Star Wars: The Black Series Imperial Officers

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.

Star Wars: The Black Series Darth Vader (Rogue One)

 

Semester’s over! As of yesterday, all that remains is a bit of paper grading and it’ll officially be that wonderful break between Spring and Summer classes, a couple weeks of sleeping (relatively) late and having fun and feeling like a real human again. I am still working my way through a whole lot of figures that need to be photographed, and have almost exhausted my stockpile of pictures taken at our old apartment, so these new photo sessions are becoming more and more necessary. It occurred to me that out of the 36 articles posted to the Coffin thus far in 2018, only 6 of them (6!) have been about Star Wars figures, and there have been a number of Star Wars figures acquired since 2018 began. Gotta do something about that, man.

Star Wars: The Black Series AT-ACT Driver

It has been a while since I’ve devoted any time to Star Wars figures, and I do have a few of them to address. So, what better for a Saturday morning than to look at the Target exclusive AT-ACT Driver from Rogue One? A repaint of the Scarif Trooper, this figure should make for some fairly easy conversation.

Who could forget that memorable scene in Rogue One where, for less than a second, we got an in-cockpit shot of an AT-ACT, the Imperial All Terrain Armored Cargo Transport, and were treated to our first glorious split second look at its driver? In true Star Wars figure fashion, that split second of screen time lead to a toy.

Star Wars: The Black Series Imperial Deathtrooper Specialist, Captain Cassian Andor and Sergeant Jyn Erso

One more set of Rogue One figures before I go see the movie. It is currently 3.24 pm in Chicago, and we’ve got 7.30 tickets. 

This trio of figures is the Target exclusive for the movie, and, just as last years’ Target exclusive pack did, contains a Trooper and some actual characters. Two this time, both of whom in this present moment we still know little to nothing about: Cassian Andor and Jyn Erso, who has always been the main character of the movie, from the very first second of the very first teaser. And again, a slightly modified Trooper, so that the ‘battle in a box’ format is maintained. It should come as no surprise that my interest in the set was the Deathtrooper, but, just as was the case last year, I’m sure that once I’ve seen the movie, the other figures will become more significant to me. 

Star Wars: The Black Series Scarif Trooper Commander, Scarif Stormtrooper and Imperial Hovertank Pilot

 Oh boy! The day has finally arrived! Tonight, we are going to see Rogue One, the first Star Wars spinoff or standalone movie, after over a year of waiting and hype! What better way that to kick off the big day than with a review of some Rogue One figures?

This trio of figures is getting a single review because, aside from some paint, belts and helmets, they are the exact same toy. Two of them are store exclusives, while the one that would have made the most sense to be a store exclusive is the mass retail release.

Star Wars: The Black Series Death Trooper

Here we are again, all of this familiar territory. It is December. The semester is ending. A new Star Wars movie is coming in three short weeks – Rogue One, the first of the standalone, anthology movies – which means that while my students are frantically trying to appeal to me with harrowing tales of why they were slacking for the first fifteen weeks of a sixteen week semester and thus, deserve some mercy, my mind is drifting ahead to a new adventure in a galaxy far, far away. Toys for Rogue One began showing up over a month ago, and I made a preliminary foray into writing about them, but decided to hold off with the rest until December came and the movie was closer at hand. That way, I’d get to spend some time right before the movie releases focusing my hype attention on the new movie. 

Rogue One is set before A New Hope, and so for the first time in forever we have a generally known quantity going in. We know that this will be a story of the Empire vs. the Rebellion, and that means one very important thing: new Stormtroopers.

Star Wars: The Black Series K2-S0

Well, here we go again. A new Star Wars movie is on the horizon, the first of the standalone films, Rogue One, arriving this December. Once again, a new cast of characters will be making its debut, and with them, a slate of action figures depicting them, clamoring for us to buy them despite not knowing anything about them right now other than small bits of information gleaned from teasers and trailers and whatever prose there exists to serve as a vague introduction before the events of the movie transpire. Last year, I bought a figure I liked, and banked on the notion that, being a figure in one of the first two waves of The Force Awakens merchandise, it must be a Somebody. It wasn’t.