Review: Star Wars Black Series SM-33 from Skeleton Crew, Galaxy Collection Deluxe Release
- Mephitsu
- Oct 10, 2025
- 5 min read
"I go where the captain goes."
When the Skeleton Crew figures were released in early 2024, one of the notable crew members missing was that of SM-33, the tetchy ship’s robot played by Nick Frost. That ‘gap’ in our collections, alongside the four key protagonists of Fern, Wim, Neel, and KB, was filled in Autumn of 2025 with a Deluxe release of SM-33.
Our Pirate Droid arrives in a larger and deeper Deluxe box to accommodate his additional height and width. Otherwise, the box follows the same design principles with an accent colour against a matt black box. For Skeleton Crew, the applied colour is a deep yellow used on the text and on the side artwork. SM-33 is number 07 in the Skeleton Crew Galaxy Collection, and this side artwork connects directly to that of Captain Brutus.
The rear of the box includes a repeat of this artwork as well as a very brief piece of background text that positions SM-33 as a first mate on the crashed ship and talks about his patchy memory and decrepit body. The internal card back sat behind the figure uses the same deep yellow, within which is an embedded image of a desolate plantery body, most likely the Observatory Moon.
In hand, Thirty-Three is of course an entirely new sculpt made predominantly from a full metal plastic finish. Within the main body components are sculpted patches of rust, bubbling underneath the paint work, with overlaid mottled metallic paintwork to age the body.
The circular joints, similar to those of Battle Droids or KX Security Droids, are copper and gold with further copper and gold panels and paint details added around the other key components on the chest, the forearms, and on the knees. Like some protocol droids, the mid-section of Thirty-Three is exposed wiring, and the wires are painted in reds, blues, and greys. The legs recreate the mismatch combination we see on screen, with a complete right leg, but with the left fashioned into a piratical ‘peg leg’.
The skeletal head of Thirty-Three is cast of the same grey metal plastic with a shinier lower jaw and gold-painted ‘teeth’. The right eye socket is ridged silver, similar in styling to a Protocol Droid. The left socket is left open, and into this you can plug a tiny version of Snowball. While the Bilge Rat is a snug fit, it lacks any details and is too dark considering Snownball’s white/grey fur and four red eyes.,
The head also features a neat opening skull feature, with the top part of the head clipping off to open up the head. The back of this top skull cap is connected to the rear of SM-33 by way of four flexible pipes, with a fifth unconnected, thicker pipe also coming into play when the head components are re-connected.
The other feature built into Thirty-Three is the ability to extend his mechanical limbs to make himself taller. There are expansion joints built into the ankles, thighs, the trunk, and the arms, which can be pulled out (or pushed) back to extend or contract SM-33’s height. When extended the ‘extended pistons’ are not coloured exactly the same as the main body, left in some parts as a milky plastic finish and others as a lighter, almost translucent silver. The extension joints are tight in their operation, and therefore are hard to engage in places. I would imagine they need to be this snug to protect against loose joints.
Incorporating these extender joints, I count 22 points of articulation on SM-33. The standard knees and elbows use a simple rotation built into the circular robotic joint, while the hips and shoulders are more traditional in their ball joint design. The shoulders feature a flexible shoulder pauldron to allow the armour to move with the joint, while the legs are completely unrestricted thanks to the construction of the droid and the large gaps between the upper thighs and the hip section.
With all these joints in play, there are plenty of posing options for Thirty-Three, including his shambling walk as seen in many of his scenes in Skeleton Crew. This does put some pressure on the balance of the figure as the torso is hunched forward. To combat this, SM-33 is the first to include a simple circular peg stand in clear plastic. Similar to a Protech stand, the peg corresponds with the ‘peg leg’ to create some additional stability.
The only accessories as such, other than Snowball, are SM-33’s forearm shields. These are not engineered into the figure, but simply swap out parts. You clip off the standard wrist guards, leaving a shaped slot behind into which the circular shields fit as an alternative configuration. Each of the circular guards includes a central panel to reflect the original arm shape from which the circular sheidl extends. Each side of the shield includes a gold component, and scorch marks are added to weather the shields further The fit on these is extremely poor on our review copy, particularly on the left arm, and these arm guards are continually falling off with little or no interaction. The lack of any forearm or elbow swivel makes positioning the shield difficult, and while some posing is possible, you cannot directly recreate how Thirty-three deploys them in the show.
Thirty-three is a fun figure, if not a little frustrating in terms of those arm accessories and the lacking detail on his Bilge Rat Snowball, despite Hasbro having gone to the effort to create it as an accessory that can be swapped in and out rather than including it as part of the head sculpt. The extending joints and removable skull panel are neat inclusions, and the addition of the stand does recognise the stability issues a missing foot would have - although to be fai,r I’ve found SM-33 pretty easy to stand on his own regardless.
SM-33 now completes the crew of the Onyx Cinder, with or without Jod Nawood. He provides another focal point for the small Skeleton Crew Galaxy Collection on display and is well scaled to both the adult character of Jod and Brutus, and the children. A welcome addition to the Black Series.
Keep Track of all the Star Wars Black Series figures from Hasbro at our comprehensive
If you are reading this via a 3rd party website that is importing our newsfeed, please come and visit us directly and give us a follow on Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube. Check out our direct news feed for more action figure news, reviews, and store reports
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...
Comments