Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 3,219: Fennec Shand (The Retro Collection)

FENNEC SHAND In all the sizes
The Retro Collection 3 3/4-Inch Action Figure
Item No.: Asst. F6874 No. F8565
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: n/a
Includes: Removable helmet, 785MK Firepuncher-X sniper rifle
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $11.99
Availability: December 2023
Appearances: Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett

Bio: The Star Wars Retro Collection features design and detailing inspired by the original 1970s Star Wars figures and features original figure design and detailing! Continue your collection from a galaxy far, far away. (Stolen from the marketing copy. Packaging has no bio.)

Image: Adam's photo lab.

Availability: Click here to buy it at Entertainment Earth now!

Click here to buy it at Amazon now! 

Click here to buy it at eBay now!

Commentary: One of the figures I was the most excited to get in The Retro Collection somehow escaped my review log. I don't know how - Fennec Shand was on my wish list way back since I heard they were doing Kenner-ized The Mandalorian figures a very long time ago. A warrior since - and probably before - The Clone Wars, she's seemingly immortal and also never changes her clothes. Truly, the Fran Lebowitz of Star Wars, with a gun.

I know there are people who don't like what Hasbro is doing with this line, and prefer a $40 fan-made figure. Well, I like a $10-$12 figure, and this one turned out pretty well. It doesn't suffer from Bespin Luke Pose-ism, with her arms sticking out a little bit - the left hand on my sample can hold the rifle very well, while the right one will sometimes drop it. Figures by Kenner-actual tended to not have longer coats, so the squared-off butt that's revealed when her legs swing forward always weirds me out a bit. But other figures had this too. It's OK, it won't hurt us. The cut in the hips is very good, so her legs can move forward enough that she can sit in one of your vehicles. Or stand in it, if it's a Slave I or equivalent Firespray-class gunship. My requirements for good figure engineering are usually "can stand," "can sit," "can use their accessories," and other than some weirdness with the right hand, she's functionally perfect.

Kenner figures from 1979-1985 usually came in two flavors. There were ones where Kenner had good source material, and ones where they fudged it. Whoever saw Chewbacca clearly had a grasp of the costume. Walrus Man took more creative liberties. Fennec is more of the former - this is a simplified (but not by much) take on her costume, which is lighter on texture but still has the major milestones. he belt, the red triangles on her coat, the red band around her hair - and also her hair. If Kenner made this figure in the 1980s, you wouldn't get the separately-molded braid. They'd just lop it off. She has her red elbow pad, and while all the matching color bands in her boots and gloves are absent, that's fine. Kenner would have (and frequently did) leave that kind of thing unpainted.

The only place the figure's head and deco comes up a little short is the head. Ming-Na Wen had a pretty intense braid thing going on top of her head, and the figure's slightly smoother details downplay this a bit. Her face is a bit lacking compared to early press renders, which had slightly darker skin with no hint of translucency, plus slightly sharper (thinner) paint for her eyes that made them seem a little more realistic. I guess the final figure almost feels truer to what Kenner may have done, but she could just stand to be slightly more opaque. And if you don't like it, Hasbro has a solution - there's a rubbery helmet. It's great. It feels just like the Boushh helmet from 1983, with a slice so she can look out of it. It's not too big, and it's not too small. I'm really impressed with it, especially since Hasbro just opted for swappable heads for The Vintage Collection version.

Even though I forgot to review her earlier, you shouldn't skip this one. This figure never showed up at Target or Walmart, may have shown up at FYE near you, and was mostly an online (and later Ross) exclusive. If you didn't enjoy the character in The Mandalorian or The Book of Boba Fett, if you don't like Kenner toys, you probably don't want this figure. But I very much like these things, so even with a few shortcomings she's still pretty much as good as anything I had from the 1970s or 1980s. For those of you who may have had real Kenner toys as a kid, there's something magical about putting her next to a Luke or a Han as part of some greater toy universe. Also she might be around five bucks if you find her at a markdown store, and she's worth at least twice that.

Collector's Notes: I got mine from Entertainment Earth.

--Adam Pawlus

Day 3,219: February 27, 2025

Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 2,925: Fennec Shand (The Vintage Collection)

FENNEC SHAND Scale Debut
The Vintage Collection 3 3/4-Inch Action Figure
Item No.: Asst. E7763 No. F4471
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: #221
Includes: Braid, helmet head, unmasked head, rifle with strap, rifle, bottle
Action Feature: n/
Retail: $13.99
Availability: April 2022
Appearances: The Book of Boba Fett
Bio: An assassin and elite mercenary, Fennec Shand has worked for all the top syndicates. Clever, capable, and cunning, she is not to be underestimated and is full of surprises. (Taken from marketing copy. There is no bio.)

Image: Adam's photo lab.

Availability: Click here to buy it at Entertainment Earth now!

Click here to buy it at Amazon now!

Commentary: She's good. Buy her. Fennec Shand has few nitpicks or quibbles, someone at Hasbro must have looked at the figure budget and said "Oh, we can make something really good here," which means that this new-and-improved style figure has confirmed that the reissues we've been getting are old and inferior. I don't know how long this figure has been in the making, but we first met the character in this costume in 2019. Also curiously, she's always worn the same costume, which means she has a closet full of the same outfit. But let's get back to the figure, which you should absolutely buy. You don't even need to read the rest of this review, she's the best figure in this scale I've bought (plus or minus some of last year's very best The Mandalorian figures), and you should go get her. If you miss her, I feel badly for you.

This figure spoils me. We've been sold a lot of figures where there's a lot of "it's pretty good except" or "if they could sit/hold a weapon/etc. it would be so much better." Here, she just works. The range of articulation is remarkable, with two well-hidden waist joints. And a neck joint that's sturdy, but removes without too much of a fight to swap heads. The arms and hands are jointed nicely enough and have enough give so she can hold a weapon with two hands. The legs swing forward, and we've got cloth elements so she can sit if you want. The knees bend 90 degrees so she could sit at a bar if you wanted. The costume sculpt also seems absolutely perfect. I have no bad things to say about how this figure was sculpted, this is a shining gem and the gold standard of what Hasbro can do in this scale in 2022. Given all the awkwardness we've been sold (and re-sold at higher prices), this figure tells us Hasbro should never, ever reissue an old figure and should just set fire to the old molds. Why should we settle for troopers that fall over or Jedi that can't duel with their lightsabers? We shouldn't - because Fennec was perfectly designed with the best joints we may ever see this year. I grouse about a lot of the 3 3/4-inch figures because for $14, I want perfection, and Fennec pretty much gives it to us.

The helmet pops off and on the neck easily, but there's a new feature - the ponytail has to be removed and swapped from head to head. Strange! But neat. It gives you something more to do with the figure. The helmeted head has no face inside, so she can hold it in her hand, and/or you can pretend it's shading her eyes when it's on her head. Clearly, someone put thought into this. I particularly like the weathered detail on it.

Fennec's Ming-Na Wen head is one of Hasbro's very best at this (or any) scale. It's her. It's not a vaguely Asian-looking person who's a woman - this is very clearly the actress from the show. The eyes shine, the lips sparkle, the eyebrows are on fleek, and she has just the slightest hint of having seen it all in her facial expression. The hair is decorated well, with the tiniest of strings painted within her locks. A couple of strands hang over her face. I hate to sound like a broken record, but it's so amazing that Hasbro should start fresh with every 3 3/4-inch figure from now on. Why are we settling for Han Solo figures that look like Han Solo but not Harrison Ford? Our Bo-Katan Kryze and Fennec Shand heads are just so good - it's sort of upsetting how low our standards were in the past, even for figures I thought were good at the time.

My sample has no problems holding her blasters whatsoever, but you do have to fidget a bit to get her to grip the bottle. The fact that she can hold it at all is impressive, so accessory interaction is excellent. I have no doubt that there are problems with this figure, but compared to Hasbro's usual levels of quality - which are pretty good - this is next-level. This is excellent. I'm not crazy about the cloth parts not quite covering up the front of the figures' legs as much as I would like, but it's quibble and soft goods are rarely perfect. (And some are outright awful.) We've bought so many figures that are good, or OK, or decent enough, that I sometimes forget what it's like to be genuinely impressed by a figure. To have a likeness this good on a head the size of a pea is amazing. 

To have joints that work well on a figure that has a decent center of gravity so she doesn't topple over on my desk as I write this review is excellent. There's a big difference between having articulation, and having good articulation that lets you pose a figure just right so you don't have to worry about diving off the end of a shelf. I've settled for so many figures - gold figures, metallic figures - that this is a firm reminder that we should continue voting with our dollars and buy only the very best. This is it, kids, so skip all those carbonized figures (unless you really want them!) and put your hard-earned dollars to get this one.

Collector's Notes: I got mine from Entertainment Earth.

--Adam Pawlus

Day 2,925: May 17, 2022

Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 2,902: Fennec Shand (The Black Series)

FENNEC SHAND (Debut)
The Black Series 2020 Line Look Green Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett Packaging
Item No.: Asst. E8908 No. F1866
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: #01 - Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett
Includes: Rifle, helmet
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $22.99
Availability: December 2021
Appearances: Star Wars: The Mandalorian and Star Wars: The Book of Boba Fett

Bio: An assassin and elite mercenary who has worked for all the top syndicates. Clever, capable, and cunning, she is a formidable opponent. (Taken from the 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: Since her debut in the very first season of The Mandalorian, Fennec Shand made quite an impression - and now she's here! She appeared on The Bad Batch too, showing she neither ages nor changes her clothes. Given how frequently hair and clothes change on Earth it's kind of ridiculous - but whatever, she's recognizable, and it's a cool outfit.

The Ming-Na Wen likeness is great for all you The Single Guy fans out there, with hair that's pretty much a perfect match for her Star Wars appearances - you can see ornate braids. Rather than use separately molded "wig" parts, her hair is painted on perfectly - a tough thing to get right with a strand on her face. The color looks great too, with light brown highlights for good measure.

The black costume with orange highlights is great, but has no soft goods - it's all molded plastic. She won't be sitting, and that's OK given she does very little of that. The ornate patterns in the costume are really neat - there are all sorts of folds, creases, and patterns quilted in there. What's the most important, though, is that she can hold the rifle and the helmet fits on her head without too much of a struggle. For a figure that looks good standing around, she's one of the best.

Sculpt and deco are good, but how can I not talk about articulation? All of the joints are fairly well hidden in the costume. The ab joint is in a natural break in the costume. All the ankles, elbows, shoulders, and wrists tuck in the costume nicely. Things swivel fairly freely without concern of any unsightly gaps - the engineers did a great job here. That's tough to do, and it's appreciated. Her helmet is also pretty nice, but seems a smidgen brighter and cleaner than on the show. I still like it, but version 2.0 could use some new paint.

I don't know if it's perfect, but it's close - the exaggerated orange rings on the gloves look superb, and maybe we could've used some more definition in the orange at hte bottom of her vest. For $23 it's a spectacularly good figure, and one I'd say is worth picking up unless Hasbro finds a way to make these more eerily realistic as time goes on. She's a fun character and a good figure - unless you hate this scale, it's a must-buy.

Collector's Notes: I got mine from Entertainment Earth.

--Adam Pawlus

Day 2,902: February 24, 2022