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I will admit that before this year I knew very little about the White Suit Prototype Boba Fett. I had seen it in 3.75" version and once in Cosplay at a Convention, but always assumed it was something from the expanded universe. Now I have researched further and seen the test shots on Youtube it kind of has lost the mystery for me, but regardless this is a gorgeous looking figure - especially for fans of the Mandalorian Armour. Proto Boba is a Wallgreens Exclusive in the US and got a limited UK release through A1 comics, a Scottish based comic book chain. Boba is exactly what an exclusive should be - a repaint of a niche character that wont impact on a collection if you choose to pass. He comes in the new blue trim box, but without any identifying numbers. Although this has started to sneak through to some none US retailers, it has been a tough one to get hold of at a reasonable price in the UK. As with my Sandtrooper, that arrived at same time, the price I paid did mean a rough box. Proto Boba is pretty much the same as standard Boba, coming in his tray with blaster, rifle and a backpack. He is also a straight on repaint with no tweaks to the sculpt, so he still comes with dinted helmet. However the paint job cant be knocked, this is not a smothering of white - there are shade differences which give the armour real depth. This time round the guns arent painted and I also am told these are not accurate to this version of Boba. The cape is white with some grey detailing, but on mine and unlike the original version it didnt flow right and took some playing with till it looked how it should Proto Boba pretends to be nothing else than a cool looking figure if you look past the accuracy and how canon the figure is. You can use your imagination as to whether this is a post ROTJ Boba escaped from the Sarlac, or simply another Mandalorian or some kind of Imperial Super Trooper. There are very few downsides, so I give Boba a 4/5 - downmarking him for the limited UK availability, the unpainted rifle and the dodgy cape. Just need Hasbro to either make this one more widespread so we can repaint our own Mandalorians, or get cracking on Jango Fett and perhaps a couple of Mandalorians from the Clone Wars.

Princess Leia has had a pretty raw deal in the 6" scale so far. In her one outing to date she was presented in the Return of the Jedi "Slave" outfit, and ended up not only peg warming, but ruffling a few feathers with parents in the US. This 2nd release of Leia has gone with one of her more "action" orientated scenes and again is Return of the Jedi based. Leia as Boushh was one of my favourite figures in the 1980's. Not only was it a "cool" outfit for Leia, it also doubled as another bounty hunter or bad guy for Jabba's palace. Boushh arrives in the blue phase 2 Black Series packaging, and is number 16 in the reset numbering system for phase 2. As we saw with wave 8, the box retains the grey line artwork but has lost any blurb or character bio on the reverse. In fact Boushh gets a bit of a raw deal as the rear of her box see's you focus in on the image of Bib Fortuna, rather than the Boushh who is slotted in at the base of the image. Out of the box, and Boushh looks to have come with the largest number of accessories since perhaps Han or the Sand Trooper in 2013. As well as a Force Pike, Leia is also packing a Thermal Detonator as well as the Boushh helmet and the backpack. The white elephant in the room is the height of the figure, which is significantly larger than the Slave Leia figure - despite representing the same character. Hasbro have said that this was a choice based on the fan fury at "how small" Slave Leia looked in wave 2. Hasbro have therefore listened and produced Leia in a more acceptable size vs the rest of the figures. I really like the head sculpt on this figure, capturing a determined Leia and the head is only let down by a bit of a heavy handed paint job at the factory with thick black lines of mascara around the eyes and overly red lipstick. The hair is a tad soft without the detail I have seen recently in Rey from TFA, it is also a very flat brown paint job and could have been improved with a second or third paint application to bring out more detail. Down into the body and I am very happy with what Hasbro has given us. The sculpt is exactly what my 10 year old self remembers and includes some decent detail across the bandoleer and belt. The skirt is a softer rubber which does help the articulation as we will discover a little later on. On the reverse of the body is a peg hole into which the two cylinder back pack slots. Also on the back is a soft good cape, very similar to Boba Fett, which looks "ok" but isnt perhaps as neat as Fett's with some clumsy folding and a dodgy looking joint into the body which I am sure will fray if I look at it too long. Paint apps let down the body as they do with the head. It is a lot neater than we have seen from Hasbro in a long time, although I do have a stray streak of silver on the chest piece. But the issue is that like the hair it is missing one more coat of perhaps a darker wash or some highlights. The outfit looks like Boushh has just been steam cleaned rather than stepping in from the dust storms of Tatooine into Jabba's grimy dungeon. That being said there are some nice touches in the decor, particularly the Aurebesh symbols on he backpack. The helmet in hand looks a tad too big, but is nicely designed and thank fully shows some evidence of paint detail with some dry brushing to reflect weathering. The helmet is a tight fit over the head, but once on looks fine and no over-sized at all. The issue is getting it back off again as the first time I tried the head came off with it. I suspect that too much helmet swapping will result in some ugly paint wear on Leia's face. Articulation on Leia is pretty standard. The head is on a ball joint and can rotate fully and achieve a bit of movement to look up and down. The shoulders are jointed very well and almost invisible, yet they allow the arms to move out to a full 90 degree to the body and then up above the head. The elbows, also hidden well in the folds of the tunic, give another 90 degree bend and the wrists then also rotate and bend up and down. There is still not enough movement to allow for a natural two handed weapon pose which these figures are still crying out for. Leia's torso has a joint which gives a bit of upper body swivel to either side. The legs are then jointed under the flexible skirt at the hips. The skirt isn't quite flexible enough to put Leia into a crouching position so the hip articulation is more or less wasted. The double jointed knees however allow Leia to kneel down and the ankles are on rockers to get a good foot plant and hold her stable on display. The Force Pike is what it is, case in grey plastic with no real sculpt or paint detail. The Thermal Detonator is a nice piece which can be held on the belt via a peg hole, or in the hand. I would have preferred a similar peg in the hand to hold it steady but you can't have everything. Leia as Boushh is certainly a massive step on from the Slave Leia. It ticks many boxes in terms of a display piece and sits particularly nicely into a Jabba's Palace theme and alongside the Han Carbonite if you are lucky enough to own that. It does lack a bit of weathering, but it is certainly a lot neater than we have had recently. The helmet could be an issue if you were playing with this regularly, but I think many collectors will simply go with one look or the other - or buy 2. Leia lets the Black Series finish on a high with phase 2 and as we move into TFA and phase 3 packaging and I give her a solid 4 out of 5.

Commander Cody is the 4th prequel clone figure that Hasbro has put out in the 6" Black Series range, but the first to utilise the Mk2 helmet as seen in Revenge of the Sith. Cody arrives in the blue phase 2 packaging, and is badged as #14, coming as part of what we would class as wave 9, and interestingly was packed two per case alongside Boushh and IG-88 - the first time this had happened in the range to this point. Cody, like the other wave 9 figures, has no character biography or text on the rear of the box but does sport the usual grey lined artwork which is a really nice depiction of Cody. I have reviewed 3 other clones prior to this review, so I am going to start by looking at the key differences with Cody over the 3 flavours of Mark 1 clone. Starting at the feet - and there is no difference between the two clone types on the legs. On Cody you do get orange painted knee pads and this actually looks much nicer than the white clones as we all know the knee and elbow pads on the white clones look off white vs the rest of the armour. Cody also sports an orange flash across his left thigh. The belt is the same sculpt on both, but Cody's is painted/molded in grey colouring. He then has three different coloured pouches on the belt and much more detail on the rear cylinder with 4 different paint applications vs the plain white on the Mk1. The chest piece is the first significant molding change with a more angular cut out at the stomach area. To signify his rank, Cody also has an insignia molded into the left of the chest and this again has at least 3, maybe 4 paint colours applied. Cody's chest piece is also sculpted with battle damage and this works really well even if it isn't painted as weathered. The orange colouring continues on the chest and rather than painted flat and clean, it is actually rough and "scratched" to add to the worn feel. Spin Cody round and the back is completely different with Cody sporting a back pack piece which looks to have slotted on to the usual rear panel of the Mk1 clone. Hands, lower arm and elbow pieces are identical to the Mk1 other than some additional paint apps on Cody. The right bicep piece on Cody then has a strap and apparatus. Both shoulders have slightly variant shoulder pieces vs the Mk1 with some relief imprinted designs. They also look to be molded from the orange colour and are quite a lot thinner. The left shoulder also has Cody's aerial piece molded in place. The helmet is the obvious difference and is a really good job in both capturing the Mk2 style and then customising it with the Commander visor and the aerial pieces. The helmet is, like a lot of the other parts, painted really well in numerous colours with no bleed or mis-aligned decals? Articulation is pretty much the same as the Mk1 with a bit of leg movement but a lot of it restricted by the leg armour. The arms can get into a two handed weapon pose, which is nice, but they can't get do a great deal more due to the shoulder pads. The head sits a bit higher on the neck piece than the Mk1 and that allows for a huge range of movement - unfortunately if you have Cody looking up or to the side it starts to look odd with his neck too extended. Cody comes with the same weaponry as the Mk1 clones with a blaster and a larger rifle. I would, like most people, have preferred to have seen one weapon and instead had the Holo Palpatine to replicate the Revenge of the Sith scene. Cody is a significant improvement on the Mk1 clone without doing much different. The paint apps make a big difference, particularly covering up those ugly mis-matched knee and elbow pads with a coloured paint. The paint is also really neatly done and considering the details like the chest rank insignia is not out of line at any point. Articulation on the clone's will always be restrictive, same as the Storm Trooper, but Cody does enough to hit a couple of decent poses. All of the other clones to date have scored 2 out of 5, and Cody is definitely improved enough to score a 3. He misses out on a 4 really due to a lack of that Emperor Holo which feels like a big miss.

The Clone Captain, as seen very briefly in Attack of the Clones, is the 13th figure of the phase 2 Blue Line figures in Hasbro's Black Series 6" line. Released in 2015 it falls into Wave 8 and is a simple repaint of the Clone Trooper we originally saw in wave 4. Once Hasbro had the Clone Mark 1 sculpt it was always going to be wheeled out to fill gaps in waves as a much cheaper alternative to a brand new sculpt, and do you know what I am happy with that and its nothing new to either Hasbro or indeed any figure producing company. We have had this figure as a flat white clone and as a green trimmed sergeant, and will see the yellow flavour in November when the Amazon evolution exclusive packs arrive. We will also see the body re-used for Wave 9's Commander Cody and for the Mk 2 clone in the same box set - and likely beyond that for other releases like Captain Rex. The Clone Captain arrives in the blue-lined box, numbered as #13, and with the usual grey lined artwork. Like the other figures in wave 8 and 9, there is no blurb or character background on the box rear, which feels a bit lazy and certainly a missed opportunity to either give some character background or perhaps advertise other figures in the range. Out of the box and Clone Cap stands at 6" high and arrives with a blaster and a larger rifle. The sculpt on the Mk1 clone has always been ever so slightly off for me. I can't put my finger on it other than it looks a tad too slim and the helmet doesn't look like it can have a human head underneath. That being said, and like the Storm Trooper, Hasbro has done a good job of defining the various panels of armour and sculpting them over the top of what would in real terms be a black body suit. The armour does however impact the articulation quite considerably. The arms can barely move outward from the body as they are blocked at the shoulder joint by the shoulder pads. The bicep swivel and the double jointed elbow should allow the figure to achieve a good two handed weapon pose, but the elbow pad restricts that movement which means the Clone can get "nearly" there, but not enough to look comfortable. The legs have enough movement at the hips to get into a reclining sitting position, but not a lot else. There is an unnatural kneeling pose, but none of these are going to suit collectors and most, like myself, will go with the neutral stance. The guns fit in either hand, but always look a bit off. It is a shame that you cant get the rifle to sit over the shoulder like the Kamino Parade group scene from the movie. In the end you will have to decide how to arm your Captain and then pose as best you can. I want to talk about painting last on this figure. And firstly a positive, in that Hasbro have not repeated the issue we had on the Green Sergeant where the white was a significantly different colour to the other clones. Red Captain is the same crisp white as the original clones and therefore looks fine leading a squad or in a group shot. The red is also neatly done in most areas and the few bits where it is faded may almost be deliberate to give him a battle worn look. The unforgivable issue (on the one I received at least) was a huge chunk of brown paint on the brow and down the face. This type of error should never leave the factory and is too regular an occurrence on the Black Series of these blue line boxes to be forgivable. Hasbro needs to have a serious look at their quality control. There is nothing new here to warrant any different score than the 2 out of 5 I gave the Green Sergeant. Yes they have fixed the white colouring, but he still isn't quite right and is clunky in articulation. Sadly I can't see this improving with future Clone Troopers as there would be no need from Hasbro's point of view to retool. I am hoping however that they at least use this body to give us some more interesting variants from Revenge of the Sith

There is a sense of Deja Vu with this review for Luke in Storm Trooper armour. We have essentially already reviewed this figure twice before - once as the Storm Trooper himself, and a second time around when it was Han Solo in the Storm Trooper disguise. That all being said, Han & Luke in Storm Trooper armour are always going to be figures that will sell in a Star Wars line. It was such an iconic piece in the first film, and for Hasbro it is a win-win considering the tooling for the Storm Trooper can then be spit out as so many other figures. So is he a little short for a Storm Trooper? Well thank fully yes, Hasbro have gone screen accurate on this one and tooled the body a touch shorter than that of Han or the regular Storm Trooper figure. When you first look at this tweak it looks a bit odd as the mid-drift of the figure is almost completely covered by the chest piece. However, this is exactly as the solid armour pieces would look if they were worn by a shorter person and therefore it does make Luke look a little clunky and under-sized which is really nice. The head sculpt is a complete re-use of the wave 1 Luke X-Wing figure, but my how evident the paint application savings can be seen if you compare the two. Pilot Luke is a much cleaner paint with washes on the hair and detail in the facial features. Storm Trooper Luke has a very shiny skin finish, with clumsily painted eyes and mouth. The hair is much darker and the dry brushing very lazy to bring out the detail. Going back to height again, the other interesting comparison is when Luke Storm Trooper stands with Luke X-Wing and is significantly taller? The Storm Trooper armour is nicely done as it was on the earlier Storm Trooper figures. Luke however feels cheaper and the plastic feels softer and there seems to be more of a yellow hue to the white armour when Luke lines up with Han or with one of the Wave 3 Troopers. There are also some messy patches around the joints and the ongoing issue where where the joint pegs were painted a different colour white to the armour still exists, and in fact gets worst as the knee pegs are simply left unpainted and black. Articulation on an armoured figure always suffers. The shoulder pads really restrict the arm movements, but the double jointed elbows and bicep swivel do allow a 2 handed weapon pose if you want to go down that route. The legs are a little easier to move around but other than a wider stance or a sliding action you won't move far away from the neutral stance. Luke comes with a standard Storm Trooper blaster, which fits nicely into a rear holster. He also comes with the communicator that he uses to talk to C-3PO, this fits very neatly into the left hand despite its size. The Helmet is, like Han, a tad stretched looking but fits neatly over Luke's head and with the tailored neck piece makes him look like a Storm Trooper - so much so you could slot him into an Imperial scene as a Storm Trooper - probably a cheaper option vs the current price of a real wave 3 trooper. I would have liked Luke to be able to hold his helmet more naturally. At a push you can force the rim into the right hand and hold it hanging down. Luke Storm Trooper was always going to happen, but was never going to set the world on fire. It is a nice figure. It is nice that Hasbro wasn't lazy and actually reduced Luke's height within the armour. The quality is quite poor vs the older ST figures, with a yellow feel to parts and lots of scratches and paint smears. The accessories are good and fit well into the hands and holsters. Overall Luke scrapes a 3 out of 5.

Wave 8 of the Black Series has started to hit stores (June 2015) and is made up, as usual, of 4 figures. Han Stormtrooper is a straight up carry forward from Wave 7, Luke Stormtrooper (like Han) is a bit of a kit-bash and the Clone Sergeant is a re-paint. The only true new figure is that of The Emperor, and it is that very figure that we are reviewing here. There has been some reported issues with Palpatine supply as I write this review (June 2015), with pre-orders at some places being cancelled.. This all seems down to Hasbro cancelling solid cases of Palpatine, but I dont expect him to become a hard to find addition as the general mixed cases are due any time now into UK stores. On receipt Palpatine comes in the usual black window box with blue trim and grey lined artwork. Interestingly (considering he had a part in almost all the first 6 films, and was the key bad guy through both trilogies) on the box I receievd Hasbro couldnt find a single bit of blurb to put on the rear of the box. Poor Sheev. Out of the box and Palpatine is packed solely with a walking stick, and is obviously modelled after his appearance in Return of the Jedi rather than a prequel Sidious or a mix up of both. First impressions were ok, but nothing to make me go "wow". The sculpt is difficult to see due to the soft goods that envelope the figure - more on this in a moment - but if you peel back the hood the head is not a bad likeness to the heavily made up ROTJ Ian McDiarmid. If you lift up his cloak you will find a basic sculpted torso and then two vinyl skirts which are split down the side, these are very simply sculpted with the front skirt having a sash/belt sculpted into the plastic. Take a peak under the skirt and you will find quite nicely sculpted legs with some patterning and knee high boots (will these show up in a future figure perhaps). The only real paint you can find is on the Emperor's head, and it looks OK from a distance with a pale skin tone and then a wash to bring out the ridges and withered features. Get up close and you will see the recessed wash paint is a little too thick and the eyes are very over exagerated - but I can see this eye application being needed so you can still see the details once the hood is up and pulled down over the forehead. Within the community there are those who prefer soft goods and those who prefer vinyl. I am still on the fence as I do like what Hasbro did with Darth Maul, but can see the beauty in a well made soft goods accessory when you look at what the talented Mr Ang can do (look him up here). For the nicest Emperor figure I have seen to date I still go back to that POTF 3.75" Emperor from the 1990's and argue that this captured the denfinitive Emperor "look". I wonder what results Hasbro would have got with ditching the soft goods and going back to these POTF type vinyl robes. The soft goods are not a disaster, its just they are too light-weight to sit comfortably on the figure. If you look at the better custom cloaks being sold they are a success as they have a degree of weight to them so they hang naturally on the figure. With the Emperors cloak, and with Vader's before him, the material is too light and "floaty" and you can't get that iconic draped hood without losing the will to live or get the cloak to hang naturally. As suspected from early images the cloak is also too short to drag on the floor like the film costume. The clasp is also really fragile and mine popped open several times when shooting the photo's and is a pain to get fastened again if you have fat fingers like my good self. The button hole the clasp is meant to fastened in to is going to be a weak spot on the cloak and with too much fiddling I can see it being an epicentre for fraying of the cloak. Moving to more positive comments, and articulation is not bad. The head turns a full 360 degrees and is on a ball joint so can look up and down - which is useful for posing the head under the hood. Ball jointed shoulders allow Palpatine's arms to get out to a full 90 degrees to the body and then elbow joints and a wrist rotation allow Palps to at least assume the Force Lightening position - will we see an exclusive in Walgreens (US) later this year with the force lightening? Hips are well articulated too allowing Palps to do the splits if he wanted, and if the vinyl skirt wasnt in the way. Then there is a knee joint and ankle rockers, and getting Palpatine to stand isn't a problem. All of these joints work well under the soft goods cloak, but feel a bit redundant considering the action scenes the OT Emperor got into were virtually none... that's not to say that the body and articulation can't be re-used on a prequel Palpatine or even on other figures, cloaked or otherwise. The only accessory is the walking stick, and this is another let down considering once in his hand it can't reach the floor even if you bend him way past what would be considered a natural pose. This is pretty poor attention to detail. In summary this is another average release and feels a bit lazy in places. The sculpt is good and the painting adequate even if it is a little heavy handed. Jury is still out on the soft goods - like Vader I have been able to get a few good positions out of it - yet others look awful. The face of the matter is thought that there are more negatives than positives. The cloak is too short and too light weight. And that clasp is going to cause no end of frustration (it's just popped again as I write). The length of the walking stick is a crime and unusable in any shots. The articulation is great, but practically useless on a figure that didnt really need much. Palpatine does have a quirky charm about him and if you can get him "just right" in terms of pose and cloak position he is a nice background figure stood say behind a dualling Vader and Luke. But no more than 2 stars from me and if Hasbro are going to continue seeing strong support for the 6" range they need to start doing better.

Once you have a Han Solo sculpt and a Storm Trooper sculpt then the obvious next step is to do a Han in Storm Trooper armour - same applies for Luke who is coming in the next wave. For Hasbro it's a no brainer as the sculpts are both done, and for fans the figure is generally welcomed as it allows them to replicate a key scene from A New Hope. It seems an age since we got any new figures in the 6" Black Series, but May has finally brought us Wave 7 which comprises of two new figures and two re-issues. For the reissues check out our Chewbacca review from wave 5 and our Tie Pilot review from wave 6. Han arrives in the usual Black Series, blue trimmed box. He is numbered #09 which a continuation of the reset numbering system that Hasbro applied when they launched the Blue trim in wave 5. On the rear of the box you will find the usual Black Series art-work as well as a bit of blurb about the figures role in the film. Once opened Han arrives packed with his Storm Trooper helmet and a standard blaster. The sculpt of Han's head is identical to the standard Han release and is a decent enough likeness. It also seems to be much better painted to those we saw in wave 3, so maybe Hasbro have addresses the sloppy paint issues that plagued them last year. Moving to the neck and there is a separate neck piece slotted over the existing black neck. This is different to that on the normal StormTrooper and ensures Han looks realistic when posed without the helmet. This neck piece does still allow for some general movement in the head so you can get Han looking up,down and to the sides. The arms are articulated at the shoulder, elbow and wrist with the wrist being a pivot as well as rotational. This means that even through the arms are restricted a little by the armour, Han can hold his blaster with both hands. The blaster itself is plain black and can either be held, or slotted easily into a holster on the rear of Hans utility belt. Hidden under the chest piece is a further ball joint, but due to the nature of the armour you cant get much movement from this other than a bit of a lean forward and backward. Legs, like arms, are jointed at the top middle and bottom and with double jointed knees you can get Han into crouching poses with a bit of playing around. All through the figure the paint is pretty crisp, although as with the original Storm Trooper the pins in the joints are black plastic painted white. This means that there is a slight colour variation at the joints, but nothing that spoils the figure. Height wise Han is comparable to the Storm Trooper figure and of course his original figure and is therefore just a straight head swap with no sculpt adjustments. This is of course pretty accurate to the film, and our hope now is for Hasbro to ensure that the forthcoming Luke has been tweaked so he is "a little short for a Storm Trooper" So onward to the elephant in the room - the helmet. Firstly lets look at what we got, and that is a soft plastic helmet which fits snugly over Hans head. Because they have re-used the Storm Trooper hands it is also difficult to get Han to hold the helmet under his arm or even to hold it casually hanging by his side. A removable helmet as a play feature is a nice touch, and although a little elongated it is much better than we expected after seeing some early shots. However, it is not perfect and Han easily stands out in a crowd of standard troopers.This is the same issue as the wave 5 Vader where sculpt/looks were sacrificed for a working helmet. For me this is fine on a smaller figure and for kids is a nice play feature. But if this is a collectors line, then we should accept that plastic heads don't work like real heads and any helmet that fits on a 6" plastic head will always look stretched or too big. I think my preference would have been to go down an alternative head - similar to how they tackled Maul. In summary this is an obvious cheap figure for Hasbro to put out, but is a nice figure for any collection and once paired with the corresponding Luke and the Chewie figure it will look great on display. It is not perfect with some niggles over the colour of the joints, and the biggest issue is the helmet which works, but certainly doesn't look right. I give Han a 3 out of 5 and my advice, considering Han is only just landing on UK shores, is don't overpay for him (I have seen him as high as £35). As a £20 figure he is OK and value for money, but I wouldn't pay much more. The fact he is being repacked in wave 8 should make him relatively common in the coming months and I believe the price will come down to RRP or below.

Bounty Hunters. Love them or hate them, they are always much sought after in figure form with many fans wanting to replicate the scene from Empire above Vader's Star Destroyer. The Black Series has taken another step towards realising this with the release of Bossk. #10 in the Blue Trim released series, Bossk arrives as part of wave 7 alongside the Han Storm Trooper and two repacks in the form of Chewbacca and the Tie Fighter Pilot. He is an impressive figure in the box although doesnt get much of a blurb write up on the rear - with just 3 lines of text on top of the usual B&W lined art work. Bossk is probably smaller than I had visualised him, coming in a smidge under 6 1/2" once out of the box. I guess that in the film he is standing on a platform and the camera is pointing up at him, but maybe a touch more height wouldn't have gone amiss. The sculpt is really good, and I would go almost as far as saying this is one of the best Hasbro has given us so far. The head, arms and legs are sculpted with raised scales and the flight suit has a number of varying tubes and appendages which are all nicely done. Unfortunately, as is often the case, Hasbro have spoiled a great sculpt with poor paint applications at the factory. It's not a disaster, but close up I have numerous paint bleeds of one colour to another and the wash on the scales isnt even and therefore looks like dirt rather than bringing out any details. There is then the biggest issue where the torso and hips are a different colour all together vs the arms and legs - yet this is all meant to be the same jump suit. For a figure that is part of a collectors line, and with an RRP of £20, the applications are not good enough. Articulation, and let's start with the one everyone was talking about - the articulated mouth/jaw. Well it is there, but it adds very little to the figure as its only really able to move a few mm because of the collar of the flight suit. I would have rather the cost of sculpting/manufacturing this be invested in smartening up the paint. The head seems to be on a ball joint, but again due to the collar can only achieve movement left and right. The shoulders are ball jointed but the arms can only really extend out by 45 degrees to the body until the shoulder sculpt stops you in your tracks. The elbows both rotate and pivot and there is then the same on the wrists. The wrists, like the head, are a wasted joint as the forearm simply stops you doing anything but rotating the wrist. Torso is articulated, but it may as well not be. The legs are on ball jointed hips, followed by a double jointed knee and a simple forward and backward joint at the ankles. The various tubes and strappings will stop you going all out and putting Bossk in the splits, but at least the legs can be posed in a good quantity of positions. The one wierd thing with my figure is that despite oversized feet, Bossk is really hard to stand up as he seems to be over balanced at the front and it takes some tweaking with the knee and ankles to find his sweet spot. Bossk comes with one accessory, a rifle, and it fits in his left hand reasonably well. I really struggled getting it into a two handed pose, but I have seen it done on some other online images. The rifle can be slung by a strap, but the strap is too rigid and when you do this it looks far from natural. I am probably being over critical with this figure as he is one of my favourite characters and I was really looking forward to him. All the ingredients are there, but let down by poor paint application, poor choice of articulation (most of which doesnt work) and varying coloured plastic. Stand Bossk on his own and inspect him up close and you will be disappointed. Stick him in a display with Boba, or perhaps a Jabba's palace display and he looks OK. I give Bossk a 3 out of 5, and a low 3 at that. This is a figure that could have been a 5, but just lets you down in too many areas. My comment on his Hasbro's report card would be "good plan, poor execution, must try harder"

Wave 6 of the Black Series has landed in the UK pretty much straight after the UK and brings us 2 new figures, 1 tweak and a repack. I picked up the wave recently from Film and Figures and plan to review them over the Xmas period, starting today with Yoda. Like Vader and Chewie before him, Yoda lands with a lot of noise around paintjob, sculpt and size/scale. When you see him in the box you wonder why you are paying the same price as the normal 6" figures, there is so much fresh air it just screams out for something else - either a Dagobah Luke or even the back pack that the 3.75" version came with. Yoda comes with, compared to recent TBS6 figures, the usual couple of accessories. The walking stick is great, as is the snake which is a nice throwback to the 1980's Vintage figure. The lightsabre is just plain odd - the only way it would have made sense is if they had packed a second jedi cloak from the prequel series. Ignoring the light sabre, Yoda stands up very well once out of the box. The sculpt is very strong, but the sculpted hair will always be the controversial element - for me I dont mind it, but perhaps the paint on the hair is too bright. Paint jobs are average, nothing sloppy on mine - but as we have seen with more talented people who have already repainted their Jedi Master, Hasbro could do better. Articulation is OK for me. I dont get the lack of knees argument, am not sure what being able to bend his knees would have added to the figure. The only niggle is the same one that has plagued a number of TBS6 figures, and that is the lack of ability to give them a two handed lightsabre pose - or in this case allowing Yoda to lean with two hands on his cane. Height & Scale, the other recent niggle, doesnt stand out for me. He looks OK standing with the other figures. For me Yoda gets a solid 3 out of 5. There are bits Hasbro could have done better, particularly packing more goodies in the box.

Since the first pictures were released, the Tie Fighter Pilot has been one of the most anticipated Star Wars 6" figures and also subject to varying views on the sculpt, the size of the helmet and even how feminine his hips looked. As you can tell by now, I am a sucker for Imperial troopers from the OT and with the various Stormtroopers we've seen so far starting to get a bit boring the release of the Tie Pilot was high on my want list also from wave 6. I picked up my first pilot just before Xmas when I bought the majority of wave 6 from Films and Figures in Chorley. I had also dropped a couple of hints with my wife before Xmas, and so have just receieved a 2nd Pilot that she had ordered for Xmas courtesy of Star Action Figures - it seems I am destined to army build imperial troops. The pilot, #05 in the new Blue Trim Box, is reminiscent of Vader and the Shadow Squadron in so much he is pretty much lost in the black box with its black background. He arrives with only one accessory, a storm trooper blaster - which has also courted much controversy in fandom over what weapon a pilot would really wield. For me, and having seen a recent episode of Rebels where the Tie Pilots were out on Patrol, the choice of gun is acceptable. As of writing this review I have unboxed both pilots and am pleased to say that the sculpt is very good on this figure, the focus obviously being the helmet and the chest box. He is painted as well as you would expect for an all black figure with some nice detailing of the Imperial Logo on the helmet and shoulders and some decals on the chest and lower arms. Articulation is good but on both Pilots I have found they are a real pain to stand in a natural post - it looks like he has one leg slightly longer than the other and despite much faffing I haven't managed to push it further into the joint or get it sorted. My main issue however with the pilot is the addition of a holster. Now I don't mind some artistic licence and if you are giving my TP a gun, then a holster makes sense. The issue is that they have positioned it directly at his side which means it clashes with his left hand (what is it with all imperials being left handed) and even more so when the blaster is inserted. Sure you can thankfully twist the belt to move the holster to the rear (where I feel it should have been) but that then ruins the front of the figure as the belt buckle is off centre. As usual I am nitpicking and please do not get me wrong, the TP is a must for any SWB6 collector and especially those with an Imperial Fetish. I have two and at the right price I may double that number in the future. Scoring wise this figure would drop in somewhere around a 4/5, he is a good sculpt has good paint apps and pretty solid articulation. You cant argue with the accessories (what else would he come with) but the holster has dropped him points for me.

If there is one thing Hasbro, or indeed most figure making companies, do best is get the most out of a figure sculpt as they can. It was therefore no surprise that once they had debuted the Mk1 Clone Trooper in the Black Series wave, we would see numerous interpretations of this armour as we progress with the line. The first of these drops into wave 6 and is the Clone Trooper Sergeant, a character that had less than a second on screen in Attack of the Clones - briefly seen as the Clones boarded the ships on Kamino. I picked this up just before Xmas, along with the other wave 6 figures, from my local independent Films and Figures. Clone Sergeant arrives in the new blue trimmed box, and is marked as #07. There is no difference in scupt between the Sergeant and the original Clone release - outside of the box the only difference is the paint job. If you want a full review of this figure you can click HERE to read my original Clone Trooper Review then read onwards for the additional commentary on the Sergeant... Looking solely at the differences on this release the base white plastic also seems to have changed colour, and the Sarge is signifantly different in shade to the trooper. Paint job is OK, but not great - on mine I had splashes of the green across the chest that shouldn't have been there. The figure still suffers too with messy joints - both in that they are a cast in black and painted a different shade of white and then the paint is easily smeared. He comes with the same guns as last time, but for my images I gave posed him with two of the blasters to give him a bit of character. The joints continue to feel loose and I worry over the durability of this figure going forward as his hips and knees are already giving way when stood up. Not an unexpected release, and not the last clone we will see. In fact we already know the Red Clone Captain is coming soon, followed by Commander Cody and with Captain Rex still on the cards for a later release. He does the job, he will sell - albeit slower than the other great figures in wave 6 like the Tie Pilot - and he fills up a slot in a wave without being a simple re-release. 2/5 from me based on sloppy painting on my version. We should all get used to the Clone releases, there will be many more to come.

The Sandtrooper from 2013's first wave of Black Series was arguably the best figure in that first batch and little has surpassed it ever since. It was therefore inevitable that the orange pauldron be updated to a black one (or white) and Sandie would find his way into a future wave. It is almost poetic that a Sandtooper is part of the relaunched blue box wave 1 and although not the biggest draw in these set of 4 figures he is easily still up there as one of the best figures this range has produced. I talked about the new box in my Chewie & Luke review, so wont dwell much on it here - other than it is growing on me. I admit to have been impatient with this wave as it seems to have taken an age to land in the UK, this has resulted in importing these from the Far East and therefore the boxes are less than mint - so please excuse the pictures below Sandie comes with the same level of accessories as the Orange release, a hand blaster and two rifles (sorry I do not know the technical names for these weapons). The trademark backpack is also there and this probably makes Sandie the most accessoried Black Series figure - or at least in top spot with Maul. The Sandtrooper is hugely posable with plenty of points of articulation. The first downside however is that the plastic used on this release vs the original feels a lot softer and therefore it does make the figure either really stiff in places (hot water to free up the joints) or really loose. This also translates to the weapons that bend far too easily and spoil the look of Sandie holding the weapons in two hands. Paint job is a little different vs the original release, and is a little rougher on mine with bleeding at the armour joints. But overall he looks like a true Tatooine veteran. I give this figure a solid 4 out of 5 and will still argue my case that to date Hasbro has not surpassed the Sandtrooper in terms of a combination of sculpt and accessories. All we need now is a white pauldron and a Dewback. (This is my first review with my new camera setup - am still learning settings, but hope the pictures are an improvement)