The Star Wars Black Series Archive line is an avenue for older and more sought after figures to be re-released in the Black Series line and has now reached its 3rd wave. The 2021 Archive wave is also part of the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Lucasfilm and it contains the winner of the Fan's Choice for Archive re-release, Commander Cody, as well as Grand Admiral Thrawn and Luke & Han from Hoth.
The Archive Series moves away from window boxes to a blister card format. The shaped backing card carries the same Black Series logo and uses a black base colour with a grey panel behind the figure window. The character name sits down the left hand side and in line with the Lucasfilm celebration this has changed from grey to gold, and the Lucasfilm 50th Anniversary logo sits at the top left of the card.
The Gregory Titus artwork is added as an insert to the blister and is a new image of Han Solo from Hoth - the original 2015 release only carried a small piece of artwork of Han's head The back of the card carries the same image of Han Solo and a short piece of background text.
"Han stuck with the Rebel Alliance and helped establish its new base on the ice planet Hoth. After Luke didn't return from a routine sweep of the planet surface, Han headed out alone into the frigid cold to find him."
The first two Archive waves followed on from the figure detail with some archive information about the original release of the figure and included an original release year and an image of the original packaging. This has now sadly been removed and replaced with the Lucasfilm 50th Anniversary timeline that plots the Star Wars Movie & TV properties from 1971 to 2021 - although it doesn't mention the Mandalorian? Under this is short piece of info about the anniversary.
"Commemorate the first 50 years of Lucasfilm with figures inspired by the original Star Wars trilogy"
This hybrid of Archive and Anniversary Exclusive is OK - but really needed to go one way or the other. I would have preferred a traditional Archive release with the background info, or a special card series just for this 2021 anniversary.
3.5
Han arrives wrapped in his large hood and scarf and therefore the quality of the head sculpt is not overly clear. The hood is a separate piece to the coat and is sadly very ill-fitting to the left hand side of Han's shoulders as you can see in the far right image below. My figure had also seen the fur front start to separate from the brown hood. The fur itself is soft and lumpy in the sculpt and is not well painted.
Han's coat on this release is brown, in line with the prop although the argument on colour will still rumble on. The coat and arms are cast in the brown base colour of the coat, with the sculpt of the coat carrying the padded texture on the shoulders and the various pockets and fastenings. The only paint applied is to the rank badge on the left hand side.
Like the coat, the trousers are cast in a base colour and include the quilted padding on the knees. The boots are then executed in brown with a light beige strapping.
The hood piece can be removed revealing the Han head underneath. This is executed with he cold weather head gear in place and only the face of Harrison Ford shown. This face sculpt and face print is excellent and a really good likeness. The issue though is the scale of the head which is too small for the body once the hood has been removed.
Considering this look is not seen in the movie, and with the issues with the ill-fitting hood, there was perhaps another option here to have the head and hood as one piece fitted more naturally into the body.
Essentially this is the same figure as released in 2015 with the Tauntaun, although the coat has been recoloured and the face updated with the face print tech. I found the hood fitting and exposure of the face was much better on the original version with or without the glasses.
Aside from the head, I guess the decision over which Han Hoth is better comes down to your jacket colour preference - original Kenner blue, or prop Brown?
3.0
Han is pretty well served with accessories, starting with his DL-44 blaster. This is cast in a softer plastic but holds detail quite well. It is cast in black plastic with a painted brown grip and silver barrel.
The blaster fits into Han's right hand where a trigger finger engages with the trigger. When not in use there is a working holster on Han's belt that this slots snugly into. The only issue with the holster is the thin strap designed to hold it in place. This should plug into a hole in the holster, but the one on my figure refuses to engage
Also included are a pair of Macrobinoculars. These are cast in a harder plastic with visible detail sculpted into the casing and the viewing areas - although Hasbro have not painted any of this detail and therefore the piece looks a little flat and boring. A weather wash would have really enhanced it.
It comes with quite a rigid strap that stops it hanging naturally round the neck or off the shoulder. The strap is also an issue if you manage to get Han to hold the Macrobinoculars up to his eye as the strap holds horizontally - and therefore really unnatural for a pose. Holding it into place is also difficult as the hands are not designed to grip the piece - so while the elbow joints will get it up to the eyes the wrist joint and hand shape will only really let it be propped in place.
Our final accessory are the goggles that arrive attached to the top of the headgear. These are a separate piece and can be removed. They are cast with a hard plastic around the lenses with a softer strap. The strap is designed to fit snugly over the top of the hat but they cant stretch to go over the peak of the hat and down over the eyes.
You can bypass the peak of the cap by removing the head, putting the goggles over the neck and reattaching the head. The goggles can then be moved up over the eye position. Its more difficult than say the elastic strap on the more recent Hoth Soldier, but will last a lot longer.
The only issue with engaging the goggles over the eyes is that they then start to look oversized and when the hood is placed on top it has a habit of pushing the glasses back down and misaligning them. In the grand scheme of things, they could have simply been part of the head sculpt or glued in place.
3.0
Han Solo Hoth has a total of 16 points of articulation which on paper is standard. It should be noted that the treatment of the wrists on Han Hoth are not the usual pegged wrist with a pivot, but instead the hands are sculpted as a part of the lower arm then plugged in just under the elbow meaning the hands will only rotate on one axis.
Head : ball joint head with pivot
Body : ball joint waist
Arms : ball joint shoulder, single joint rotating elbow, wrist rotation
Legs : ball joint hips, thigh swivel, double joint knees, ankle rocker
Aside from the wrist joint, the other articulation all works well enough and Han can stand, kneel or sit and take up a number of action poses - including of course riding the Tauntaun and holding the reigns if you want to update your Tauntaun with this newer look figure.
Each joint is tight and secure and he stands perfectly well without support in a number of poses.
4.0
I was looking forward to an updated Han Solo Hoth in his brown coat having not yet purchased the Convention exclusive from a couple of years ago. This new version is very much in line with the principles of the Archive Series - updating the décor only and providing Han with an updated face print decor. This face print is brilliant, but is spoiled by the ill fitting hood and the gaps it creates. The head behind the hood is also to small for the body,
The packaging looses some of its identity by trying to incorporate the Lucasfilm 50th Anniversary, one of the things I liked about the first two waves was the history piece on the back of the card looking at the original figure release and the packaging from that figure.
While the Archive series is not about do-overs for an existing figure, there are still improvements needed to make the definitive Han Hoth and as it stands, I score this Archiev release of Han Solo in his Hoth outfit an average score of 3.0
About Me : As a child of the 70's and 80's I grew up in a golden age for action figures and in my youth bought and sold myself through collections of Star Wars, G.I. Joe (Action Force) and M.A.S.K. while also dabbling in He-Man, Transformers and Ghostbusters. Roll forward and I am now reliving that Youth with the action figures of today and am a collector and fan of the larger 6-8 inch figures from my favourite movie and TV licences - including the ones mentioned above, but also the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Doctor Who and the Aliens. I launched The Mephitsu Archives in 2015 with a view of creating a UK focused site or these figures where fans can pick up the latest action figure news, read reviews and get information on where to buy their figures and what is currently on store shelves. I hope I am delivering that to you guys...
action figures, reviews, review, articulation, star wars, han solo, hoth, black series, archive, lucasfilm, 50th anniversary