Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 3,343: Marrok (The Vintage Collection)

MARROK We're #1 (or #3)
The Vintage Collection 3 3/4-Inch single figure
Item No.: Asst. G2786 No. G2616
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: #386
Includes: Cape, lightsaber, lightsaber hilt
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $19.99
Availability: March 2026
Appearances: Ahsoka, Tales of the Empire, Maul: Shadow Lord

Bio: Fully encased in battle armor, the Inquisitor Marrok carries a red double-bladed lightsaber with a circular hilt. (Taken from the cardback.)

Image: Adam's photo lab.

Availability: Click here to buy it at eBay now!

Click here to buy it at Amazon now!

Commentary: Marrok was kind of an interesting mystery in Ahsoka three years ago. He looked sort of like an armored black knight, he carried around Inquisitor lightsabers, and it seems he was made of gas. Or will be made of gas. As I write this, we just saw him on the cartoon Maul: Shadow Lord as another more or less generic bad guy. Since Rebels ended, the Inquisitors don't seem to have a lot of motivation other than "I am Marrok, and I like my job." Like many characters, it seems team Lucasfilm just want to keep people wearing the same clothes for 20 years worth of story. One thing we do know about him is that he seemingly exists after the Empire falls, while the rest of his peers seem to have been disposed of. Maybe the interesting story is still coming, because there sure seems to be something going on beyond "is menacing, wears black, and has a red lightsaber."

Weirdly, we got a Marrok from Ahsoka in Retro and Black Series, but not Vintage - so this is your stand-in. The colors aren't identical as his live-action costume has a little more dirt or rust plus some color on the buttons, but other than that? It's pretty much the same. Hasbro could probably repaint this for an Ahsoka product in the next year, or whenever that show will air. Articulation is standard for The Vintage Collection, with no extra flourishes in the shoulders. His rocker ankles made me realize the costume has pointy bits on his boots, plus he has armor hanging off his shoulders. The helmet still looks cool, and it still looks like it was made by a particularly skilled blacksmith. The cape is draped over his shoulder, and you can mount his hilt under it if you like.

 

The sculpting is good, and the joints are well-integrated into the armor. Hasbro is better and better at making the textures look different, so you'll notice the body suit sets itself off from the metal-looking armor. All of the pieces fit together well, with lots of movement in the mid-torso joint and the hips swing forward fully. If they ever make an appropriate vehicle, this guy should be able to pilot it easily. Sadly we're moving into the "adult collectible" phase (or "endgame," probably) of the hobby where an increased emphasis on high-endedness will probably make this sort of thing unlikely. It's a shame, this design is super cool and would be a lot of fun if it were treated more like a toy, what with the spinning double-bladed lightsaber on the show and everything.

I wouldn't not recommend this one. If you see it in stores, give it a look. It might go with the Shin Hati and Baylan Skoll figures you find at Ross. Hasbro did a really nice job with it, but like so many figures we're in an era where people are no longer super fixated on the new thing for very long. Or the old thing, because Disney is giving us so much new stuff that you might not ever be in a position to consider a rewatch of these fairly fun shows. Is it worth $20? Well, maybe. The secondary market prices on The Black Series Marrok are approaching $90 and The Retro Collection is still holding SRP. I assume this guy, barring overproduction on Hasbro's part, is something you'll want to pick up before it runs out.

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

--Adam Pawlus

Day 3,343: May 7, 2026

Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 3,154: Marrok (The Retro Collection)

MARROK (Kenner Style)
The Retro Collection 3 3/4-Inch Action Figure
Item No.: Asst. F6874 No. F8782
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: n/a
Includes: n/a
Action Feature: Cape, Lightsaber
Retail: $11.99
Availability: October 2023
Appearances: Star Wars: Ahsoka

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: I opened and shot Marrok late in 2023 but, for some reason, didn't write a review. And that's a shame - solids of him seem to be sold out from Hasbro, and he never arrived in big box stores. You may still find him online, alone or in cases, and he's pretty good. There are a lot of figures that may be cooler if they arrived with no backstory, and this is one of them. On the show, he was a mostly silent nobody, dressed sort of like a knight in armor. But since we saw the show, we know what his deal is. You know, my daddy always said to me - you can't trust a man what's made of gas. One of the things the show did well with this guy is we barely got to know him, and then he exploded. We'll probably not see much more from him. We never even got a Vintage figure before Hasbro moved on to the next thing and fans seemed less enthused about coming along for The Acolyte thus far... although the Kenner figures do look pretty cool. But I digress.

One thing that I'm realizing is that the bulk of the past decade of Star Wars seems less "now" than some of what we got in the old days, but maybe that's just something that comes with hindsight. Kea Moll, Thall Joben, and Jord Dusat certainly seemed like designs from the punk and new wave world, and in some cases seem even more modern today thanks to bright colored hair and undercuts. Mark Hamill himself complained about how 1970s his hair was. There's something cool about being both of the future and incredibly of your own time, but Marrok seems rooted in our collective imaginations of the past. This is somebody who could have menaced King Arthur, yet carries a Darth Maul-like laser sword. It may not be wholly original but at least you instantly grok his deal.

This is a figure that looks almost like he was meant to be a toy first, The Black Knight but for Star Wars. He's completely covered, has a swell cape. There's an Inquisitor lightsaber and it seems we've been largely spared the goofy baddie stuff we usually got from that crew - it's just a guy, in a helmet, who's going to hunt some people down. The one thing that's truly unfortunate about this guy is I wasn't a kid when he came out as a Kenner toy. I would have flipped my lid having this guy menacing R2-D2 and C-3PO before they met up with Luke, even though there's not much to him other than some gray metallic paint and a couple of painted lights. In many respects he looks like some kid smashed together an AT-AT Commander with Darth Vader and threw on a cape from some other figure, and the results look like something Star Wars-y.

Like a lot in recent Star Wars, it captures the spirit of a galaxy far, far away but doesn't seem to expand its boundaries. It's like in the 1990s when you saw comics do Star Wars, more often than not it was pretty tethered to the reality of the movies without going somewhere new and crazy like we saw with completely different designs for The Phantom Menace on Naboo. Marrok looks like he belongs as a part of Star Wars, which is good for older toy junkies. I like this figure a lot as it's more or less a blank canvas for fun, and that's the kind of thing Kenner gave us in spades in the old days. About half of the action figures had no real backstory other than "was in a bar" or "hung out in trees" and you could just run with it. This guy is an ex-Imperial (or maybe current Imp) mercenary, and that's pretty fertile ground for stories. May they tell us no more so we can imagine them.

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

--Adam Pawlus

Day 3,154: July 16, 2024

Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 3,099: Marrok (The Black Series)

MARROK Nobody expects the Imperial inquisition
The Black Series 2023 Window Box Line Look Ahsoka Packaging
Item No.: Asst. E8908 No. F7111
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: #08 - Star Wars: Ahsoka
Includes: Lightsaber, cape
Action Feature: Lightsaber has removable blades
Retail: $24.99
Availability: October 2023
Appearances: Star Wars: Ahsoka

Bio: Set after the fall of the Empire, Ahsoka follows former Jedi Knight Ahsoka Tano as she investigates an emerging threat to a vulnerable galaxy. (Taken from the box packaging.)

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: You can't trust a man what's made of gas, and Marrok is no exception. Maybe he's a man in armor who was powered by magic and exploded! Or maybe he was some sort of enchanted armor with no man. What we know is we didn't see much, a refreshing and odd mystery in an era of Star Wars where we're used to things being over-explained. The figure made it to shelves pretty quickly after the Ahsoka show aired and odds are we won't be seeing this ex-Inquisitor again. He has a familiar half-blade lightsaber that looks like the one Reva carried, he has a cloth cape, and he looks sort of like a classic knight in armor. The name Marrok also calls back to a knight of Arthurian tale with a warwilf connection. Dave Filoni strikes again.

To my eye, the character comes off as a spooky, rusty set of ghost armor like you saw on Scooby-Doo cartoons. Pop culture junkies more or less knew his deal without a word, just because the design is familiar enough that we almost instinctually know what the deal is here... despite not knowing it at all. The figure meets the typical milestones for a 6-inch figure, with a peg on his hilt to store behind his neck and the normal articulation. After smooth joints on many figures, this one is very stuff - you can feel a hard push with each stage of movement on his knees. I'm not crazy about it. But he is sturdy, he stands well, and he poses nicely. You can't complain about the range of movement on his elbows, but you can complain his hands are incredibly stiff and that this makes it difficult for him to hold his lightsaber, particularly with that obtrusive peg poking out the middle. It's just unpleasant accessory/figure interaction.

In terms of sculpting, the figure looks like what you saw on screen. The suit has some pointy shoulders, some Vader-esque armor lights, and has some nice dirt and rust. It looks like something that belongs in a museum. Given Hasbro probably had about zero idea what his deal was, this format captured his general vibe pretty well. He's just a quiet thug with a nice cape that hangs over his shoulder, in the background, and generally doesn't make a big fuss about things. A figure like this can be hard to nitpick in terms of sculpt given the lack of really good photos of the real costume, but it seems to match publicity photos well. The armored parts do seem a little light, and the plastic doesn't quite seem to have a hard metal look. The lighter gray seems to let a little light in, which sadly makes it look more like an action figure than a little replica.

If you liked the Fifth Brother, he's very much like that. He gets the job done, the peg on his lightsaber is just awful, the colors are mostly there, and he's a neat Imperial bad guy. Like so many figures, Hasbro did a good job with the expected level of articulation, but there's nothing here that takes it to the next level. Fans of this format should mostly enjoy how this figure was done, and the material used for the cape seems very good for the size. I'm also happy for fans of this particular costume - if Hasbro didn't have it out before we all saw the show, I assume he'd probably never be made as an action figure. This is why it's sometimes important to have stuff out before the series or movie, otherwise we'd never get a Zuvio.

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

--Adam Pawlus

Day 3,099: January 16, 2024