Jannah, from Star Wars The Rise of Skywalker, arrived in the final wave of 2019 alongside the Jet Trooper from the same film and figures of Wedge, Luke Skywalker and Cara Dune. She was number 98 in the 3rd phase of packaging.
Packaging 4/5
Jannah is number 98 in the Black Series 3rd phase, packed in the gloss black box with red side spine and card back. The front of the box carries the usual Gregory Titus artwork and this is repeated on the back of the box alongside a brief piece of text to give us some background info for Jannah.
"From an oceanic moon, Jannah leads a band of warriors, ready to charge against the forces of the First Order"
The text is brief, even for the Black Series, and is most probably deliberately vague as the figure came out ahead of the movie and spoilers were being avoided.
Paint & Sculpt 4/5
The head sculpt on Jannah is excellent and uses the face print technology to nail the likeness of actor Naomi Ackie. The only real downside is that the face is perhaps a tad too glossy. The hair is sculpted out from the head and is held back on the forehead with Jannah's goggles. The red splodges on these goggles is there on screen, but is much more subtle - the goggles would have benefitted from being a bit darker or washed with a darker paint to weather them.
The costume is pretty faithful to the onscreen ensemble with a tan coloured test, blue 3/4 trousers and then various straps, belts and accessories - each painted well with a lot of differing colours used on Jannah's costume when you start to inspect it closely. The cloak is plastic, not soft goods, and is really well shaped and shaded - but it can of course only sit in one position. It can be removed if you pop off Jannah's head and slide it up and over.
As with the goggles the costume could have done with being a bit darker, a bit more weathered to represent Jannah's lifestyle and surroundings.
Accessories 4/5
Jannah is the first Black Series figure for some time to come with a whole raft of accessories - harkening back to the launch of the range when packed in accessories were always plentiful.
Jannah gets her bow, a blaster pistol, quiver and two arrow accessories - a single arrow and bundle of other arrows.
The blaster is cast in a silver plastic with bone white added to the grip and barrel. It fits into Jannah's right hand where a trigger finger can slit into the quarter moon trigger. When not in use it slots into a working holster at Jannah's side.
The bow is a little trickier to work out. It essentially has a grip through the centre of the bow and this can fit into either right or left hand. If you look at promo shots for the Rise of Skywalker then these indicate Jannah can shoot the bow in either hand. The setup of the figure indicates more of a left hand setup with the gloved right hand for drawing the bow string and the quiver which sits best on the right shoulder. The single arrow slides, with a bit of a push, through the circular firing piece of the bow and allows you to pose Jannah in a firing pose.
The quiver has a flexible rubber strap that unclips and allows you to put the quiver over either shoulder. It looks best on the right - when on the left shoulder it clashes with the cloak - but neither shoulder looks particularly comfortable as the strap is too short and the quiver sits too high. The bundle of arrows sit into the quiver to finish the look.
Articulation 4/5
Jannah comes with a total of 16 points of articulation, standard for any Black Series figure of the current time.
Head : ball joint neck with pivot
Body : torso ball joint
Arms : ball joint shoulder, single rotating elbows, wrist pivot
Legs : ball joint hips, thigh swivel, double joint knees, ankle rocker
All the joints work fully and are robust and secure in their movement. The legs are fully mobile, but with the cloak they are restricted to standing poses.
The arms work enough for bow firing positions - but would have been taken to the next level if they could have squeezed in double joint elbows. Firing from the left hand with the quiver on the right shoulder looks best for me, but the alternative combination can be used - you just need to play around with the quiver position vs cloak.
Summary
Jannah was a great character in The Rise of Skywalker, even if her role is quite limited and we find out very little about her background - or potentially what her background was initially going to be. Her figure is a surprise really, particularly as she has made it to figure form ahead of say Finn, Poe or even Lando.
The execution is excellent on all fronts with sculpt, paint and articulation all very strong - although all of them do have room for improvement. Notably the weathering of the figure and the arm articulation for a figure who is using a bow.
I score Jannah a 4 out of 5. And I do hope that her single release now doesn't completely rule out a future creature release with her Orbak mount.
action figures, reviews, review, articulation, star wars, black series, rise of skywalker, episode 9, jannah, hasbro