Bounty Hunters. Love them or hate them, they are always much sought after in figure form with many fans wanting to replicate the scene from Empire above Vader's Star Destroyer. The Black Series has taken another step towards realising this with the release of Bossk.
#10 in the Blue Trim released series, Bossk arrives as part of wave 7 alongside the Han Storm Trooper and two repacks in the form of Chewbacca and the Tie Fighter Pilot. He is an impressive figure in the box although doesnt get much of a blurb write up on the rear - with just 3 lines of text on top of the usual B&W lined art work.
Bossk is probably smaller than I had visualised him, coming in a smidge under 6 1/2" once out of the box. I guess that in the film he is standing on a platform and the camera is pointing up at him, but maybe a touch more height wouldn't have gone amiss.
The sculpt is really good, and I would go almost as far as saying this is one of the best Hasbro has given us so far. The head, arms and legs are sculpted with raised scales and the flight suit has a number of varying tubes and appendages which are all nicely done. Unfortunately, as is often the case, Hasbro have spoiled a great sculpt with poor paint applications at the factory. It's not a disaster, but close up I have numerous paint bleeds of one colour to another and the wash on the scales isnt even and therefore looks like dirt rather than bringing out any details. There is then the biggest issue where the torso and hips are a different colour all together vs the arms and legs - yet this is all meant to be the same jump suit. For a figure that is part of a collectors line, and with an RRP of £20, the applications are not good enough.
Articulation, and let's start with the one everyone was talking about - the articulated mouth/jaw. Well it is there, but it adds very little to the figure as its only really able to move a few mm because of the collar of the flight suit. I would have rather the cost of sculpting/manufacturing this be invested in smartening up the paint.
The head seems to be on a ball joint, but again due to the collar can only achieve movement left and right. The shoulders are ball jointed but the arms can only really extend out by 45 degrees to the body until the shoulder sculpt stops you in your tracks. The elbows both rotate and pivot and there is then the same on the wrists. The wrists, like the head, are a wasted joint as the forearm simply stops you doing anything but rotating the wrist.
Torso is articulated, but it may as well not be. The legs are on ball jointed hips, followed by a double jointed knee and a simple forward and backward joint at the ankles. The various tubes and strappings will stop you going all out and putting Bossk in the splits, but at least the legs can be posed in a good quantity of positions. The one wierd thing with my figure is that despite oversized feet, Bossk is really hard to stand up as he seems to be over balanced at the front and it takes some tweaking with the knee and ankles to find his sweet spot.
Bossk comes with one accessory, a rifle, and it fits in his left hand reasonably well. I really struggled getting it into a two handed pose, but I have seen it done on some other online images. The rifle can be slung by a strap, but the strap is too rigid and when you do this it looks far from natural.
I am probably being over critical with this figure as he is one of my favourite characters and I was really looking forward to him. All the ingredients are there, but let down by poor paint application, poor choice of articulation (most of which doesnt work) and varying coloured plastic. Stand Bossk on his own and inspect him up close and you will be disappointed. Stick him in a display with Boba, or perhaps a Jabba's palace display and he looks OK.
I give Bossk a 3 out of 5, and a low 3 at that. This is a figure that could have been a 5, but just lets you down in too many areas. My comment on his Hasbro's report card would be "good plan, poor execution, must try harder"
