IG-11 Old figure, new vest
The Black Series 6-Inch Deluxe Best Buy Exclusive Action Figure
Item No.: No. E7207
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: n/a
Includes: Bandolier vest, rifle, pistol
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $19.99
Availability: November 2019
Appearances: The Mandalorian
Bio: One of a series of dangerous assassin droids largely outlawed in the galaxy, IG-11 is a hired gun programmed to follow Bounty Hunter's Guild protocols to the letter. (Taken from the figure's packaging.)
Image: Adam's photo lab.
Availability: Click here to buy it at Entertainment Earth now!
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Commentary: At first glance
IG-11 is a pretty good figure. I mean, he's just IG-88 with new bandoliers, right? Nope! It's possible the design changed between product development and the airing of the show, but this figure is an old IG-88 figure, with new paint, and one newly-tooled part. On the TV show IG-11 has different hands and other minor changes.
At a distance it's fine. If you aren't too picky, it's good enough - he can stand (which the first IG-88 couldn't in its blue box release) and hold his guns thanks to clever peg/hole placement on the forearms and weapons. If you just need a figure to look good on a shelf or in a box, it seems like this is a good one. Hasbro made the deco closely match the TV show, with amazing, intricate printing of detail all over. If you get in real close, you can see the head deco is tiny little dots - and they use this technique on the guns and other areas, too. It's a masterpiece of toy deco execution, covering a dark grey robot body with silvers, greys, coppers, reds, and other colors to really sell the idea of a droid that has seen a lot of action.
For the nitpickers, or fans of actually matching the show, you're going to have some issues. On
The Mandalorian, the droid has multiple fingers - this figure just has a claw hand. You can see him grip the weapons in publicity photos and on the show, while this figure has the same claw we've had on all IG-88 toys since the 1980s. The feet also don't match the digital model, and the vest/bandolier is a little different. It might not be enough for you to notice without a side-by-side comparison, but much like the AT-ST Raider Hasbro took some shortcuts to get a product out quickly and under budget. I don't blame them - in their position, you probably would have done the same thing. Updating tooling is expensive and the bang for your buck isn't always there.
Thankfully, detail on the original droid mold is probably good enough for most fans. The mismatched leg issue was fixed with the Archive Series rerelease of IG-88, so you won't have too many issues getting him to stand up. The elbows bend, there are lots of rotating parts, but you'll note the head isn't a perfect match to IG-11. Things are moved a bit. It's different. Does it matter? For the collector line that's supposed to be as authentic as it gets, I'm not a big fan of shortcuts - but this is where we are now. Shorter lead times and lax approvals (which we've had under Lucasfilm for a while) allow for more inaccuracies, and when fans bring them up we'll probably get an eyeroll. It's good enough, and I'm willing to bet all of us can agree to that. It's not amazing. It isn't bad. But if you have a plain IG-88 already, even though this may be better painted and a little closer to IG-11, I wouldn't necessarily recommend you buy both. If you've got one, you're probably going to be fine - unless you're crossing your fingers for a third-party upgrade kit, which I assume will be coming sooner or later from somebody.
Collector's Notes: I got mine from Best Buy.
--Adam Pawlus
Day 2,675: March 24, 2020
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