the character design. Now, while this a really cool idea and they look great, they do cut back on the already limited range of motion.
IG also has standard thigh swivels, which are nice, but they are once again limited by the “cords” that run from the upper leg to the lower. Again, this follows the design of the character, but it does not do that range of motion any favors on legs that are already pretty limited. Also, the shoulder joints are pretty, well, interesting? I am not sure that is the best word to use for them, but they are not like anything we have seen so far. See, there is a cuff around the actual “shoulder” that rotates around the partial ball shoulder joint at the top of the arm. While the cuff is there for aesthetic purposes, since it moves independently of the arm, it can twist so that the alignment of the joint at the bottom moves off and you have to rotate the cuff again to make is so the arm can move again. Thus, the partial ball can only allow for upward movement if the cuff is also turned to line up with the path of motion of the joint. Does that make sense? While this seems fine, the cuff does not give hardly any clearance around the ball joint so it can get stuck, which means you have to do some rotating to get everything lined up again. It is very tight and difficult to do, and it is made worse by the fact that the arm is made of a soft plastic, so when it does get stuck, you have to be extra careful. I almost twisted one of the arms right off in the process, so when you get this guy, BE CAREFUL.
Finally, IG comes with four accessories: his rifle, blaster, machete, and holster. I never realized that IG had a holster that slings over his shoulder before, but it does a great job of holding the blaster and there is a spot to keep the machete stored just like in the movie as well, and it plugs into a small hole in the shoulder. The machete is a very interesting weapon for him, I really like it, but there is really not anyway for him to hold it. It LOOKS like the bottom of the handle has a peg that should plug in somewhere, but I checked all of the various spots and none of them accommodate it, unless you want to put it in his “mouth,” which is admittedly kind of cool.
Now, a good note about the rifle and blaster is that they both have tiny little holes in them that plug into tiny little pegs on both of IG’s forearms. His hands are not capable of holding the weapons on their own, but these little points make it so he can do it pretty convincing fashion. I am glad this was considered and added because it would have been infuriating for him not to be able to hold his implements of bounty collecting.
Well, I am kind of mixed on ol’ IG-88 here. On one hand, his light and slightly flimsily frame looks great, and the details all ring true to the character. Plus, he looks neat standing with Boba and Bossk and his inclusion among the bounty hunters only ups his stock. So, if you are just going to put him on the shelf, you should be good to go. The articulation and engineering can be frustrating at times, though, so if you were hoping to get some insane poses out of this guy, it is definitely going to be a challenge. I know his design wasn’t doing the build any favors, but I think there are some things that could have been added (wrist articulation), or improved (shoulders and hips) that would have gone a long way. In the end, though, as I mentioned, he is probably the most common “third favorite” character amongst the bounty hunters, he is also the third best figure because he just does not stack up to Fett and Bossk.
Anyhow, it is cool to have him, but I am ready for Dengar next, so let’s get him the credit he deserves. Look for IG-88 to start hitting store shelves within the next few months; we still have the Emperor wave to get before this series of IG, Boushh, and Commander Cody gets released.
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