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.
K2-SO is my newest foray into a new Star Wars character that I know nothing about but like solely based
on looks. A reprogrammed Imperial security droid, K2 is apparently going to be
a Rebel, and his box bio asserts he is now totally loyal to the Rebellion after
having been reprogrammed. Which, honestly, raises some questions about the
noble façade of the Rebellion, seeing as they’re reprogramming droids for
loyalty. If a group is all devoted to freedom, but resorts to literal
brainwashing and reeducation, how truly devoted to freedom are they? But, don’t
listen to me, I’ve been an Imperial supporter all of my life. K2 has Imperial
logos on his shoulders, and they are slightly worn or weathered, like they were
supposed to be removed but were left for whatever reason.
I think this is an
ominous sign, story wise. If I may, for a moment . . .
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| Totally not ominous looking . . . |
Unlike The Force
Awakens, which ends with an open end connecting to future narrative events,
Rogue One will end leading into the
events of A New Hope, and since the
characters of Rogue One are not in A New Hope, one can make fairly
reasonable assumptions that the ending of Rogue
One may not be a real happy one. Perhaps the team is undone by a sleeper
agent or a traitor, or some such plot twist; not to give in to speciesism, but
wouldn’t a former Imperial droid that has been reprogrammed be a prime suspect
for the culprit? I’m just postulating here.
K2 is a very tall figure, towering about a normal 6” Black Series figure. Even the tall
figures, like Vader and Phasma, are shorter than this guy. He has an excellent
design, being mostly devoid of a waist or hips but having very long appendages.
He’s gangly and lanky, and there’s something very unsettling about that look. I
was talking to a friend about this figure, and I called it a torso with legs,
and that’s not really inaccurate. K2-SO does have a waist, and hips, but they
are very understated in the design. The figure has a waist joint, which means
that the torso and waist are two separate parts. I know that that is an obvious
statement, but my first impressions of him were that he was one solid body
component, so I was pretty surprised to learn that this was not true.
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| I seem to be trapped in some kind of box. |
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| How do I get out of this box? |
Apart from the waist swivel, K2 is full of joints in the
arms and legs, which gives him a great range of motion and poseability. The
limbs are thin and round, the hands kind of skeletal looking. They have
shoulder, wrist and elbow joints, as well as thighs, knees and ankles. Because
of the thinness of the limbs, I am a little concerned about the strength of the
joints, and how well they will hold up over time or from excessive use. For the
two years I’ve been collecting Black
Series figures, I’ve not yet had any joint related problems with any of
them, so my concern here is not born from any precedent, but rather the joints
feel a bit soft already, as in they move easily, and if this softness is a
precursor to weakness in them, K2 is going to have a hard time maintaining his
posture. And I think that, for as slender a figure as it is, the torso is too
heavy to be supported by weak knees. I would say the same of the arms, but
despite so many promotional images of the figure claiming otherwise, K2-SO
doesn’t come with any accessories to hold, so I don’t worry that he’ll be
unable to hold his blaster.
Yeah, K2-SO comes with no blaster, despite a lot of pictures
showing him with one.
The head on this figure is exceptional. K2’s head is
basically a skull, missing the lower jaw, and the composite look of the
character is that of a skeleton, superbly ominous. The eyes are solid white
dots, blank and expressionless, even by droid standards. He shoulders are
hunched ever so slightly, and the profile is a real creepy robot. Almost, but
simultaneously completely different from, like the T-800 from the Terminator franchise, I could imagine
this droid being covered in skin or some other disguise for infiltration
missions. And the neck is set forward a little bit, giving a very slight hunch, but adding to the unsettling appearance overall.
Molded in all matte black, there is an absolute sense of
foreboding about K2-SO. There are a few other details on the figure, but
overall his look is sparse and bare. I think it is a very fitting appearance,
fitting all things Imperial in not being a very stylish look, rather one that
is of utility and function over any kind of aesthetic. Again, not knowing much
about it right now leaves my mind free to speculate on its role and nature in
the movie, and while I’m trying to maintain a grasp on my enthusiasm, I have
high hopes for the character. Star Wars
has a great tradition of likeable droid characters, and flat out lovable ones
in R2-D2 and BB-8, who is literally the opposite of K2-SO in practically every
way. The colorful and expressive BB-8 is cute and personable by design, small
and endearing. Compare that with the angular and sprawling K2 here, and I
imagine that we’re supposed to have the precise opposite reaction to it. Just
now, as I am typing this, my mind hearkens back to the battle droids of the
prequel trilogy, and their gangly, skeletal appearance, and how they were
initially supposed to be a menacing military force prior to their being exposed
as ineffective and demoted to painfully lame attempt at comic relief. You know,
those first three minutes of The Phantom
Menace. There was something
unsettling about the battle droids, until they were kneecapped by their
characterization. I am now possessed of a sort of desperation, a pleading hope
that the startling looking K2-SO is not similarly neutered in its film
appearance.
I really, really like this figure, and I really love this
design. I have real high hopes for K2 as a character, but those have to wait a
little bit to be realized. In the meantime, this is a great Black Series figure that, despite being
pretty bare bones, is good looking and, I think, totally worth the price of
admission. I would understand people not having strong positive feelings about
this toy, but I think it may be one of those that, once you have it in hand,
makes a very good case for itself that is not transmitted via Internet images
or even seeing it in package. This may be a figure that many people miss out on
and later regret.
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