One of the current existential crisis we’ve been going
through here at the Coffin is whether or not we’d be able to produce articles
on four different Star Wars figures that really only differ from each other in
minor ways. The answer was always going to be “no,” but how to proceed was something
that took some time to figure out. Ultimately, we decided to just talk about
them all at once. So, here are The Black
Series Director Orsen Krennic, Grand Moff Tarkin, Admiral Piett, and
General Veers.
As a summary, each of these four Imperial Officers have the
standard range of Black Series motion,
and the standard allotment of joints. They are differentiated only by their
heads and accessories. Each of them look as if they just stepped off of the
screen, as their sculpts are real clear and accurate. There’s just not a whole
lot to say about each of them individually.
Let’s begin with Krennic. Rogue One’s sinister Death Star architect appears using the white
Officer body previously seen on Grand Admiral Thrawn, and comes with a new
blaster and a cape. The blaster fits into a holster on the hip, and the cape is
similar to that of both of the Lando figures in that it is a molded plastic
cape that encircles the figure. There is no peg to attach the cape with, it
just sits on the shoulders, but is sturdy there and never appears in danger of
falling off. The cape is a heavy plastic, but it does not upset the balance of
the figure in any perceivable ways. All of the Officers can strike the
arms-behind-the-back pose, but Krennic is able to do so and have his cape cover
them, and that looks real cool.
Grand Moff Tarkin presents a much better Peter Cushing than
the CGI uncomfortability in Rogue One,
and it’s frankly time that the character got a Black Series release. Tarkin comes with the interrogator droid from
A New Hope, and that’s a cool piece
even though it doesn’t do anything. The droid is mounted on a clear plastic
stand that gives the illusion of it hovering, and that’s a super nice touch
that is really not as revolutionary as it occasionally seems to me. The droid
has no moving parts, and is limited in posing options to which side it tilts
towards as it floats around. The droid is the best accessory from any of these
four figures, but it is purely an aesthetic piece. Tarkin’s arms are not able
to be posed in front of him enough to effect that pose he has in A New Hope, with his hand to his chin as
he looks at a monitor. The classic looking at a monitor pose. But the face does
capture the serious look of Tarkin, that sneer of cold command that Cushing
always had, making the figure intimidating and authoritative looking.
An aside on Tarkin, but the Moff has been an excellent
sponge for the issue of evil in the Star Wars universe, being called upon in
fiction to soak up a lot of the unattached “bad” that exists thanks to the
Prequels trying to make Darth Vader into Lawful Evil. Vader was the Star Wars villain, but the Prequels and
ancillary fiction have turned him into a guy who tried to do anything for love.
That, along with his being the face of Star Wars marketing for decades now,
does not exactly equate with galactic menace, and so Star Wars circa the OT
found itself in dire need of a villainous scapegoat. Tarkin seems readily made
to fit that bill, as he doesn’t have much OT depth and was, primarily via the
current run of Marvel comics, established as an almost Mengele-esque sadist,
which is helped by his Rogue One appearance
and glee concerning the Death Star and its massive destructive power. Tarkin
now is a guy who WANTED to use the Death Star on Alderran, not a guy who did so
to send a message. 
Admiral Piett looks like Admiral Piett, and was an online
exclusive figure that appeared back in May around the time Solo was in theaters. There’s not much to say about Piett, really,
other than the figure looks like the character and comes with a pretty terrible
blaster, sort of like Han Solo’s but more blocky looking. Generally speaking,
the blaster is and looks like it wasn’t fully sculpted. I know that I often get
overly excited about new weapons in this line, but they’re not any good if they’re
new but not any good, you know? The Officer hat is removable as well.
Walgreens exclusive General Veers is perhaps the most exciting of the batch, if
only for the reason that he offers two different looks, and is thus the most versatile
of the four. Veers comes standard in the Imperial Officer dress greys, but also
has a slip on set of armor, like a catcher’s chestplate or bulletproof vest
type thing, so he can appear as he does leading the AT-AT assault on the Hoth
base in The Empire Strikes Back. He
can also exchange this Officer hat for a helmet. The armor slides over his head
and belts around his waist. . . or it should belt around his waist, but the peg
on the belt is not long enough to fit into the hole and stay there. It always
pops open. He has the same crummy blaster that Piett has, and it fits into a
holster on the armor. . . or it should fit into a holster on the armor, except that
the holster is closed off on the barrel end, so the blaster won’t actually fit
inside. I’m not sure if these are just problems with my copy of the figure, but
the belt especially kinda dampens the fun. Veers can still wear the armor, it
just doesn’t secure around him, but viewed from the front one can hardly even
tell. An annoyance more than a problem, really, even though I was pretty disappointed
on learning this for the first time. Veers also has a helmet that slips over
his head and holds in place via a chin strap.
Piett and Veers are especially skippable if your collection
doesn’t have space for men in Imperial garb, but Krennic and Tarkin are major
Star Wars antagonists, so they may be a little more necessary. I will spare
everyone the story of that 4” box set again, because maybe these four figures
here are an indication that we’re getting closer to that in the 6” and I don’t
want to jinx it.
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