I’m not going to buy all the 6” Star Wars Black figures. I’m not a completist by nature though I’m currently acting as such with MOTUC at Mattel’s behest (and it’s mostly a fun ride, really) and their DC Classics line because I love the old DC like little else (and also at Mattel’s behest, but I do enjoy getting a new DC fig every month and there’s no big items to jack the price up. )
Star Wars Black, returns me to a much more familiar dilemma. The line looks fabulous – it might even make non-Star Wars fans want to collect it – and it’s popular enough that it doesn’t need to be sold via subscription. I can buy whatever I want, provided I can find it. Looking at the first wave, I had to have a 6” scale R2. And I kinda wanted a Sandtrooper. They’re fun. And I would want a Luke too, but…
Maybe not X-Wing Pilot Luke. Honestly, I don’t know which Luke is “my” quintessential Luke. His classic togs from A New Hope? I think I prefer the Bespin outfit to that one. And, of course, he always did look cool clad in all black. I’m still not sure. And, truthfully, this may sound a bit divergent from this review because, look, here’s X-Wing Pilot Luke up for review! I obviously bought it. But I bring it up because parts of this review may sound like I shouldn’t have and I think the reason may be more me than the figure. Keep that in mind.
Despite my unwillingness to be a SWB completist, I bought all four from the first wave. Partially because they all look like great figures and I wanted to test drive the line a bit. And partially because the pre-order I was waffling over got filled before I made the call. Oops!
Once I got Luke open, I feel like I may have done a disservice to myself in buying the Sandtrooper first. I haven’t opened Maul yet, but I think the Sandtrooper is the standout from the first wave. I’d almost call him near flawless. And while X-Wing Luke is really good, he doesn’t stand out quite as well.
The best part of the figure is easily the sculpt, of course. Like the Trooper, the figure just looks like they nailed all the details in twelfth-scale. Again, we’re reminded that Hasbro can reuse this pilot ad nauseam, so it makes since to do the sculpt justice, but I applaud them for it nonetheless. The body is fantastic.
The head sculpt, I’ve gone back and forth on. I do think it’s a decent likeness. There are some angles I found when I was photographing that really looked like a young Mark Hamill. The hair looks dead on too. But there’s just something not quite right about it to me and I think I’ve figured it out.
Marvel Legends, DC Classics, & MOTU Classics, three lines closely associated with where Star Wars Black is trying to go aren’t based on likeness and true-to-life accuracy. They can get by on soft sculpts and painted faces easily. I don’t know that that will be as true for Star Wars (particularly Harrison Ford who seems impossible to get just right…) thanks to companies like NECA who just recently put a tiny little Arnold Schwarzenegger on my shelves.
Luke does look great, but he kinda looks like a comic book version of Luke Skywalker – animated or simply drawn instead of a photo realistic little Mark Hamill. Now, that may be what collectors wand and want Hasbro intends. I’m okay with it and I’m not going to knock this figure for it, but I do wonder how much cooler this figure could be if they handled the likeness execution a little differently. Continue to Page 2…
You are going to become as obsessed with this line as you are with MOTUC. Calling it now.
O.o
Greedo will be my first true test… lol
haha, poe called it! and he’s almost, virtually never wrong.
Just Say No to Greedo!
. . . which’ll leave more for me for custom fodder when they go on clearance. Yippee!
thats already happened to me POE
I must resist urge to buy SWB toys… Though R2 is tempting… It’s a good thing I hate the X-Wing Pilot look for him, so I can Skip him.
I think if you’re looking iconic OT, this is a pretty easy wave to skip. Just grab an R2 and hold right!
LOL at the pic with both gonk droids. I’m trying to resist this line……..
…….
I had to get Mama Gonk in the review somewhere!
Once again, Office Space references rule. Still gotta make a red stapler for the upcoming Mantenna . . . .
You’re on to something about the likeness from different angles, and I’d extend that to different figures. I’ve looked at various Lukes at different stores, and I swear the paint and sculpt vary from “kinda Hamill” to “damn near Hamill”.
Darth Maul has been a different frustration, finding one with well-painted eyes has been difficult. I found one with no pupils and almost all the other ones had wall eyes or crossed ones.
I really want to see the untainted sculpt on Luke because I bet the skin tone paint is thick!
And my Maul… Yeah, he’s not quite right on the face. Not bad, but there’s a lot going on. I don’t want to go all Star Wars week, but I need to get the last two churned out soon.
I’m very much like you with this line. I’m glad they look great, but I don’t feel the need to complete the whole SWB series. Maybe it’s because I was a completionist with all of the different Clone Troopers in the 3.75″ scale (SO MANY CLONES…). Maybe I’m a bit burned out on SW figs.
Of this wave, I picked up Maul and R2, and I’m super impressed with them both. Maul has a beautiful headsulpt, and R2 has so much detail that it really surprised me. Based on the two that I’ve had in hand, I’m going to try and get all of the Bounty Hunters. I’d love to be able to have that scene from Empire on my desk. A lineup of super detailed Bossk, Dengar, IG-88, Boba, etc would really make my workday go by more quickly. Maybe I’d make Boba Fett duke it out with Iron Man. That might be fun…
Bounty Hunters would make a cool subset!
Too bad I’ve got that No Greedo thing going on up above…
These are amazing, and are still proving difficult to find…despite being $20. I stood in the store and agonized for a minute over paying TWENTY BUCKS for the R2…until I got him home, that is.
Why is it that having the two magic words “Star” and “Wars” justifies marking up an item five bucks over other lines? Don’t answer that…because we will pay it, is the answer.
I just figure $20 & 6″ go together these days. At least they get all the accessories they need!
I’ve still not sen them all in the wild, so thank you BBTS!
to be fair, you are getting the best overall r2 i think has ever been offered, at least in terms of accessories. that certainly helps justify the price tag to me
My grail for this set is a Dash Rendar. I played the hell out of Shadows of the Empire and bought the figure (never got the Outrider for it). I know it won’t happen, but if it did…
You never know, right? I’m not sure who I really need… other than a Gonk of course.
I did buy the Outrider–figured I had to, I crashed the damn thing so many times…
Really, really want this now.
Great review, pics, and comics as always!
Still limiting myself to Greedoes and Amanamen (if they get made).
I am actually scared of this line because I really think i am going to want to pick them all up! I avoided the smaller line (except for a few clone wars animated) because I always hoped Hasbro would take the ML/DCUC plunge and now that they have this will be pricey! Ad the troop building…my godness the troop building. I know there is some fan out there clearing his basement for a bunch of 6 inch scale dioramas….
I usually stay away from movie figures because the likeness isn’t always quite right and they tend to not fit in with the comic figures as well. Maybe it’s because for me these actors are so closely associated with the characters (whereas Bale is just dressing up as Batman, for example), but I broke down in this case. So now I have my first four star wars figures in probably ten years, and it makes me happy.
Also, today I used Prince Adam’s head to make a big-head Luke. It was great. 🙂
Like I said in the other review, I mainly bought Luke to use as a base for a custom 6″ GI Joe “Ace”. then I found another one today. both have the same minor problem: too thin paint app on the forearm behind the glove. I noticed this didn’t seem to be a problem on yours? hunter linked me to PixelDan’s video review and he also makes note of it, and it’s worse than mine.
Something to watch out, for I guess? I found mine at Targets, but in two completely different locations.
the likeness is good enough for me, altho now that Copper has mentioned “Big Head Luke”, I want to see someone use this head to make a custom figure of Mark in JSBSB: “C*ckknocker”!
(wonders which box that DCD Plastic Man is in….)
With this new buck, Hasbro could end up doing Bill Lumbergh in X-Wing Pilot gear and the fans would cheer.
Aside from the different classic looks on the lead characters, (Luke, Han, Leia, Ben, Lando) I can only imagine how the various sub groups will thrill folks: You’ve got your Imperial and Rebel army builders, troopers, pilots, officers, droids, assorted alien races, cantina regulars, skiff guards, and of course, bounty hunters.
This line is gonna be pure plastic crack for most collectors.
I think availability is the only thing that could go wrong and keep this from being a surefire win. It looks to be a bright future.
My Luke is great excepting that when he looks up at the sky for his as of yet non-existent 6″ scale X-Wing, I see a bit of orange!