Review: Star Wars Black Series Moff Gideon (Dark Trooper Armor) from The Mandalorian, Galaxy Collection Wave 21
- Mephitsu
- Jul 15
- 6 min read
“I will create an army that will bring order to the galaxy."
The original Moff Gideon figure was released back in 2021 after his appearance in Season 1 and into Season 2 of The Mandalorian. This figure presents Gideon in his Imperial Combat Gear, complete with cape and the Darksaber. Gideon underwent a significant upgrade for Season 3 thanks to his Dark Trooper Armour, and it is that appearance that inspires his 2025 Star Wars Black Series release as part of Wave 21 of the Galaxy Collection.
Moff Gideon is number 44 in the Mandalorian Galaxy Collection series, with the black mat box utilising the deep orange colour assigned to figures from The Mandalorian on both key text elements and the side artwork. The artwork, showing a helmeted Gideon brandishing a Force Pike, directly connects to the art for the Praetorian Guard from the same wave in the wider montage. This artwork is repeated on the back of the box along with a synopsis of Moff Gideon’s intentions for Season 3 of The Mandalorian and his prototype Dark Troopers.
The card back, sat behind the figure in the tray, also features the same dark orange colouring and within this an embedded image of the landscape of Mandalore.
In hand, the figure is entirely new in its design, while being constructed in a similar method to that of other modern Black Series armoured Troopers. The armour panels are cast in a high-gloss black and connected by way of a ribbed undersuit in a slightly less gloss, but certainly not matt, black finish. Unlike Clones and Stormtroopers, the chest piece for Gideon, while looking solid, is extremely pliable. Decor applications are minimal with a simple silver panel in the centre of the Mandalorian Armour-inspired chest plate and a red-trimmed belt with gunmetal silver buckle.
A touch more red can be found on the shoulder straps of the upper armour, where a soft goods cape connects into the body. This time round, the cape moves from sculpted plastic to soft goods, and a similar style and fabric to that used on some of the Inquisitors from the Kenboi series. The cape is black on the outer face, but red trimmed inside. Unlike its predecessor, it hangs very flat with no character in terms of folds or creasing. The cape is held in check, and therefore non-removable, by way of a gloss black jetpack. This is detailed enough but completely lacking in any wider decor on the component parts.
The headsculpt is new and an improved likeness both in sculpt and facial printing to actor Giancarlo Esposito. The facial hair is gone, as it was in Season 3, and the expression given to the figure is certainly in keeping with Gideon’s nonchalant ‘you are beneath me' look he often sports. The hair is cropped short and on a receding hairline, sculpted into the head and with both a darker base colour and overlaid lighter drybrushing to add the appropriate ‘aged’ look.
The secondary look for Gideon is to use the included Dark Trooper Armour helmet. This is a very soft and squishy piece in a similar high-gloss black finish. Despite the movement in the plastic, it holds shape reasonably well, including the head spikes. The visor is painted a pearlescent pink, while the cheek segments are picked out in red markings. The fit over the head is ok, but not as snug as other helmeted figures. There is also a sizing issue so that even at its lowest point on the head, you can still see Gideon’s chin at the base of the faceplate unless you angle the head looking fully downwards.
Gideon is furnished with three separate accessories, starting with a basic hold-out blaster in darker grey plastic that is carried forward from the original release. This small weapon includes a sculpted sight that sits above the main barrel of the weapon while holding its shape really well. It fits most naturally in Gideo’s right hand, but the left hand also features a trigger finger, with a slightly tighter grip. When not in use, there is a working holster on the belt with a flexible strap that comes down and plugs into place intending to hold the blaster in situ, although in reality it sits too far to one side and the blaster can be slid out around the strap.
Gideon then features two versions of his electrostaff, starting with the compact collapsed version, which is a simplistic piece in grey plastic with a central black grip section. This can then be swapped out for the full extended electrostaff featuring similar colouring by way of a base grey plastic with the central section made up of a black centre grip, and two segments of a darker grey silver. The base end of the staff features the ridged black end cap, which can also be seen on the smaller version, while the emitter end includes three varying length prongs coming out of another black circlet. The weapon also features a translucent pink plastic effect that wraps around the emitter. This is the same as the one used on the Magna Guards, and while it does clip into place, the grip is limited,d and it has a tendency to slip off or to the side.
The weaponry is supported by 17 points of pinless articulation. Gideon does not feature any thigh swivel, relying solely on rotation in the hips and at the knee to orientate the legs. The ankle rockers are robust but the ratchets quite extensively spaced making it more difficult to get the feet flat to the ground. The upper body articulation includes a single torso ball joint and a dual joint neck. The arms come with both ball and butterfly shoulders, which works well for the extended electrostaff posing, with a flexible shoulder pauldron moving when the arm is raised. Further down sits a single joint elbow and a wrist joint. I found the wrist joints extremely irritating with Hasbro moving away from the usual peg and pivot, to a ball joint design which allows rotation but little else and any attempt to bend the wrist will simply see the ball joint pop out of the socket. This does impede some of the more extensive poses with the electrostaff and in some instances in blaster firing poses.
Moff Gideon in Dark Trooper Armour had the potential to be a very impressive figure, particularly if Hasbro built it on some of the key armoured principles they’ve developed over the years and provided they learned from certain mistakes. Sadly, the final product has a number of irritating flaws from the very gummy plastic of the helmet and chest section, to the visible chin when the helmet is worn. The constant flip/flop between soft goods and sculpted is back to soft goods in this wave after talking so much about using the softer plastic for more visible accuracy on recent releases like Luke & Leia from A New Hope. The cape on Gideon sits flat, has no dynamism in any position, and floats unnaturally above the shoulders due to the way it is fixed. There are good points too with an impressive head sculpt, and the choice of three weapon options, including a collapsed electrostaff which could have easily been omitted.
This new Gideon will certainly balance out the Mandalorian Season 3 figures, which have been heavily leaning towards the Mandalorian faction so far, and alongside the Praetorian Guard and the previously released Imperial Commando, the Imperial Remnant still looks the part on display.
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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...
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