Star Wars: The Black Series Dewback and Sandtrooper

The more and more of them that I collect, the more and more and more and more Black Series vehicles I want. And this size class and price point is terrific for them. Not enormous pieces like the First Order TIE Fighter, but larger than the Speeder Bike, this $60 plateau is turning out some excellent, excellent toys. Even things that seem generally bland like Luke’s Landspeeder end up being fun and engaging and worth the price.

Now that we’re done gushing, let’s talk about the Dewback, and its contribution to the line.

Star Wars: The Black Series Imperial Patrol Trooper (Solo: A Star Wars Story)

 Stand alone films Rogue One and Solo have, if absolutely nothing else, given us a few new Imperial units, such as the Deathtrooper, Shoretrooper, and this Patrol trooper, which is essentially the highway patrol officer of the Empire. Briefly (real briefly) seen pursuing young Han as he races the streets of Corellia, this is, like the other two mentioned newbies, an excellent addition to the Imperial ranks.

Tamashii Nations Movie Realization Series: Taiko Stormtrooper

 

As the end of this year lurches closer, thoughts begin to turn to upcoming figure releases, and it seems that perhaps no other line that the Coffin collects is set to be more prolific in 2019 than this one. A number of Star Wars characters have been revealed, including New Trilogy characters and most recently, a totally cool looking IG-88, as well as some others from the concurrent Marvel line, which is not on my radar, aside from the just-revealed and STUNNING Black Panther. But, there is a backlog of Tamashii Nations Star Wars figures around here, so let’s try to do something about that with this, the taiko drummer Stormtrooper.

Star Wars: The Black Series Imperial Stormtrooper with Blast Effects (Disney Store exclusive)

That’s an alright title, right? The figure is just called “Imperial Stormtrooper,” so my title should be ok, yeah? Sorry, it’s one of those kinds of mornings here at the Coffin, as the five day Thanksgiving Break enters its final day and we begin to steel ourselves for the last ten days of the Fall semester. Over the last few days I’ve been able to get some more stuff photographed, and thought I’d take advantage of the time between laundry to get something looked at quickly.

And believe me, this will not take long.

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 Mimban Stormtrooper (Solo: A Star Wars Story)

 Ha ha! The great Star Wars tradition of making figures of characters who got less than three seconds of screen time strikes again, this time in the form of the ever so briefly depicted Stormtroopers deployed to the muddy surface of Mimban in this springs’ spin off movie, Solo. Even my loving wife couldn’t play along and pretend that she noticed this guy in the movie: when I showed it to her, all she could ask was “who?”

Star Wars: The Black Series Imperial Range Trooper (Solo: A Star Wars Story)

 

 Making their debut in this years’ Solo: A Star Wars Story, the Imperial Range Trooper appeared in a bunch of promotional material for the movie and looked like the newly revealed unit would feature in the movie.

LOL.

Star Wars: The Black Series Grand Admiral Thrawn

 

 Mitth'raw'nuruodo, or Thrawn, is a Chiss who climbs the Imperial ranks, breezing through the various officer levels before eventually becoming the Grand Admiral of the Imperial Navy, taking the reins of a splintered military following the Imperial defeat at Endor. A fan favorite character, the only thing that can be said about his Black Series figure is, “it’s about time.”

Tamashii Nations Movie Realization Series: Samurai General Darth Vader

 

 This is something really exciting, and I have been really excited to share it with you all. Now that the semester is over and I have some time before summer classes begin, I finally have a chance.

The Tamashii Nations Movie Realization Series is a general series of figures depicting Star Wars and Marvel characters in a feudal Japanese style. Wild, I know. They are generally pretty well jointed and capable of easy posing, and are incredibly highly detailed. They are approximately 8” tall, and come with a load of extra hands and accessories.

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 Death Squad Commander

 

 One of the original figures in the Star Wars line, and THE original figure of a rando in the Star Wars line, the Death Squad Commander is here a part of the 40^th anniversary collection, and rather than being released in the standard Black Series box, comes on a marvelous blister card that harkens back to the original Star Wars packaging.

Star Wars: The Black Series Inferno Squad Trooper

 

Two years ago the Thanksgiving holiday was spent intensely playing Star Wars Battlefront. This year, Battlefront II has been taking up a significant portion of the break. Seemed like a good time to talk about this Gamestop exlcusive game tie in figure.

Star Wars: MAFEX Stormtrooper

 

Not much is known in these parts about the higher end Star Wars figure lines. Spotted on multiple occasions at C2E2 or among the pages of online retailers, there has been a general curiosity and appreciation for the offerings of lines such as MAFEX, but official forays into them had never happened until very recently.