New 6" Black Series Coming From Hasbro

Well it's a good thing that I'm a deboxer, my Greedo, Leia, and Han showed up and Greedo's box is all smushed on one side - Grrrr!

 

I've written brief reviews of my 3 new figures - here are some pics and links to the reviews.

Group shot of all of the 6" figures that I currently have. I like this because you can tell that Hasbro is working on sizing them accordingly.



Princess Leia - Slave outfit: Review





Han Solo - Review:







Greedo - Review:

 

>.< Sorry about that. Thankfully he didn't get smushed as well. I ordered my Han directly from Amazon and they lived up to their bad packing reputation by sending him in a padded envelope!

*Edit* Great pics!!! Love the group photo and the Han vs. Greedo .

 

Well, they're selling Han for only $10. Basically, the $10 extra they're charging for the Stormtrooper is what they're loosing on Han. That's the crazy thing with casepacks like this for etailers. They're having to compete with sales from Amazon and Han probably sitting around on shelves by the time these guys get released. I know a few guys who run stores and they really don't get as nice of deals on these figures that bigger chain stores get nor do they have the benefit of moms and dads buying up pegwarmers.

This is a huge misstep on Hasbro's part and I hope it doesn't hurt the long-term longevity of this line.

 

Thanks for the pics. I don't have any of the 6" line & don't plan to collect them, but may just get the Greedo due to the excellent sculpt.

It would be nice if they made more aliens in the line, but they probably won't due to the obscurity of the characters. That being said, I wouldn't mind at 6" Hammerhead/Momaw Nadon...

 

So one of the rumors that a few sites have been discussing is that Chewbacca might be in wave 4 and thus Hasbro wants to make sure Han's still available when Chewie gets released. Makes sense to me but it's probably be best if they'd announce it soon to get folks excited.

 

Ohhh that would make sense. We'll then probably see R2 thrown in boxes when they release C-3PO next year too.

Went to Target last night. They had the world's tiniest SW section. All they had were Luke, R2's, and Sandtroopers. I guess Maul was popular

 

Maul has been a pegwarmer at my local Entertainer. Him and R2.

 

That would definitely make sense. What might've been better is if Hasbro had put Han and Chewie together in the same wave in the first place. I do get why they're avoiding themed waves, but a little more synergy would make a lot of sense IMO.

Around here the only real Wave 1 pegwarmer is R2. Some stores will have a Luke or maybe a Maul, but always 2-3 R2's and never a Sandtrooper.

 

Just a heads up. My friend and his wife were out Christmas shopping Saturday and he said that several stores had re-stocked the 6" series, including Wave 2. They saw not one, but two Boba Fetts. Which forced his wife to admit that she had already bought him one for Christmas. I was out today, and while I saw Greedo and Leia, Han and Boba were gone. Also, R2 and Darth Maul, who had been the slower sellers, were nowhere to be found. This line definitely looks like it's catching on.

 

Yeah, Amazon is really rough on toy packages sometimes. I've never had problems with books, movies, or anything else, but with toys I find that they can be really rough. I ordered some of the 1966 Batman figures last week (they were on sale for around $5 each)and they arrived in a box where the backer cards were actually folded to fit them in the packaging. I'm an opener as well, so it's not the end of the world for me, but it can be frustrating.

Especially because I like the Star Wars Black boxes. I actually store my figures in them when I'm not photographing or "actively posing them in a variety of combat situations."

 

Amazon were 'called out' on the issue over on Rebelscum when some users reported getting Slave I's with damaged packaging.

 

My Sister-in-law's younger Sister works as an order picker/packer for Amazon and she clued me in on this last Christmas. It's the internet equivalent of the kid who puts your eggs on the bottom of your bag at the super market. Some of it is just the pressure to make a certain quota (they have to pick or pack so many orders per hour) and some of it is just good 'ol fashioned apathy.

 

Yeah. I haven't had any problems so far with the packing. I've had some issues with delivery people in the past though.

 

I've been pretty lucky when it comes to the delivery side of things (knock on wood). Maybe I have good karma because my brother works for UPS .

 

I'm OK when they send stuff by Royal Mail as the regular postman knows where to leave stuff if I'm not home. My problems have been with the private delivery people.

 

Amazon only has a few pre-orders up for Wave 3 so far, but they show an in stock date of January 31st. Not sure if that will be the street date as well, but something to keep in mind.

 

*Casts a Phoenix Down*

Well, I bought Greedo a while ago and decided tonight that I was changing up my display a bit, so I freed him from his cardboard prison.


Greedo with my Bandai D-Arts Mewtwo for scale.


Just Greedo

The scale is pretty decent, and it fits in with any other figma figures you might own, so the Black Series won't look totally out of place on your shelf. The articulation is better than the 3/4" figures, with a modified neck and head articulation. Greedo uses a disc joint and ball joint for nodding and head swiveling. The shoulder articulation is the same type of disc/ball joint that the 3/4" figures have, along with the bicep swivel being in the elbow joint, which uses a standard disc joint. Those elbow joints can be tricky, as Greedo's left elbow was very stubborn. I managed to work the joint free without having to resort to heating the plastic, and moving it back and forth will help loosen it a bit more. The wrists use the same type of joint as the elbow, including the swivel.

The ab joint has a nice swivel to it, and a small crunch, but don't expect Greedo to be doing any toe-touches. The pelvic joints are standard disc/ball-and-peg, with an upper-thigh swivel cut. The ankle joints utilize a similar disc/ball-and-peg joint, so they can be a bit tricky when posing. The knee joints... hoo boy, the knee joints. The knees utilize a double-hinge joint very similar to Play Arts KAI, which looks fine when the figure's leg is straight, but when you do a deep knee bend, it looks like Chun Li's poor knee, here:


The joint has a cap, which is used to keep from breaking the sculpt, but when the knee is bent, it just looks weird. If Hasbro was trying to keep as much of the sculpt intact while allowing for increased articulation, a Figuarts-style knee joint would've allowed for a deep knee bend without the joint looking so odd.

In terms of stability, the figure can stand pretty well on its own, but those ankle joints can be tricky, and you need to balance the figure to keep it from toppling. The Black Series figures do not include stands, but if you want to do complicated and trickier poses, I suggest picking up some figma c-clip stands. Those should work find for this line, as they're roughly the same size. I may do that for my figures, as one good bump will send Greedo shelf-diving.

 

Ohh that stand is pretty cool! I'll have to look for those. You are right the black series figures aren't the greatest for staying upright. I've got my X-Wing Luke in one of my Detolfs. My dogs constantly crash against it and he always topples over.

 

You can get the stands on Amazon. They're a bit pricy, but you get different display options in a pack, including different clips and pegs. They work pretty well and are pretty stable.

 

Not sure if any of you have had a chance to check out the coverage from this past weekend's New York Toy Fair, but Hasbro revealed a number of their '14 products, including the 6" Black Series. They showed Chewbacca, Luke (Jedi), Clone Trooper (AOTC), a Sandtrooper w/Black shoulder pauldron (an inevetable re-pack/variation), and Darth Vader (circa ROTJ). The big news, literally, is that the rumored Jabba the Hutt and scaled vehicles are a reality. The only vehicle mentioned/shown was the ROTJ Speederbike w/Biker Scout. I'm sure we'll never get a Falcon or even X-Wing in this scale, but I believe we could see a Landspeeder, Taun Taun and Dewback. Unfortunately it looks like Jabba doesn't come with a Throne or even Salacious Crumb. Still, they're only $39.99 ea., and Jabba is HUGE and looks fantastic.

Here's Rebelscum's coverage of the event.

I always thought that Hasbro did a Q&A at these things, but I haven't seen or read anything yet. I wanted to hear them address the availability issues from '13.

 

What would make Jabba even better is finger articulation. He's certainly big enough, they could pull it off at that scale.

 

Impressed by the 6" figure pictures from Toyfair. Great stuff here. I may actually get the 6" Jabba, but it doesn't look like he will be coming with a throne. It's probably just as well, since the figure would be much more expensive.

Not sure about the 6" Speeder Bike w/Scoutrooper - looks cool, but this will be a poor substitute for the 12" Hasbro Target exclusive version that I could never find back in Fall 2000...

 

It looks like he has elbow and wrist articulation at least, which is cool.

My friend watched a video of the Hasbro Q&A and he said that when the guy was asked about whether Jabba would come with a throne, he said that the guy sorta hemmed and hawed and said he couldn't talk about it. Earlier he had talked about an awesome ComicCon exclusive, so we both figured that the two could possibly be connected. That said, those ComicCon exclusives are big $, so it looks like I'm going to be making a custom throne, which would actually be kinda fun.

I really just wish he came with his pipe, some frogs and Salacious crumb.

 

I'm guessing the throne will be sold separately w/ Salacious and other "critters" ala what Sideshow did. Hasbro saw that they were able to pull off selling the pieces separately so they'll try jumping on that boat.

Some site did get confirmation that a Tauntaun is in the works. I'm thinking Han in a blue jacket on a TaunTaun might be the SDCC exclusive.

I'll have to get two of the Anakins so I can have one evil and one not for display. The figures look good, can't wait for Chewie and Vader. I'll pass on the second Sandtrooper unless I get a good deal on a box lot that he's in.

I wished they'd put 3PO on the table. They could've made him a big hot mess that you could take apart and throw on Chewie's back.