Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 2,997: Migs Mayfeld (The Black Series)

MIGS MAYFELD Ex-Imperial Criminal Disguise
The Black Series 2020 Line Look Orange The Mandalorian Packaging
Item No.: Asst. E8908 No. F4360
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: #27 - The Mandalorian
Includes: Backpack with blaster, four additional blasters
Action Feature: Removable backpack with extending blaster arm, four working holsters
Retail: $24.99
Availability: December 2022
Appearances: The Mandalorian

Bio: A hot-headed ex-Imperial sharpshooter, Migs Mayfeld was once a smart-mouthed leader of a gang of criminals. (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: This is a real good 6-inch figure. Migs Mayfeld gives you everything you want and does it well. Not only do you get Bill Burr, but you get four working holsters, four identical blasters, and a bonus backpack-mounted blaster. It has pretty much everything he needs, and no extra fluff you need to figure out where to store later/lose later. Articulation is good if not exceptional, and in many respects, you could probably paint him green and put him on your G.I. Joe shelf without looking out of place. Hasbro did good here, and I'd say Mando fans should pick him up.

After Q9-0, Migs is the second (and hopefully not last) figure from the gang in season one. Spreading them out far apart probably results in diminished enthusiasm, but it's another good figure with a lot going for him. A dark, dark blue costume is augmented by a brown shirt and a number of holsters that look like he stitched them together himself. There are a total of five blasters - four in holsters, one on a mechanical arm in his backpack - and everything fits in pretty nicely. (One of mine had a slightly bent scope, so it goes in the chest holsters.) The costume looks just like the show, with some light leather bits, some dark leather bits, and some painted metal elements.

Hasbro also wisely molded much of the figure in color. He doesn't have nor does he need painted detail, thanks to the simple costume design, so you can just pick him up and marvel at the subtle fabric patterns sculpted on his shirt plus the detailed pockets. The gloves have tiny ribs on the fingers and padding on the knuckles, making this look like a great replica of the costume. While he isn't an exciting alien or a cool robot, he is an excellent translation of what we saw on TV down to the photoreal head with an acceptable amount of painted scruff. I assume the technology will improve with time, but it's better than anything we got five or ten years ago.

It's great when Hasbro can do a great figure of a fun character. Migs' body seems like it could be reused for other figures down the road, which could be great. He doesn't have the fancy shoulders with the extra swing-forward motion, but other than that every joint works well with the kind of standard complaints you might expect. The legs can move, but the holsters block them from moving too much - that is the price of carrying a lot of heat. The elbows and knees have a good range of motion and he doesn't tend to flop over with the tight - but not necessarily super smooth - joints. I'd recommend this figure because I love seeing my favorite character actors and stand-up comics appear in Star Wars, but you'll want it because it's a quality interpretation of the costume. I hope they make Burg and Xi'an too at some point, especially if they can be prodded to do a Kenner-style wave with the whole crew.

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

--Adam Pawlus

Day 2,997: January 24, 2023

Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 2,972: Migs Mayfeld (Morak, The Vintage Collection)

MIGS MAYFELD (Morak, but not called such on the package)
The Vintage Collection 3 3/4-Inch Action Figure
Item No.: No. F5566
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: #229
Includes: Helmet, blaster
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $14.99
Availability: August 2022
Appearances: The Mandalorian
Bio: Ex-Imperial sharpshooter, Migs Mayfeld was once the smart-mouthed leader of a gang of criminals. Mayfeld’s skills help The Mandalorian to rescue Grogu from Moff Gideon. (Stolen from Target. There is no bio on-pack.)

Image: Adam's photo lab.

Availability: Click here to buy it at Amazon now!

Commentary: "Haven't I seen you some place before?" Migs Mayfeld is almost the same as Din Djarin (Morak). There's a new head, but what I find the most interesting is that they corrected the figure between his packaged sample phase and the final release. On Target.com, the photo has the red sleeve with the yellow boxes - the final figure is plain gray, as seen in the photos here. It's worth noting the 6-inch figure also incorrectly had the red sleeve on the final, so it's good they corrected it for what I guess I am going to keep assuming is the scale-of-record.

As you saw in the last one, this figure seems to be a mix of new and old parts. The result is a figure with a state-of-the-art head, with excellent deco, on a body that's kind of old hat. The articulation isn't as good as the newest figures, as the weird swivel/hinge hip is still there, but at least he looks incredible. If I didn't have Din to compare him against, I'd say he's awesome - but Hasbro cut corners, and putting identical damage on the torsos and helmets who should share piloting duties/diorama duties together is a bad look. It was done to comical effect in Transformers War for Cybertron: Siege where over half a dozen Decepticon jets had the exact same battle damage markings. Much like Din and Migs they were an excellent design, it's just the repetition that is utterly silly.

What's really amazing about this figure is the head. The 6-inch one is good, but I would say he looks even better at this size - the facial expression is nearly an eye-roll, a pre-sneer that you can practically hear saying something like "good job, dummy." It's Bill Burr, and it's funny that Hasbro may have produced the very best stand-up comic action figure sculpted likeness to date. The beard may not be perfect, but it's tough to do at this size - it's certainly good enough, with the eyes and face turning out quite nicely.

The legs surprised me - mine had upper-legs swiveled around, so I elected to keep them that way so it looked different than Din. The damage on the boots was also painted slightly differently, and I'm all for it. Overall Hasbro did a good job on this one, fulfilling their destiny of budget-cuts with reusing tooling but also giving us two incredible head sculpts. It's one of the few things that makes The Vintage Collection a bit of a heartbreaker - when Hasbro makes an all-new figure these days, it's almost always one of the very best things they've ever done. And then they fill the wave with reissues and reused parts that they've proven aren't as good as what they can do, but since we're unlikely to get a new Imperial Juggernaut for these guys to pilot I guess it might not matter anymore. 

Without a vehicle or a playset, these guys will either just stay carded forever or be opened and stand in a nice display shelf somewhere. It also serves as a reminder that somehow, for some reason, Hasbro can give us figures if Ming-Na Wen, Bill Burr, Katee Sackhoff, Pedro Pascal, and others that look excellent. And complain as I do about redux figures, I think we can all say we'd like to see what this new Hasbro design and engineering team can do (if anything) to get us a perfect Harrison Ford in Star Wars at this point. Clearly, the technology exists to do amazing work - but I digress. If by some miracle your Target still has 75% off Migs Mayfeld figures, go buy one. It's good for $15 and it's a steal for under $5. I regret not clearing them out at that price.

Collector's Notes: I got mine from Target. He was marked down 75% off weeks after being released and was completely gone from most stores in under two months - that's astonishing impatience on Target's part.

--Adam Pawlus

Day 2,972: October 27, 2022

Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 2,897: Migs Mayfeld (Morak, The Black Series)

MIGS MAYFELD (Morak)
The Black Series 2020 Line Look Orange Star Wars: The Mandalorian Packaging
Item No.: Asst. E8908 No. F1874
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: #15 - Star Wars: The Mandalorian
Includes: Blaster, helmet
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $22.99
Availability: December 2021
Appearances: Star Wars: The Mandalorian

Bio: A hot-headed ex-Imperial sharpshooter, Migs Mayfeld was once the leader of a gang of criminals. Mayfeld's skills and old ties help The Mandalorian on his mission to rescue Grogu from Moff Gideon (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: I think this is the first time a stand-up comic whose record is in my bins has been turned into a Star Wars toy. (And I thought the honor would've gone to Brian Posehn.) Migs Mayfeld (Morak) takes the mudtrooper Han Solo body and adapts it to this new character. Hasbro has been expertly retooling and tweaking figures to make the most of existing assets for years, often coming up with very good releases that definitely work as close enough - and this is one of them, with one little problem. The arm.

Bill Burr's head is seen here with a shaved head and a good amount of scruff Weirdly packaged wearing his helmet, the bright-eyed ex-Imperial sniper looks really good. I don't know why Hasbro decided to hide it - the newly-tooled helmet is no slouch either. At first glance this figure looked like a Rogue One-era redeco, but now. It's a Solo redeco, minus a lot of the "redeco" part.

I'm being a little unfair, but this is one of the few times Hasbro could've made a better figure by saving some money. The 2019 Han figure had a lot more accessories for less money, but also a lot of paint applications. This new figure uses that same body, changing up the battle damage a bit and changing the scuffing slightly. Most of it appears in similar positions - no big deal - with minor modifications. The one place it really fell short was the right bicep - you'll notice Mr. Mayfeld has a red armor piece with three yellow squares. The element on the TV show was devoid of such hues, and a plain grey arm would've been more accurate. (Weirdly, Mando does have a red sleeve.) Sticklers for on-screen accuracy should probably hope Hasbro does Mando in this costume and screws it up too - maybe a simple head or arm swap could result in better figures down the road.

There are always going to be concessions when you make a new figure from existing tooling, but the paint job shouldn't be one of them - Hasbro could've got this one right and saved some money at the same time. I still like the figure because of what it is. If I didn't collect Star Wars I'd probably be amused enough by a Bill Burr toy that I'd want to buy it anyway - it's a good likeness and a nice trooper with a blaster that fits in his holster. Maybe we'll see a fixed variant some day. but until then I can only say that this is almost a great figure. The sculptors did a wonderful job on the new head, and it looks great on the old body. The scuffs are nice! The blaster is fine! The helmet fits just fine. They just need to fix the arm.

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

--Adam Pawlus

Day 2,897: February 8, 2022