Child Sized Coffin: Star Wars: The Black Series: Captain Phasma

Taking a break from the long run of Transformers toys, let’s get back to some Star Wars toys for at least one entry. Let’s also look at Captain Phasma here for about two minutes; that way, we will have seen this picture of her for longer than she appeared in The Force Awakens, despite being the most heavily advertised of the new characters. All that advertising, and this guy ends up being the breakout fan favorite.

TR-8R

Yes, Phasma has appeared on everything to promote the recent movie; everything it seems, except the movie itself. While we knew nothing about the mysterious but promised to be awesome First Order officer in shiny armor, we now know about the same. But, it’s a trilogy, so there is no need to get all enraged. Certainly more information will become available over the course of the next two movies.

Good, good things to say about Captain Phasma. I had been expecting this figure to be more or less a silver repaint of the First Order Trooper, and while it is in some ways, concentrating on those aspects miss not only the differences, but also the terrific improvements the differences make to the overall figure. For starters, Phasma is portrayed in the movie by Gwendoline Christie, who’s approximately 9” tall. This makes Phasma quite a bit taller than most of the Troopers in the movie, and her figure is taller than the other First Order Trooper figures. And noticeably so. This is a real nice detail, as it makes the captain seem like she’s someone special or important, or at least different from the rest of my shelf of First Order figures. It also allows for the rest of Phasma to be larger: her chest and stomach seem to be about the same, but here arms and legs are thicker than the standard Trooper, giving her a real sense of menace. In the movies, she is alleged to be some kind of bad ass, and this figure gives a sense that that may be true. She also has a new blaster, one larger than the standard Trooper blaster. I think it’s the same blaster that comes with the First Order SnowtrooperCommander. This is probably a result of the upsizing of the figure: the standard Trooper blaster would look comically small in Phasma’s hand. Also, while it looks unpainted, the blaster is actually supposed to appear metallic, similar to Phasma’s armor. The effect doesn’t quite work, but regardless it is not an unpainted piece of plastic. The helmet is changed as well.

Perhaps the biggest and best improvement this figure makes on the Trooper design is in the legs. Phasma has thicker legs, a larger codpiece, and ditches the chaps-style thigh guards. These changes, along with her having more stable feet, allow her to stand in a much more solid way than the standard Troopers. All of this is a huge improvement.

Phasma isn’t shiny, but rather silver which, from some angles and under certain lighting, leave her looking a bit dull. Her cape is plastic, which came as a surprise to me. After figures like Darth Vader and Kylo Ren, and even the Fetts, I’d sort of assumed that a cape would be cloth. Phasma’s cape being plastic isn’t so bad, as it then holds its shape behind her rather than bunching up or falling limply. The plastic cape inhibits left arm movement, as is to be expected.

Captain Phasma is another one of the toys that makes me really appreciate the things that the Black Series does to release quality figures. What could have been, and frankly would have been in many previous Star Wars toylines, simply a silver Stormtrooper winds up being a totally new one, with a whole slate of new details and stuff. We’ve still never seen one in a store, but at the moment, that is my complaint about Captain Phasma’s figure.