Pros : First use of Facial Printing, and it works a treat. Weathering on the coat and hat are well executed
Cons : The grey T-shirt has slightly different coloring between top and bottom halves. Boots are too shiny
Wave 15 was the first wave released in 2018 and the the fourth and final wave that was themed around The Last Jedi. It was made up of Rey and DJ from The Last Jedi alongside the promised release in the standard packaging of Captain Rex. The rest of the wave was made up of repacks including Phasma, First Order Trooper, Lando, Poe and the Imperial Guard.
2018 see's the Black Series continue with the Phase 3 packaging with the red trim. DJ is number 57 in the 3rd phase and the character name for the release is specifically listed as DJ with Canto Bight as a bracket sub-title. Could this mean an alternative DJ is planned, most likely his First Order disguise?
The rear of the pack talks about DJ as a thief with tattered and threadbear clothes. It gives little away about his affiliation in The Last Jedi, only that he sees no difference in which side he works for.
DJ comes packed to the left hand side of the inner packaging, with his two blasters packed to the right.
Wave 15 is the first wave to use the digital face printing technology, something the Marvel Legends line has been employing for about a year. The intention with the process is that the face sculpts are much crisper and realistic and paint errors are significantly reduced, giving collectors confidence in ordering online.
The likeness on DJ is good, but not brilliant in capturing Benicio Del Toro. From certain angles it looks awesome, from others it looks bizarre. The eyes are a little too bulging and the cheeks sunken and this is exaggerated by the paint. You can however see the benefit the face print technology brings such as the more gradual beard / facial hair and the more natural eyes.
The best look for me on the figure is when you adjust the head so DJ is looking down, this mimics more of what we see Del Toro do in the movie.
DJ's costume is quite understated, but look closely and Hasbro have weaved in some nice areas of detail. The hat, which isn't initially obvious is painted to look like worn leather and has athe silver Aurebesh text panel down one side. The jacket is also weathered and worn with a neat golden geometric design around the collar. The final points to mention are on the left hand with black strapping around the palm, and with two rings - one silver, one bronze.
Under the coat is a plain grey T-shirt and plain darker grey / green trousers. The costume finishes with a gunslingers belt and holster and a pair of very glossy black boots - probably too glossy compared to the rest of the outfit.
Accessory number one with DJ is a small blaster pistol. This is a resistance blaster and has been used previously on the Captain Poe Dameron figure. This release is cast in a darker plastic and not silver and has some gunmetal silver applied to the barrel.
The weapon can be wielded in either hand with each hand having a flexible trigger finger which can be squeezed into the weapons trigger.
When not in use the blaster can be slotted into the holster. This opens by means of a top flap and once the blaster is stowed away it can be sealed by clipping the trim back across the top. The coat does cover the holster, but with some tweaked posing you can have the coat being swung out to the side to allow DJ to be going for his gun.
The second weapon is a longer barreled blaster that appears to be the one used by the Canto Bight Police. It again is cast in a dark grey with some metallic finish over the top. It also fits in either hand but being larger the trigger finger is harder to position.
DJ comes with standard 16 points of articulation and this starts with a ball jointed pivoted head which allows both rotational movement, but with the ratcheted pivot also within the neck, DJ can look up and down by quite a way.
The main body has a torso ball joint but this fails to add much forward and backward motion, just rotational. It is also noticeable when you start looking at this joint that the paint finish between top and bottom sections are slightly different.
The arms are ball jointed shoulders followed by a single rotating elbow. Each wrist is then pivoted and can bend to about 90 degrees. The legs start with ball jointed hips and we then have a thigh swivel to allow the legs to be turned in and out. The knees are double jointed and can bend fully and the figure ends with ankle rockers with DJ standing perfectly well in a number of poses. The coat does stop some poses, including kneeling, but the holster and belt move with the legs and do not restrict the movement a tall.
While DJ's role in The Last Jedi, and indeed Del Toro's portrayal, is much debated - the figure is a fantastic realisation of the character in 6" scale. While the head is not 100% perfect, it looks awesome when you get the right angle and the costume is weathered and dirty and not some of the clean finishes we;ve seen recently. There is bags of subtle detail as well including hat golden patterning on the coat, the rings on his left hand and the text on his cap.
The two blasters are a nice addition and in actual fact Hasbro could have given us one and dropped the working holster, and this would have been a great figure.
2018 see's the bar raised on The Black Series and I am taking this opportunity to set the bar on our review scores for this year. DJ is very good, but he is not perfect and I would have liked to see consistent colouring on that T-shirt and some weathering on those extremely shiny shoes. I am therefore awarding DJ a 4 out of 5.
