Mitth'raw'nuruodo, or Thrawn, is a Chiss who
climbs the Imperial ranks, breezing through the various officer levels before
eventually becoming the Grand Admiral of the Imperial Navy, taking the reins of
a splintered military following the Imperial defeat at Endor. A fan favorite
character, the only thing that can be said about his Black Series figure is, “it’s about time.”
There is about to be a slew of Imperial
officer figures, with Tarkin already released, Admiral Piett being released
apparently at any time in June of 2018, and an out of nowhere General Veers
coming later this summer. But Thrawn is the first, and all of the other
Imperial officers seem to be using the same body. The Coffin already possesses
Thrawn (obviously) and Tarkin, and has ordered Piett and will be
enthusiastically hunting for Veers, and will be hoping that more officers are
down the road, so I suppose get ready to see a review of the base figure here a
lot in the future. That’s already kind of intimidating, because how much is
there to really say about what amounts to be the same figure with a different
head over and over, an issue which has already relegated Black Series Krennic and Hux to the “on the review list but probably never
will happen” list.
Thrawn has the standard Black Series body with the standard Black Series articulation and joints, and being an officer figure,
there’s not a lot in the way of cool details or exciting things to really point
out. He comes with a blaster pistol that is different from any of the other,
previously released (as far as I know) pistols, so it is notable for being
different. A hip mounted holster allows
for storage, always good to have that integrated into the figure rather than
needing to keep track of a loose part. The head sculpt is very strong, and the
red eyes and lightish blue skin tone makes for a very, very arresting look.
Thrawn as a character is super methodical and ruthless and doesn’t make much
room for variation, and the face of this figure just shouts that. A stern
countenance, for sure. Thrawn looks serious as hell, and it is pretty
intimidating.
The biggest problem with Thrawn as a figure
is that there’s not much to say about it. The upper body is a molded Imperial
officer uniform, while the lower body has a soft plastic skirt, although not
that soft. It moves enough for the legs to be posed, so Thrawn can sit down,
but it’s not particularly flexible beyond that.
The best feature of Thrawn may be something
that by now we know is true, rather than something that is possible, and that
is the existence of more Imperial officer-type figures. This has been a
semi-common refrain in some Coffin articles focusing on Black Series figures, the idea that this one could signal the
release of others of the type or theme. Thrawn could be the signal that other officers are coming, but the we got
Tarkin, and preorders went up for Piett, and an announcement came for Veers.
Perhaps we are inching closer to Tagge and Ozell, or anyone else. So, it sort
of seems that Thrawn was a signal
that other officers were coming, and that’s pretty cool. It has been mentioned
probably too many times in the past, but one of my greatest collector regrets
is not buying that Death Star Briefing Room boxed set years ago, something that
really has fueled this desire within me to collect Imperial officer figures
since then.
We have in recent years gotten boxed sets of
Clones and Guards and individual Clone Commanders and the like, and those
releases always spark the fires of “maybe now we can get . . . .”. We get a figure
like Darth Revan, and that sparks the fires of “maybe we can get . . . .”. Who
could have possibly believed that one day some collectors would be thinking
that Thrawn would indicate a slew of Imperial men? As usual, we don’t know just
yet, but it does seem a little strange that within a year the Black Series would release or announce
so many officers. And as single releases, too: a winter time four pack of
Piett, Veers, and two others seems like it’d make more sense.
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| Strategizing. |
But, all told, Thrawn is a figure that, like
Darth Revan, is on that “About Time” list, characters who really do need
figures and really should have gotten them sooner than they did, once you
realize how deep the Black Series roster
is by the time it got around to Thrawn. It is good that characters like Thrawn
are getting figures, and it does help to reinforce this notion that the Black Series is a collector line; but it
is occasionally odd to consider that a collector oriented line took 30 or 40
entries to get to characters like Thrawn and Revan, EU legends that a large number
of collectors would certainly want ahead of like, a different Praetorian Guard
with a different weapon. Of course, the line must stop to accommodate new movie
characters annually these days, but characters like Thrawn are starting to be
the one-per-wave EU or, like, random inclusion figure. Revan was like that in
his wave, Thrawn in his, Jaina Solo in hers, Sabine Wren and Hera Syndulla in
their respective waves. Considering that there are lists all over the internet
of deeper lore characters that really should get Black Series figures according to fans, and the longevity and
popularity of the line at this time, the line should probably be able to
produce a single wave of such deep cuts instead of having to pepper them in
amongst OT or new movie waves.
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