Review: Star Wars Black Series The Mandalorian, Mercenary Guard Droid, and STAP, from The Mandalorian and Grogu
"Do we run? Or do we fight?"
The first Star Wars Black Series figures from The Mandalorian and Grogu focused predominantly on the main characters and the Imperial Remnant. It was the second batch of single figures that began to draw from the second half of the movie and the events on Nal Hutta, with figures like Embo and the Mercenary Droid Guard. And following this second wave of single figures were a number of larger releases and sets that included Rotta the Hutt and the set we are seeing here: The Mandalorian alongside a Mercenary Droid Enforcer, complete with STAP.
The set is an Amazon exclusive globally, so only available via the Amazon network. It arrives in a large, elongated window box that is also deeper than usual to accommodate the STAP in particular. The base colour remains black, accented by the blue/purple tone assigned to The Mandalorian and Grogu, and this colouring is used on the stripe under the window that confirms the source material, and on the text to confirm the contents. On the right-hand side spine, we have the usual artwork, but expanded due to the deeper box. It carries a split image showing a helmeted Mando with his twin-swords in the top panel, and beneath this, the Enforcer on the STAP. The set is not numbered, and the side art panel does not connect directly with any other sets, nor would it be easy to display in that way for boxed collectors, considering the length of the box itself.
The back of the box has the same images, but now spread on a horizontal panel under which sits the background text. While prior Mando & Grogu releases have simply positioned the premise of the movie, this set does go specific in terms of the text and the contents and talks about the “Well armed mercenary guards” and how they are assembled from mixed parts, and how they re-use the STAP transports originally used by the Trade Federation. Oddly, there is no reference to Mando himself?
The contents are set into a large plastic tray, with the stand for the STAP in its own tray taped behind the STAP on the right-hand side. Behind this tray is an inserted card which matches the colour coding of the box, and within it is an embedded image of the Swamps of Nal Hutta.
We start with Mando, who is essentially the exact same figure as the one released alongside Grogu as a Deluxe release in Wave 1. Proportionally, the body is excellent and is cast with a base brown ‘undersuit’ body over which Mando’s armour is fitted with a shiny silver metallic finish. Detailing includes the Mudhorn sigil sculpted into the right shoulder pauldron, and painted detail down over the back of the hands, the knee pads, and the ammunition in Mando’s right boot. While there is no obvious weathering or battle damage, there is blemishing added to the right thigh armour panel.
Over the main armour, we get Mando’s bandolier and belt combination, coloured in brown and painted with a silver belt buckle and silver details on his various ammunition. The three Grav Charges remain in situ, but they are all now fixed, and there is no obvious option to remove the centre one as an accessory, as we saw with the first movie release of this Mando figure. Attached to the belt are the grey internal armour panels that cover Mando’s midriff as well as his thighs and waist area. Built into the right one is a working holster. The soft goods cape sits around the neck area and tucks into the chest armour, making it non-removable without cutting some stitching. It is the same material as the original and sits pretty well down Mando’s back. It does lack any damage/weathering. While the first release had a tattered finish to the cape, this one looks brand new - which is odd in terms of overall continuity, as it's the same cape through the movie and the one on Nal Hutta has been through much more in terms of battle and damage.
Apart from a few paint finish variations and the cape, the Din Djarin head sculpt is the key difference on this figure vs. the original, and is only the third time (in keeping with the Mandalorian creed) that we’ve had an unmasked Pedro Pascal head sculpt in the line. The first was in 2020 with the deluxe pack with ‘The Child’ representing the end of Season 1, while the second came as part of the Season 2 line-up in 2023 and from the Morak episode where he removes his helmet in the Imperial base while disguised as a Tank Pilot. This third head is much improved on both of these prior releases, and on par with the Fantastic Four figure we saw Hasbro put out about a year or so ago in the Marvel Legends line.
It is sculpted with quite a stern expression and in keeping with the Twins unmasking him on Nal Hutta. Facial printing is used on the main details, including the facial hair, while the hair itself is painted in a deep brown. While the unmasked look is fine, I do note that from some angles the head looks a little small for the body, and it is certainly smaller than the previous releases and the Fantastic Four Pascal head. It also sits quite high on the neck peg, and I assume both of these are decisions made to allow the helmet to be removable while also not looking oversized once worn.
The helmet itself is cast in the silver-grey plastic with a painted black gloss visor section and is accurate to the movie prop both when worn and when discarded by The Twins into the Dragon Snake pit. The proportions are the same as those of the first movie release, so once worn over the head, the two figures are relatively identical.
Articulation is 21 points in total. The upper body includes a chest pivot and dual neck joint, while the arms have a good range of movement thanks to the butterfly shoulders, elbow joint that bends to 90 degrees, forearm ‘glove’ rotation, and wrist peg and pivot. The legs feature a standard hip joint, allowing Mando to kneel and sit, a knee joint, a bootcut swivel, and an ankle pivot. These are all tight and secure, and once positioned, Mando holds his pose really well.
In keeping with the Nal Hutta scenes, Mando is ‘tooled up’ with the weaponry he finds on the crashed ship. This starts with his blaster, the same as included on the prior Mandalorian figures, and cast in dull grey with a brown painted handle. It is designed to fit in his right hand, but the left also has a stubby trigger finger, so he can just about hold it as well, just less securely. When not in use, it fits into his holster. Mando also has his knife holstered in his right boot when not in use, and held in an alternative right hand with a tighter grip when you want him fighting with his blade. The knife itself is limited in detail: a silver-painted blade and a grey blade.
Up next is the Amban Phase Rifle he finds and begins using again after losing his original back in Season 2. This is a slightly different piece to those released originally, and it comes with a disconnected target sighting piece that has to be slotted into the main body of the weapon; this is frustratingly fiddly to do, and the piece is prone to popping back out as you try to position the rifle. The Phase rifle itself is gunmetal grey with a brown stock, and gold detailing on the central body and on the targeting sights.
Mando comes with the same back sockets as the first movie release, and that will allow him to wear a jetpack, although one is not included. There is, however, a peg on the rifle that lines up with either of these upper two slots for over-the-shoulder holstering of the Phase Rifle. The articulation is just about wide-ranging enough to have the Phase Rifle posed into firing positions, the hardest part being engaging the right hand and the trigger finger.
The final two pieces are the twin gladius swords he wields in hand-to-hand combat with Embo. These are brand new to the line and include a sculpted twin-blade with punched holes down one side, and a copper clasp connecting the other blade side to the hilt. The hilt is a darker finish, with a silver pommel.
These fit into either of the main gripping hands for combat positions, and while the grip is slightly looser than I might like, it does allow the weapon to be tilted forward from the grip into attacking positions rather than sitting at a 90-degree angle the whole time. Sadly, there is no designed holstering option for the blades. While Mando does sheath these behind his back in the movie, you can achieve something similar by sliding them behind the strap of his bandolier, but this does look a bit awkward and the blades are far from secure.
The second figure in the set is the Mercenary Enforcer Droid from the Droid Gotra. This is the same base figure as released singularly in Wave 2, albeit with a significant repaint and different soft goods. This one is more aligned to the B1 Mercenary Enforcer depicted in the Mando & Grogu reference guide and appears to be the same droid taking orders as Mando escapes the Dragon Snake Pit, and then as the first Droid to be dismounted from its STAP by Mando as they hunt him in the swamps.
Construction of the droid is done so with coloured limb parts and torso that each connect through a darker grey joint piece or midsection, each of these also featuring robotic greebles and wiring. To mirror the mismatched construction of the droid, there are key pieces in the Trade Federation tan brown finish that are then contrasted with a grey leg piece and both blue and orange forearms. Further detailing is added to the main body, such as a yellow symbol on the chest, indicator buttons and lights down the left arm, alongside some coloured wiring that connects the upper arm to the forearm. There is also battle damage and weathering applied to the lower left leg and the right forearm, but not extended to the full body.
The soft goods on this Enforcer are wrapped around the chest with a bandolier-style strap with pouches in softer brown plastic. The cape itself has a fur top section, akin to that used previously on Enfys Nest and the Range Troopers, which then has a lighter brown fabric beneath as the main cloak. This cloak is tattered and uneven in its finish as seen on screen.
The head, recogniseable as a relation to the original B1 Battle Droids from the Prequels, is a bright orange with a silver nose piece and gunmetal inner workings visible at the sides and under the chin. There are projected ‘mandibles’ in silver, and two extending aerials at either side of the head. The eyes are painted in black, but edged in silver, which is extremely fine in the way it circles the eyes and cuts across the line in the centre.
The droid has 20 points of articulation, built into the principal design of the droid body and very much where the droid articulates on screen. I found the legs frustrating in their execution, with the joints quite spongy, which leads the hips to spring back to a very neutral position and the ankles to sit too far forward unbalancing the droid. The main body includes a torso ball joint, while the neck is twin-jointed, top and bottom. The arms have sufficient movement to raise and lower with either of the included weapons, while the soft goods cape and rubber pauldrons move with the arms.
The first of these weapons is the E-5 Battle Droid Blaster that has done the rounds a few times with Black Series B-1 Droids, Commando Droids, and in the New Republic era with the HK Droids from The Mandalorian and Ahsoka. This is cast in a gunmetal grey with no other painted decor. It fits into the Enforcer's hands and can be held with a single or dual-handed grip, with enough arm movement for firing poses. There is no holster option.
The second weapon is the tall Electro-Staff Pole used by the Droid Gotra and coloured in black and silver with some gold fins painted at the top of the weapon. Like the blaster, this fits in one or both hands and can be wielded in plenty of positions as a melee weapon. In the movie, we see the Droids wear this on their back when riding the STAP, but this feature has not been engineered into the figure.
The STAP itself is the same as that released in 2024 as a Pulse Con Exclusive and as seen in The Phantom Menace. Like that 2024 release, the 2026 Mercenary STAP has a clear plastic teardrop stand, into which sits a ball-jointed upright piece, and the STAP then connects into this via the lowest point of the main fin body. The ball joint between the base and clear stand allows you to pose the STAP as banking or straight up, and this works pretty well, but when you push to more extreme positions, the base is not heavy enough, and the whole thing will topple over.
The STAP is cast in a similar mid-brown as the original Trade Federation version, with the connecting arms between the top section and the body coloured in gunmetal grey. Over the brown are lighter stripes and panels of the Droid Gotra, and over these are painted silver scratches and dings to give the STAP some damage. The STAP is articulated, with movement built into the handlebars and the connecting arms, which can ratchet up or down to position the twin guns.
The STAP can be ridden by both Mando and the Enforcer Droid, both accurate to the movie, although Mando was only riding it for a few seconds of screen time. Mando has extra holes added to his boots giving two holes per foot, one at the front and another at the back. It is only the standardl back ones that are needed to grip his heels into the STAP's foot pedals; the purpose of the new front holes is unknown - perhaps another speeder is planned? With the feet engage, the figure then connects via the handlebars, with Mando’s gripping hands creating a secure connection. In between the hands and feet, the body has to be posed with bent knees in an almost sitting position, and the torso joint hunched forward into the pilot position.
The exact same pose and application is used for the Droid Enforcer, who sits in a similar position with feet plugged into the foot pegs and hands gripping the handlebars. On both Mando and the Droid, the capes do hang flat when piloting, and a wired version would have been an awesome extra touch to have the cape flowing out behind in the wind (see assisted image below, right).
As prices rise in the Black Series overall, Amazon exclusives have definitely seen a much sharper increase, and this set of two figures and a vehicle is retailing at £82.99 in the UK. This does make it an expensive single purchase, and the preference might have been to release Mando singularly and the STAP and Enforcer on their own in a Deluxe Set. The other issue is the exclusivity to Amazon which means it is extremely likely that your packaging will arrive damaged. Mine arrived in a cardboard bag and had a big ding at one side, and the top ripped. For boxed collectors this issue of sending a costly Collector Line through the Amazon network with no packaging protection will be problematic.
What you get in the set is pretty impressive and allows replication of a few scenes in the movie with either the Droir or Mando piloting the STAP. It is worth noting that when Mando is on the speeder, he does have Grogu on his shoulder, and therefore adding in a version of Grogu to plug into Mando’s back would have also been a welcome addition. You can’t actually do this with the one already released, as that is designed to hold onto the jet pack.
The only other niggles are the head on Mando, marginally undersized, and the articulation on the Enforcer Droids legs which is frustrating more than anything. These are offset with excellent sculpts on both figures, soft goods that look natural, work with the figure, and do not impede the articulation. And with a level of weathering that, while not ‘all in,’ still stops them from looking too clean. It will be good to see how much more of the Droid Gotra Hasbro will bring us in the Black Series line as they begin to move into the new Phase in 2027, and if we would get the Amani, who are one of the other key gaps in the collection so far.
Keep Track of all the Star Wars Black Series figures from Hasbro at our comprehensive
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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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