Review : Kanan Jarrus (Rebels)
Star Wars Black Series (Hasbro)
Wave/Series : Figure #20 (Phase 3 Wave 6 / Wave 2 2016)
Released : April 2016
Price : £22.99
It is a testimony to the success of Star Wars Rebels that the 6th wave of Black Series (phase 3) includes 2 characters from the show, beating lots of other fan favourites from the first 6 films to store shelves.
Kanan has been a little overlooked in this wave to date, with fans clamoring for Ahsoka and with all the commentary that the Farmboy Luke is generating. Kanan kind of has nothing to lose and everything to gain in this wave, and as you are about to find out - he will most likely end up being the star of wave 6 when all the dust settles.
Kanan is number 19 in the phase 3 numbering system and is one of the three new figures in Wave 6 (wave 2 2016). As well as Ahsoka and Luke, the rest of wave 6 is made up with a re-release of the Episode 7 Han Solo from wave 5, and a kind of re-release (if you can re-release a figure never released in UK) of the Episode 7 Snowtrooper who is packed two per box.
The Kanan artwork on the box is the usual grey lined art, and is kind of based on the realistic version of Kanan we saw on the 2015 novel, A New Dawn. His bio, as always presented in 4 languages, is pretty cool when you read it as it talks about how Kanan survived the Jedi Purge of Order 66 and how he turned up years later as part of the Ghost crew and eventually took on Ezra for his Jedi training.
Out of the box is at the taller end of the 6 inch scale, standing at 6 1/4 inch high and therefore suitably taller than his peers such as Ahsoka. It is difficult to say that the facial sculpt is accurate as it is not based on the animated Kanan and is more a mix of the New Dawn cover with element of voice actor Freddie Prinze Jr mixed in. Either way he looks exactly as I would expect Kanan to look in real life and fits in really well with the other Black Series figure. You certainly shouldn't sit there and think that he looks out of place in terms of being an animated figure in the Star Wars Universe.
The head is painted neatly and doesn't have the glossy look that Luke in the same wave suffers with. There is no real detail in the skin tone but the eyes, eye brows and his beard are all neatly done with zero paint bleed. The hair is sculpted swept back and tied into his iconic pony tail and is painted a base coat of brown with almost ginger highlights swept through on a dry brush to bring out detail.
I always like Kanan's outfit in the show - that mix of Clone Wars armour and Smuggler was a perfect fit for Kanan's character, and all of this has been faithfully represented here. The base shirt is textured and painted a flat sage colour. There is a colour variation between the chest area of the shirt and the separate stomach piece, but only noticeable up close.
Over the shirt is a number of armoured panels with the larger shoulder armour over Kanan's right shoulder, and held in place with a large strap which is painted a flat black with metallic clasp - there is a bit of paint bleed on this strap. The Armour has a very nice metallic sheen, and the rebel symbol is painted in white on the shoulder pad itself, but done in such a way that it looks scratched and worn - not freshly painted. The armour continues down the right arm, with a lower forearm piece also with the metallic finish. The left arm is uncovered and is a two tone colour with the underside the same colour as the shirt and the upper half a darker green, similar to the armour colour but in Matt.
Kanan's belt is black and silver and sits around the waist, and off this hangs a working holster for Kanan's blaster. The trousers, like the shirt, are textured and I detect the faintest of wash on these to give them a weathered look - but it certainly is very subtle. The outfit moves down to black knee pads and then knee high boots which like the sleeves are a two tone colouring.
Kanan's articulation is really good and starts with the head which can move side to side and look down wards, although full movement is restricted a little by both the pony tail and the raised collars. The chest is jointed and the torso joint allows the top half of Kanan to rotate to either side, sadly there is no lean movement back or forth.
Arms are ball jointed shoulders which move smoothly out to the side and up above the head on the left arm. The right is blocked a little by the armour but can still move out to the side and still gets fully above the head. The elbows are a single joint that also rotates. The elbows can only really bend to a 90 degree position, and that's enough for Kanan to hold his light sabre with two hands if you wish. There is a peg on the wrist, and this lets then hands both rotate and angle forward and backward within the cuffs of the shirt.
The waist is fixed, so the next joints are the hips, which can move to quite a wide "splits" position and can also pivot forward to sit Kanan down or kneel him on one knee, albeit a little awkward looking. The holster has been attached to the belt with a flexible strap and this means that the holster moves with the leg and doesn't block any movement on the hips. The holster does however render the thigh swivel useless on the right leg. The knees are double jointed, with that joint hidden neatly behind the knee pad when locked straight. Ankles are the rotating joint, so Kanan's feet are easily planted flat in most positions - making him one of the easiest figures to stand that I have come across in the range. One very minor observation on articulation is that the hips feel a bit loose, this could cause issues down the line if they deteriorate any further and impact his ability to stand without sliding into the splits.
Kanan comes with his blaster and his light sabre. The blaster is cast in dark grey and really well sculpted, and for vintage fans is the same blaster you used to get with the 3.75" Jedi Knight. The blaster fits into either hand, and then also slots into the holster when not in use.
There is nothing on the packaging that indicates the light sabre is anything other than single piece - but take that leap of faith as not only does the blade detatch, but he hilt comes apart too - a feature we see prominently in the show. Once split, the larger piece slots into a hole on the back of Kanan's belt, and the smaller emitter into a section to his left hip - brilliant! Once assembled the sabre is quite long, but fits into either hand well enough. I would recommend Hasbro maybe want to shout more about these types of accessories as I suspect there will be fans out there that will never know it comes apart.
Kanan is pretty much exactly what I want from the Star Wars Black Series. Well sculpted, well painted, good articulation and some thought around his accessories in terms of that light saber splitting up and attaching to the belt. You can almost forget the Ahsoka hype and look past the controversial Luke because Kanan has stolen the show for wave 6 for me, and I score him a perfect 5 out of 5. I now look forward to getting Sabine and then hope Hasbro has the ambition to push through the rest of the crew as a minimum and perhaps also the likes of Rex, Vizago and the Inquisitors.
