Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 3,274: Alexsandr Kallus (The Vintage Collection)

ALEXSANDR KALLUS Realistic Figure Debut
The Vintage Collection 3 3/4-Inch Action Figure
Item No.: Asst. F6878 No. G0933
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: #365
Includes: Bo-rifle, blast effects, helmet
Action Feature: Removable helmet
Retail: $16.99
Availability: July 2025
Appearances: Star Wars Rebels

Bio: Alexsandr Kallus served as an Imperial Security Bureau officer until he grew disillusioned with teh Empire. Now serving the Rebellion, he allies himself with teh Ghost crew in their battle to free the galaxy from tyranny. (Taken from the figure's cardback.)

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: Disney-era bios have been surprisingly spoilerphobic, but Alexsandr Kallus pretty much spoils the first three seasons' worth of cat-and-mouse right on the box. The figure was pretty easy to get online when he first came out, which makes sense. For a few years, a lot of his toys were kind of expensive. When they first came out, nobody wanted to buy them. Pegs of the cartoon figures and shelves of the 12-inch cartoon figure just sat... until he turned to the Rebels and, I assume, hooked up with Zeb.

The figure is at least partially new. They're clearly reusing sculpted pieces in here, as the boots seem identical to Pallaeon. The thighs are a different mold, but you can see the folds and creases are pretty much the same across Imperial officer figures. The rumor is Lucasfilm is providing sculpts to Hasbro now, and they seem to be keen on taking shortcuts with their digital sculpts. They're nice sculpts, but we can tell. The helmet, head, chest are all new, but th lower skirt part of the uniform seems to also share 0s and 1s with other officers. Kallus has no holster, though, so it's at least a little different than some other figures.

The sculptor did a nice job making the "cartoon" head into a "real" person. The milestones are all here, from the scowl to the tight hair to the distinctive sideburns that show the helmet never really comes off. Due to the level of thickness of each row of hair, he comes off kind of like a werewolf. It works. He looks angry, the uniform translates nicely to "Vintage," and the articulation is on par with everything else we've been getting. Also his helmet fits like a glove. That can be hard to do well, so Hasbro and everybody deserve a medal for delivering a nicely-painted bit of headgear that just plain works.

His bo-rifle is fine. It's not great. Zeb's was better in that it's supposed to be a dynamic, adjustable, bizarre blaster thing... and this one is stuck in "bo" mode. It's huge, but nicely sculpted and able to plug energy bits on either end. Due to its massive size, he can't really plug it into his back armor either. One of the downers of these figures is when you can tell they did a great job sculpting them and going over all the finer details, but then whiff on things like "can carry weapon like on the TV show" or "can sit in a vehicle." If you're just going to have him standing and holding the staff? Perfection. But given how many people are diorama builders, I'm sure the alternate weapon would be appreciated. Maybe it's out of the budget, but if they dropped the energy bits I wouldn't really have noticed.

I complain a lot. Kallus is a great update of a great character, and one of three all-new (or mostly-new) sculpts in a wave of five solid figure choices. As of my writing this in August I've seen none of them on pegs - I don't know if it's because they're not getting good distribution or if they're selling. Either way, Asajj and Carson and Ponda and Dengar are all pretty great, and Kallus is too. If you got the Ghost or just want more ISB guys, he's a solid buy.

Timing Tangent: Star Wars as a property serves two categories: new/upcoming stories, and nostalgia. Right now Kallus occupies the nostalgia bucket as Reblels debuted in 2014 and that makes him 12 years old. It would be like getting Tarkin in 1989 (we got him in 1997) or Quinlan Vos in 2011 (which we did!) If they couldn't have him out during the show's run, this feels like a very good time to have him on shelf. The kids who watched the show at 4 or 5 are 16 or 17 now, and maybe they'll care. Well, if it were me, I'd care.

On the other hand we see the occasional figure which seems to be in an area that's too soon and too late. Once the movie window closes, or the series ends, people seem a bit less receptive for about a decade or so. There are always fans who want everything - like me - but there's a bitterness about not getting The Bad Batch after three seasons of cartoons that is hard to shake. Getting a The Book of Boba Fett figure five years after the show ended feels less like "hooray!" and more like "What took you so long?" I'm by no means saying "let's not do more figures," but if you can't do it within 5 years of the show ending, maybe just wait another 5 years and hope that it swings from "old and moldy" to "nostalgia-fueled excitement." This feels like roughly the right time for Rebels, and I sure wouldn't mind seeing more figures from the show. Imperial Wedge, anyone?

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

--Adam Pawlus

Day 3,274 September 9, 2025

Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 3,220: Dedra Meero (The Vintage Collection)

DEDRA MEERO Debut in this size
The Vintage Collection 3 3/4-Inch Action Figure
Item No.: Asst. E7763 No. G0905
Number: #346
Includes: Blaster
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $16.99
Availability: January 2025
Appearances: Andor

Bio: Methodical, polished, and ambitious, Dedra Meero embodies the ideals of the Imperial Security Bureau. She is ever vigilant, collecting and analyzing intelligence from across the galaxy. (Taken from the figure's cardback.)

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: My interest in pretty much any Star Wars property goes up the more I can get my head around it - so action figures, trading cards, and guide books help a lot! With Andor season 2 on the horizon and this Dedra Meero figure likely meant to have been to help promote it, hopefully we'll get more merch so more of us can know the names that were sometimes hard to understand in the mix. Getting a figure makes it more interesting to care about the show, and what shelf she might go on makes you actually have some stake in paying attention. Or at least that's been my finding - if there's no figure, it's probably not an important character. (Not that there's anything wrong with obscure background nobodies, I love them too.)

Dedra Meero is good at her job. And she has annoying coworkers... and someone who probably wants to date her, who's a creep, and that takes some doing when you have an entire faction of awful, creepy people. As I write this, the show is set to hit late next month and we'll see if she stays with the Empire, joins the Rebels, or somehow gets blown out an airlock. What we do know is that Hasbro did a nice job translating her costume with plastic, with the top being a consistent white color (that matches Luke from the same wave) with a mostly good paint job, at least on my sample. The belt is left unpainted at the bottom - I assume it's a one-off - but that would mean she shipped to stores so I could see other examples of her. The rank badge and code cylinders look great, and Hasbro once again nailed a tiny pea-sized facial portrait. It's Denise Gough, but tiny!

In terms of articulation, she breaks no new ground and is perfectly fine. The wrists only swivel - there's no bend - and everything else is on par with other recent The Vintage Collection releases. It's great that Hasbro gave her thigh swivels and ball-jointed hips, but with the long tunic she may not be getting much use out of them. Heck, given the lack of vehicles and playsets, I'd argue most of the articulation is superfluous and were it not for the excellent sculpted detail and top-notch face paint, Hasbro could probably have made her with 5 or 10 joints, and most fans would never notice. Some loud ones would - but the bulk of this figure is being sold to adults, who will either never open her packaging or open her, stand her on a shelf, and never so much as look at the figure again. This is no fault of the figure, she's excellent, it's just the nature of the middle-aged collector to demand every last specification imaginable and then probably not make use of any of it. The quality is as good as you can expect to get these days - she even has a blaster!

With Dedra and a lot of streaming show figures, it's kind of unfortunate that they're all collector figures and there are few reasons for any kid to pick them up with the lack of "toy" elements. The glossy boots look good, the plastic selected for the face isn't too pale, and this is a figure that will probably be remembered as one of Hasbro's many excellent executions in this line. It's just that Andor gets such a small roster of figures that I would not be shocked if most fan ignore her, or forget they bought her, just because she's not part of a greater, growing collection. (I'd say "yet" but let's be honest, we're lucky to get 3 figures a year from any movie or streaming series anymore.)

If you're a fan of the show, and you enjoy Hasbro's excellent 3 3/4-inch action figures, I doubt you'll be disappointed with her. The hair is great, the pants are right, all she needs are some similarly dressed coworkers she can probably barely tolerate and you're all set. If she hits a store near you, consider picking her up to add to your hypothetical Andor collection. And/or cross your fingers Hasbro does some Kenner-style Andor or Rogue One figures before you decide to stop buying toys.

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

--Adam Pawlus

Day 3,220: March 4, 2025

Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 2,112: Agent Kallus (Star Wars Rebels Saga Legends)

AGENT KALLUS Figure Debut
Star Wars Rebels Saga Legends
Item No.: Asst. A3857 No. A8648
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: #SL05
Includes: Rifle
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $5.99
Availability: October 2014
Appearances: Star Wars Rebels

Bio: Agent Kallus is a member of the Imperial Security Bureau, a secret police force that hunts down and crushes any rebellion in the galaxy.  Intelligent and ruthless, Kallus is a skilled pilot who makes it his mission to stop troublesome freedom fighters. (Taken from the figure's packaging.)

Image: Adam's photo lab.

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

Commentary: Not bad.  Not bad at all.  Agent Kallus will never be the Admiral Screed figure I'll never get, but it's one of the better figures from this wave in terms of overall quality.   It ain't perfect but it's a worthwhile design upgrade to the long-running Imperial Officer.  Heck, it's basically an armored-up version of the original Kenner figure from the 1980s.  He has glossy black gloves and boots - this is what earns him a lot of extra praise - and trades the Navy cap with a helmet which is a distant cousin of the Naval Trooper/Death Squad Commando bucket.  Interestingly, it looks like the head is a two-piece ordeal - the helmet isn't removable, but it's molded in a separate color of plastic than the head.  We've seen this before with figures' hair (see Mara Jade) and Playmobil has been doing things like this for years, even with the horns of its dinosaurs.

This feels like a descendant of the Droids cartoon line.  Kallus has straight arms and no subtext - it's a bad guy, named accordingly and dressed in black. He stands or sits just fine, and should fit in most vehicles.  Actually, I kind of wish he had his own vehicle right now.  He has no problems holding his weapon - a bo-rifle, but not the same one that Zeb has.  It's unpainted and features no articulated parts, plus it's a wee bit skinnier.   Kallus' deco is pretty good - a black plastic figure has grey shoulders and some body armor not unlike that of General Veers, and a rank badge that to this day I don't understand.

There's a little triangle on the collar of his uniform, and the deco doesn't match the show exactly - but it makes for a good action figure.  My only real gripe are his eyebrows are the wrong color, and if I could add a fake complaint it would be that the figure lacks the character's greatest gag - the helmet-shaped sideburns.  Maybe they could show up in the future somewhere, because as an easy-to-grasp metaphor - the helmet really never comes off - it seems like it would be a good feature to deliver to the tiny tots.

The back of the figure has  a couple of little slats, and you can sort of cram his rifle in there for storage if you like.  I like this - it's a neat spin on the holster thing, which is a feature I can't get enough of.  On-figure storage? Yes please.

Since the deco is basically on the mark, deco isn't sloppy, and the shiny bits are shiny I can't complain with what I got for the money.  In an era where super-articulated figures cost $11-$13, a decent $5 figure that feels like an honest-to-goodness toy is pretty welcome.  I don't begrudge the articulation of the fancier figures, but I do find it nice to see a figure at mid-1990s prices again.   That sort of thing matters to me as a collector, mostly because when you realize you have over 2,000 of these things and a lot of them cost you $10 (or more, in some cases) you want to get those prices back down to $5 or $6.

Collector's Notes: I got this from Entertainment Earth.  This wave is starting to show up at Target, Toys R Us, and reportedly elsewhere.

--Adam Pawlus

Day 2,112: November 13, 2014