Star Wars Black Series

If it were up to me, I think my perfect Vader would be something like a Star Wars 'Maximum Series' figure with a wired cape, wired skirt-flaps, and a full set of hands, saber blades, whatever else. The biggest point where Hasbro misses the mark with Vader isn't NOT having a plastic cape - it's that the softgoods they use are way too fucking big and Vader looks like he's wearing his dad's clothes. You can fix that just by sizing the softgoods correctly. But adding some wires in would be amazing.

And Vader definitely needs more hands. I can't believe they still haven't given us a Vader with a left fist so he can pull off that Rogue One ending pose where he's deflecting blaster bolts while holding the guy with the Force against the ceiling. Or an open splayed hand for, again, Forcey stuff.

It's amazing to me that Vader is basically THE iconic character of Star Wars and seems to get shafted on every figure they make of him.
 
Yeah, the cape and skirt on Vader are ridiculously large- it's more of a Snuggie than a cape. Don't get me wrong, it looks super cool to have him all wrapped up, but there's definitely more there than needs to be. If nothing else, maybe a swappable cape- one large, one a bit smaller for more dynamic poses.

The swappable hands would be great too. I saw that VeilsToys, that AliExpress shop that makes all the custom clones, just started doing figures with a bunch of swappable hands, and they look great. Really helps add some oomph to the characters. Especially for the commanders, something like a pointing hand to give orders or something would be really cool. But even swappable trigger hands would be nice, as not all guns work well with the default trigger finger we have. And for the Jedi, definitely more Force-centric hands. After the Luke/Yoda Dagobah 2 pack, I was excited we may see more Force hands, but other than kinda that deluxe Starkiller, we haven't gotten any more.
 
joshsquash729 said:
Yeah, the cape and skirt on Vader are ridiculously large- it's more of a Snuggie than a cape. Don't get me wrong, it looks super cool to have him all wrapped up, but there's definitely more there than needs to be. If nothing else, maybe a swappable cape- one large, one a bit smaller for more dynamic poses.

The swappable hands would be great too. I saw that VeilsToys, that AliExpress shop that makes all the custom clones, just started doing figures with a bunch of swappable hands, and they look great. Really helps add some oomph to the characters. Especially for the commanders, something like a pointing hand to give orders or something would be really cool. But even swappable trigger hands would be nice, as not all guns work well with the default trigger finger we have. And for the Jedi, definitely more Force-centric hands. After the Luke/Yoda Dagobah 2 pack, I was excited we may see more Force hands, but other than kinda that deluxe Starkiller, we haven't gotten any more.
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Just as a general complaint that I wish Hasbro would listen to; one of the biggest failings of SWB is the lack of either extra hands or appropriate hands. Look at Dash Rendar as an example. He has a trigger right hand, a gripping left hand, and a pistol.
Well... what the fuck am I doing with that grip hand, Hasbro? His trigger hand is always going to hold his pistol (or nothing). What do I need the left grip hand for? Why not a splayed hand, or a relaxed hand, or a fist? All three are fairly useful quasi-neutral options. A C-Grip hand is for holding stuff, and you're giving it to a figure with nothing to hold.

No Jedi figures come with force-using hands, even though most of them ALSO can't two-hand their lightsabers. In fact, just generally the amount of figures that have two gripping hands ONLY and nothing to do with at least one of them is absurd and should be embarrassing to the SWB team.

I thought we were on the right track when the first Qui-Gon came with the forcey-fingers left hand, and then we never saw that hand again EVEN WITH FUTURE QUI-GONS! Fuck sake, Hasbro.
 
One of these days, I'm going to forage my ML parts for some red hands for Shaak. I know they've done some. My AOTC Obi-Wan has an ML hand. It's possible to use across lines.
 
I was just reorganizing my Star Wars figures in closet storage— I keep them in either pencil boxes or in one of the multi-box craft keeper carrying cases when they're not on display. I took a few out just to pose and fiddle with, and I chuckled at how few accessories etc that the BS has vs Figuarts/MAFEX. It's almost like they're retro coded figures... a character and their lightsaber, that's that.

Extra hands are a must for me. They just bring a character to life, and can change the entire tone of a pose with a quick swap. But really at this point I'm going import for all main characters and using BS to fill in the gaps for aliens and less important characters. At least most of the time they drop below retail on Amazon.
 
Schizm said:
One of these days, I'm going to forage my ML parts for some red hands for Shaak. I know they've done some. My AOTC Obi-Wan has an ML hand. It's possible to use across lines.
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That's what I've started doing- repurposing hands and accessories for other figures. Haven't really gotten much into painting yet, but I took some basic Legends hands, and some of the green energy effects from the Richard E. Grant Loki and gave them to Morgan Elsbeth, just to give her something interesting about her. Would love to find an extra sword and some green energy to wrap around it, but one thing at a time. I've been keeping an eye out for hands that could work as Force hands for other Jedi, but ones like Plo Koon and sorta Kit Fisto are kinda screwed in that regard- nothing really like them out there, unless it's 3D printed.

Anywho, just got Sebulba from Amazon. What a fun little figure. Definitely takes a little fiddling to get him to stand just right, but I popped him on an old clear Funko stand I had and it works perfectly. For a figure I thought the chances of were super slim, he turned out amazingly!
 
There's a seller on Etsy that has a cast he sells of the actual sword she uses in the show, with accompanying energy affect. I bought one in both scales, and painted them. They look really nice.
 
Trunks3540 said:
There's a seller on Etsy that has a cast he sells of the actual sword she uses in the show, with accompanying energy affect. I bought one in both scales, and painted them. They look really nice.
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I gave her Mando's Beskar spear and it does really help, if anyone doesn't want to go third party.
 
I got Ahsoka Series Anakin Skywalker today. And once again, I really like how Hasbro handled the soft goods. And the likeness is fantastic! Hasbro is really doing a great job with the Black Series figures.

I think of the various figures I've got over the last month or so, like Anakin, Rex, Shaak Ti, Luminara, Director Krennic, Sebulba, Praetorian, Moff Gideon, SotE Luke and Leia, and they all have been really well done. I've enjoyed Black Series the entire time it has existed, but the last year here it's like Hasbro got in a groove of just killing it.
 
Hasbro's SWB team -seems- like it's coming close to hitting the stride that it took the Classified team WAY less time to get to; that point where they're mostly nailing what people want from the line and incorporating the technology that best suits what they're trying to make. And it's very clearly resulting in far superior figures than SWB was putting out even a couple of years ago.
 
I have a feeling that's because they have freedom this year to do what they want - they don't have to tie half their releases to new media. The only new media this year is Andor, and that didn't sell the first season so they went really light.

I'm a little surprised to see no new TVC figs for Andor since they could have finished the S1 cast they skipped before. But both lines have been really free this year to do what they want with so little pre-determined slots taken up.

Also, I just got the Funko Pop of Maarva's Hologram with B2 beaming it up - it's brilliant. Why can't THIS be a Holocomm release, Hasbro?! I'd love that, especially if it has sound and she can do her whole speech. ;)
 
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