Review: Star Wars Black Series The Ronin from Star Wars: Visions, Galaxy Collection Fan Channel Wave (2025)
- Mephitsu
- 14 minutes ago
- 6 min read
“Just a simple wanderer”
Star Wars: Visions is an anthology series of animated stories inspired by the Star Wars Universe. Its first season landed on Disney+ in September 2021, with Season 2 arriving on May the 4th, 2023, and Season 3 live as of the 29th of October 2025. Opening Season 1 as ‘The Duel’ a black and white story, infused with colour for the blast effects of sabers and plasters, is set in an alternative Star Wars timeline with the significant influence of Feudal Japan. The key character in this first story was The Ronin, who will make his return in Season 3, a mysterious former Sith who protects a village from Bandits.
The Star Wars Black Series had not delved into the Visions series until 2025 when Star Wars Celebration was hosted in Japan, and The Duel and in particular, the key protagonist The Ronin became an appropriate exclusive release for the Celebration Event. That release included The Ronin’s R2 Unit and was presented in entirely black and white tones with an extensive soft goods cape. The figure of The Ronin would go on to get a single release, re-coloured in line with the main Black Series collection, and dropped into the 3rd Galaxy Collection Wave of 2025 alongside Dash Rendar, Barriss Offee, and the Jedi Temple Guard.
The Ronin is the first in a new Galaxy Collection assigned to Star Wars: Visions with a new bright blue accent colour on the box text, and the side artwork that depicts The Ronin drawing his saber. As the launch figure, he is number 01 in the collection with no indication from the artwork or from any released news at the time of writing as to any further figures joining the line-up. The rear of the box carries the briefest overview of The Ronin and his role in The Duel, while the cardback inside carries an embedded image of mountains and a glimpse of the rooftops of the village The Ronin protects.
The figure is identical to that of the 2025 Star Wars Celebration exclusive, albeit now completely recoloured in a scheme that fits the realistic scheme of the wider Black Series and with some level of licence taken by Hasbro to the actual colouring, considering what we see on screen is essentially blacks and greys. The figure has not strayed much away from the source material, with the main outfit in black made up of a Gi-style upper robe crossed at the chest and tied at the waist. This is cast in black and appears to be a sleeved piece over an inner torso that features an inner shirt in white, visible at the collar. The Gi is tied with a white, dynamically sculpted, flowing belt with a silver buckle, added over the top of the torso as an individual piece. The trousers are padded and cut off at the ankles, with a pair of simple brown shoes finishing the costume.
Over all of this is a robe piece in soft black plastic and fastened at the front by a loose chain section that can be unplugged. This does mean the robe can be removed, although the figure beneath looks out of place without it considering the arms of the figure are the same cloak piece. The cloak is ragged and also sculpted with a dynamic glow to the sides in particular. The matching arms are similarly ragged and torn and also include the two silver panels on the left shoulder. This cloak is individual to this set, with the Celebrations version using a soft goods solution. In The Duel, we see that The Ronin is collecting Kyber Crystals from the Sith he defeats, and these are stowed in his robes. Hasbro has decided against reflecting this in the figure, which would have been a nice hidden detail.
The headsculpt is accurate to what we see on screen, with the animation style relatively realistic. The Ronin has a chin strap of sorts in gun metal silver as well as a black marking across his nose and down each cheek. The facial features are face printed, while the jet black hair is applied as a sculpted section as part of the head and a plugged in top chonmage pony tail, which is once more flowing as though blowing in the wind back over the head. A couple of other strands of hair flow out from the side of the head to add further windblown details.
The Ronin features two accessories: his lightsaber with its own sheath, and a blaster, both inspired by the style of weapons from Feudal Japan. The saber includes a brown hilt, in laid with a diamond pattern sculpted into the hilt and then picked out in grey. The pommel is bronze, as is the emitter from which the red translucent blade extends. Unlike most lightsabers, the blade is not removable from the hilt with the entire piece sheathed into the included scabbard. This is a silver grey finish with some softer detail of greebles and components, and ending in a black final section.
The blaster is reasonably simple with limited detail as befits the source material. It features a silver handle and brown stock. Both the blaster and the sheath include a sculpted ‘plug’ that should allow them to be slotted into a corresponding socket on The Ronin’s waist to the left-hand side. To do this, you also have to tuck them through the white belt, and getting all of them to line up is not overly easy and I ended up letting the belt hold the pieces in place, which gives more flexibility in their positions than trying to engage the plugs.
The weapons will fit in either hand, both left and right, inclusive of a gripping position and a trigger finger. There is also sufficient articulation for two-handed lightsaber posing, and posing him drawing his saber from the hilt as seen in the box.
This articulation is 19 points in total. This includes the more modern configuration where the thigh swivel is removed, but The Ronin gains an ankle pivot where the lower shin plugs into the trousers. While the trousers are broad and baggy, they retain a decent range of motion and stability when the figure is posed. The upper arms include butterfly shoulders, which definitely support the light saber forms with two-handed options not just limited to a single position, but now expanding to fighting positions and striking options.
There is no denying that The Ronin cuts an impressive figure, particularly due to the design choices to sculpt his hair and robes in a dynamic wind-blown style to reflect the scenes from The Duel. His conversion to a real-world setting in terms of colouring feels appropriate and also creates a contrast of the white inner robes and belt against the black of the robes. The weapons work well apart from the belted option as designed, but this can simply be worked around using the belt on its own to hold the sheathed weapons.
The figure’s only real downside is the lack of additional context for display either boxed or loose, and while he will display just fine on his own, we would hope Hasbro do commit further to this particular corner of The Visions content and bring us some complementary characters, the easiest of which would be a coloured version of R5-D56 from the Celebration set.
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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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