Star Wars: The Black Series L3-37

 2018’s Solo brought some new characters to the Star Wars universe, and tried to answer some not too frequently asked questions about existing ones, such as, how did the Millennium Falcon get the best navigation system in the galaxy? Look, no one was asking this; we all just took it as a given, because Han says it at some point in the Original Trilogy. But, the answer is here, in the form of L3-37, a feisty droid partner of the young Lando Calrissian who gets wrapped up with the Beckett Gang and their Kessel heist.

L3’s Black Series incarnation is visually pretty awesome, but in hand is pretty disappointing. A really cool design, at least on screen, L3 is not a stiff protocol droid, but rather a pretty stiff conglomerate of parts from protocol and astromech droids, apparently self-assembled. This works so well for the character, as L3 is a droid’s right activist in the Star Wars universe, apparently another example of Disney forcing their SJW agenda down the throat of every living being, and not just a representation of what would without a doubt be an actual ideological perspective in the universe of Star Wars. Luke is told in A New Hope that 3P0 and R2 can’t come in to the Mos Eisly bar, because their kind isn’t served there; 3P0 refers to humans as his master constantly; R2’s damage in A New Hope, sustained during the Death Star attack is only treated with concern because R2 and Luke have developed a bond at that point. In-universe droids are treated pretty badly, and it seems a real stretch to honestly think that there would be no one in that universe that would care about the clearly second class status of droids.

L3’s body shows elements of both astromech and protocol droids, with her arms and legs being cobbled together astromech legs, with regular, human hands and a generally humanoid torso. The head is round and flat. There are a lot of visible wires all over the body, giving L3 a real unfinished, incomplete look, like a much, much better execution of the concept they were going for with C-3P0 in The Phantom Menace. There is not much possible movement for this figure though, and she ends up being pretty static. The arms and legs have elbows and knees, wrists and ankles, respectively, but the joints don’t offer any real range of motion. The arms simply won’t bend at the elbow much at all, and the legs, while very articulated at the knees, don’t balance L3 very well, even if she’s standing flatfooted on a surface. The feet are super narrow and tiny, and achieving a solid standing pose is already tough. So when the legs start bending and the ankles start pivoting and everything, stability just gets tossed out the window. She essentially needs to be posed and then leaned against something, or positioned in a corner or something that offers external support, and even then L3 is extra prone to tipping over. The slenderness of the legs makes them feel flimsy, which leads to some trepidation when it comes to really handling them in order to effect a standing or running type of pose. This thinness also effects the arms, but since those aren’t needed for standing, it’s a bit easier to overlook. The feet rock forwards and back, the hands have jointed wrists but do not feel very sturdy. This essentially means the wrists don’t move.

L3’s range of motion is further compromised by hips and shoulders that don’t allow for much movement, kind of a given for a droid, but also a bit of a downer for a Black Series figure. But this is one of those characters and their figure that sells based on a look, or an affinity towards the on-screen version, and not because of what it can do in a practical sense. She has joints in her neck and waist that are barely useable, and the head is on a ball joint, but is only able to tilt up or down very, very slightly. The figure also does not come with any accessories, which does leave her a bit bland.

It works.

But what L3-37 does have is wires. There are wires everywhere on this figure, and many of them are painted in an array of colors, so they really pop and provide something to look at. The waist section is particularly impressive in this regard. Alas, the wiring does also contribute to the lack of movement, as they are all short, which will limit things like too deep of a bend at the hip, or literally in the way of a joint, which will limit things like bending at the elbow. Droids once more are not exactly known for their flexibility, but action figures should be able to move their limbs. And, by “too deep of a bend,” we’re talking about anything more than a degree or two of movement in any direction. She looks great, but L3 can’t do very much.

Truly, L3-37 is a great design. It is excellent to get another, different droid in the Black Series, and the character in Solo is a really great one. It seems like such a long time ago now, but the day after Solo opened in theaters there was a dump of stock photos announcing at that time unknown figures for the line, and L3 was one of them. That was a stroke of good luck, because at the theater the night before, it was clear right away that a figure of L3 would be needed for any self-respecting collection. And the one that was released is a good figure of L3-37; it’s just not the kind of figure that’s up to par with the rest of the Black Series offerings as a figure. Over the course of a few Waves of figures, including the latest one that is currently arriving (the Padme Mace Battle Droid Wave), we’ll finally have the full set of Solo figures completed, and none of them aside from young Han and Lando seem to have gotten solid distribution. These may be tough figures to find in the future, so if you’re able and interested, you should probably add L3 to your collection sooner rather than later.