“If a character appears on screen it will eventually get a
figure” strikes again, as The Black
Series wheels out beloved bounty hunter 4-LOM, first, last, and only seen
during that one scene on a Star Destroyer in The Empire Strikes Back where Vader has assembled a bunch of bounty
hunters to chase after the Millennium Falcon. There is probably some allotment
of EU stories for 4-LOM, but they are foreign to me.
4-LOM is a much cooler figure than that intro would imply,
and spent quite a lot of time on the table next to the couch this summer,
readily available for handling while watching something. The body looks to be a
C-3PO body in black: 4-LOM is, or was at some time, a protocol droid that goes
bad, falling to an existence of murder and bounty hunting. There is no C-3PO in
the Coffin collection currently, so this body read is being based on seeing
that Black Series C-3PO at Walgreens’
over and over again. The body is not very posable, as the joints reflect the
character: protocol droids aren’t very mobile or agile, and the elbows and
knees don’t bend very far. Especially the knees. The elbows don’t extend past a
maybe a 30 degree angle, again think of 3PO, by their very design, but the
knees barely move at all. And the joints don’t really seem like they’re
designed to handle a bunch of movement. They are still and solid, but feel in
hand like they won’t stay that way following too much use. The arms have cool
little details, including these struts on them that look like pistons which
would move the arms on the droid. Stiffness is a general condition of the
figure, again indicative of the previous life of the character. 
The real cool part of 4-LOM is the head. It is large and
bulbous, very insectoid. It is a pretty nice sculpt as well, but then is muted
to some degree due to the paint. Just kind of doused in a darkish grey, the
head has a lot of detail and everything that does deserve to be seen, but
really needs to be held close to the eye to see. The eyes are large and
bug-like, and are translucent as well, so a good source of light will
illuminate them in an emerald green. This illumination is situation however,
not constant, as from most angles and in many lights the eyes remain opaque.
But, held just right, the eyes light up wonderfully.
 |
| Stand Stormtrooper on the left; 4-LOM on the right |
4-LOM’s blaster is a bit strange. It resembles the DLT-19
that Stormtroopers come packed with, but it’s not quite. It looks like a
malformed version of the DLT-19, not as long or sharply molded, but I can’t
tell if it’s supposed to be a different weapon or if it’s just a badly produced
one. Online images seem to show the same blaster as my figure came with, which
further supports the idea that this is a different, figure-specific part. Wookiepedia
states that 4-LOM’s weapon of choice is the DLT-19, so perhaps this is a
modified version or something, and not just a poor production run of weapons.
The body of this figure rewards inspection, as there are a
lot of details on it as well as some real intricate paint work that is totally
lost looking at the toy from an arms’ length. Some of the wiring in the abdomen
is painted, and there are stipes of color on the chest and some other details
on the head.
And, that’s kind of it. 4-LOM really excels at standing on a
shelf, but really nothing else. It’s a good looking figure, but there isn’t
much besides. This is no one’s favorite character, and maybe when Zuckuss and
Dengar are released, so that one could have a full set of Empire bounty hunters on a shelf, 4-LOM will really show his value.
When I first got this figure in the early part of the summer, I wasn’t all that
impressed; but again, as time went on, I realized that 4-LOM was still on the
side table next to me, and then was back in my hands as I was watching TV. A
much better figure than it should be.
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