LANDO CALRISSIAN Solo Edition
The Force Awakens The Black Series 6-Inch Figure
Item No.: Asst. B3834 No. E1206
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: #65
Includes: Scarf, cape, blaster
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $19.99
Availability: April 2018
Appearances: Solo: A Star Wars Story
Bio: Smooth and sophisticated, Captain Lando Calrissian stands ready to retire from the life of a smuggler and instead become a full-time gambler (or "sportsman," as he calls it), shuffling from card game to card game across the galaxy. (Taken from the figure's packaging.)
Image: Adam's photo lab.
Availability: Click here to buy it at Entertainment Earth now!
Click here to buy it at Amazon now!
Commentary: It's Wookiee Weekend! I guess! Whatever that means!
I really didn't give a hoot about
Untitled Han Solo Movie until I heard they cast Donald Glover as
Lando Calrissian. He was a good comedy writer, and on
Community. And
Atlanta was great. Plus those Childish Gambino records were pretty great. Unfortunately, it is not his movie - that honor belongs to Han Solo, and it doesn't seem anybody particularly cares about him just yet. This includes retailers, as the only big store to do brick-and-mortar midnight for these movies is going out of business. Early reaction seems to be indifference or exhaustion, which is sort of how a lot of everybody feels about current affairs in general. It's just too much, even when it's awesome - and this figure is awesome. (That's why we're looking at him first.)
When Glover was campaigning for Spider-Man, I thought "Oh cool, I'd buy an unmasked Spidey of that." Instead we got Lando - which is better if you're more of a space fan than a cape fan. Now in bright yellow with a scarf and cape and really awesome hair, Lando is just friggin' awesomer than ever. The black cape has blue lining and a glossy collar. The outfit has a black flap and pocket, with pants that look fairly similar to his Cloud City outfit. The big silver blaster is new and fits in his holster fairly well, while the face sculpt and deco is a vast improvement over most figures Hasbro has done. The scruff and facial hair look really good, and he has eerie glossy eyes and an arched eyebrow. And awesome sideburns. And a striped scarf. And a red-and-orange striped belt. The figure is really the first, best look I've had at the costume so I can only assume that it's accurate to the film and will probably unironically serve as a men's fashion template in the next 6-12 months.
The figure's engineering is slightly improved over older figures, and this seems to be the new normal. The elbow cuts are a bit deeper so you can get more than a 90-degree bend in them. This means they can point the gun up with the arm itself facing mostly down. It looks and works better than some of those double-jointed elbows a few years ago, with the legs having a decent amount of forward mobility. Rocker ankles and bend-and-swivel wrists remain fantastic, and I still had the mid-torso cut joint. From the cut up, it's yellow plastic. From the cut down, it's painted. This is not appropriate. The match is close, but if things discolor with age it's going to look like garbage.
The pistol is a new design with a removable silencer - or barrel extension - or whatever it is. I didn't realize until I put it in the holster and I tried to fish it out. It's a fun surprise, sort of. I'm not a big fan of "undocumented features" when they could be called out on the packaging or used in the marketing, especially if they could result in customer confusion or lost pieces.
Hasbro's new facial printing technique seems to look even better under the scrutiny of a camera's macro setting, so what you have here is a pretty fantastic figure. I don't know if you need it - but I'm pretty pleased as punch to have it and I can't wait to crack open the 3 3/4-inch one. If the movie looks as good as the action figures, I will be very happy.
Collector's Notes: I got mine from
Entertainment Earth.
--Adam Pawlus
Day 2,472: April 13, 2018
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