It’s been mentioned in brief that The Last Jedi didn’t produce as many action figures as a Star Wars
movie can be expected to produce. Even the exclusive figure sets released to
coincide with the movies’ months prior Force Friday were mostly figures from
other Star Wars movies. But, here’s a pair of figures that are very much The Last Jedi tie ins.
Long-serving Alliance officer and meme celebrity Admiral
Ackbar and Generic First Order Officer.
The duo, a Toys R Us exclusive that should probably be
hanging around on Toys R Us pegs for a long time, doesn’t exactly leap out of
the package in terms of excitement, but they both do end up filling a certain
spot in a collection. The packaging is a completely bland side by side affair
in the vein of Target multipack exclusives or the long, four wide packages that
some of the online exclusives have come in. 
The First Order Office is the same figure as the First Order Finn that was recently reviewed, so a few minutes on that figure are all that’s
needed. The figure is completely the same with the exception of this one having
a white face. The figure comes with the same First Order blaster pistol and removable
cap, and a face sculpt that sort of reminds of sleazy Texas Senator Ted Cruz,
better known as the Zodiac Killer. The Officer seems to be a little darker in
the uniform than Finn does, but that’s just a trick of the light or something,
as side by side there’s no real difference. One thing that was left out of the
piece on Officer Finn but will be mentioned here is that the elbows on this
figure look awful. They are plainly visible joints that really stick out, even
at a distance, and slightly compromise the overall look. Nothing to be done
about them, really, as they’re just an unfortunate design element, but they do
look ugly. Coupled with the arms ending in a very large and round cuff of the jacket
sleeve, the forearms look too big and cylindrical, and are generally
unattractive on the figure. 
Admiral Ackbar is one of those characters that keeps making
Why Isn’t There a Black Series Figure For This Guy Yet? lists, and now he
finally does. The issue is that Ackbar is here wearing his drab, olive uniform
as seen in the two newer Star Wars movies, and not the lighter, cream-colored
one that made us all love him in Return
of the Jedi. It’s got to be just a matter of time and need for one more
character to fill out a wave before Ackbar gets the repaint treatment, so
everyone just hang in there, I guess. 
At first, Ackbar is real exciting, as his mouth opens and
closes. This is so cool, until you get close enough to the figure to realize
that the mouth isn’t opening, it’s simply a collar piece that moves up or down
in relation to the head, and presents the illusion of an opening mouth. The shape
of the top half of the head keeps the collar part from moving sideways or
anything that would be terrifying, but it’s just a separate part. That’s kind
of a letdown. But the head on the whole is pretty terrific, a strong and
impressive alien head. Otherwise, the sculpt is rather good, hands and arms in
particular. The hands are very alien, yet can still hold, actually hold, the
Rebel blaster easily. No simply wedging it into some bent digits here, which is
nice. Ackbar’s hands are sufficiently large, but his feet are really small, to
the point that occasionally getting him to stand is difficult as they don’t balance
the figure well, and are totally not proportional to his hands. Pretty sure we’ve
never gotten a waist-down shot of the Admiral in any Star Wars film, but the
Mon Calamari as a species cannot have such huge, elongated hands and such tiny,
tiny feet. 
As a set, there’s not much to say about these figures. The Officer
is nice in a growing collection of bad guy commanders, but Ackbar is the real
draw, being an actual character and a legacy inclusion in the new Star Wars
movies. There will probably be a Return
of the Jedi Ackbar in the future but for now, it’s kind of this one or
nothing, so if this set has done business in the five months since its release,
it’s most definitely for him. Overall the duo is pretty boring, lacking any awesome
accessories or particularly intriguing looks. It’s a set of “just” guys. These are
figures that kept falling off of the radar because they didn’t generate much to
talk about, or would be forgotten about when there was time to write up
something for the Coffin. Maybe that’s a testament to the Officer, as he’s good
enough at his job that you don’t really notice him because he’s always doing
his job. 
Giving the fairly recent news about Toys R Us closing several
locations nation-wide, this set should be fairly easy to obtain on clearance or
something, if you had interest in it. It is by all accounts completely skippable,
unless you really want one or both of the figures, which are perfectly fine Black Series entries.They just aren't particularly exciting or vital ones, and so it's hard to get stoked about them. Once it was discovered that Ackbar's mouth was just a collar, the set registered as forgettable pretty fast.
During the photo shoot for these toys, my cat was very
excited about them. Perhaps the best endorsement they can be given is that they
made a young child happy, and he was certainly engaged with them. I think I’ll
let that serve as the real review here.
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