Quick Review - Star Wars The Black Series Han Solo 6" Figure by Hasbro

After and long and troubled production, SOLO is finally going to hit theaters in less than a month. I'm cautiously optimistic, I was really looking forward to the film but the unexpected firing of the Directors half way through shooting has me on edge. I do trust Ron Howard and am hopeful he was able to put together what could be Disney's best Star Wars outing yet.

Just like the film's production, the toy launch has been a near disaster. I found little more than some LEGO and Nerf at retail on April 13th and resorted to buying all my Solo product online, most of it from the US. My local Wal Mart and Toys "R" Us still don't have any new product. I was however able to pick up a few new Black Series 6" figures from amazon.ca and got them delivered the following Monday. I'm not big into the 6 " line but these were some of the best offerings yet, so I thought I'd start by taking a look at Han Solo himself.

THE GOOD

Lets cut to the chase, this 3D face printing technology or whatever you want to call it is incredible. The consistency and subtlety so far has been amazing, and it works great with the sculpts.Speaking of sculpt, Han's likeness is like 95% of the way there. It's much better in person, and at certain angles it's spot on. The whole sculpt overall is fantastic, and the paint just as good. The new (old) jacket has a nice subtle wash that helps bring out the details in the sculpt. It works surprisingly well and doesn't look over done.

The articulation is also fantastic. Han's elbows are designed in such a way the he can get a little bit more that a 90 degree bend. Probably somewhere closer to 75 degrees. It doesn't sound like a lot but make a huge difference while posing. His right leg is a little restricted by the gun belt and holster, but not enough that it becomes annoying. This figure won me over in the end, I'm not a huge fan of the 6" line but this figure is a must have in my opinion.

THE BAD

Hasbro did so much right with this release that I'm coming up short. There's not much to complain about. The price maybe? The Black Series and Marvel Legends (and most 6" figures in this vein) retail for a whopping $29.99 up here in Canada. Collecting gets expensive pretty quickly with prices like that. You can always try waiting for a price drop or sale, but then you risk not getting the figure at all with the sub-par distribution we normally see up here. You're damned if you do, and damned if you don't.

THE UGLY

Did I mention the horrible SOLO toy launch? Yeah, two and a half weeks later there still isn't anything on the shelves up here. Unless you want NERF...

OVERALL

This whole wave is a fantastic addition to the 6" Black Series collection. I'm very interested to see what else Hasbro has up their sleeves, and wouldn't mind seeing re-releases of some of the harder to find figures with the new paint technology. Hopefully they can bring that same technology and quality to the beautiful Vintage Collection.