Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 2,494: Kessel Guard (Solo: A Star Wars Story Line Look)

KESSEL GUARD with Lando Calrissian
Solo: A Star Wars Story Force Link 2.0 Two-Pack
Item No.: Asst. E0324  No. E1252
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: n/a
Includes: Blaster, cape/scarf, tri-pod cannon, staff, 2 figures
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $14.99
Availability: April 2018
Appearances: Solo: A Star Wars Story

Bio: Pyke sentinels, also known as Kessel Guards, were guards hired by the Pyke Syndicate to protect their operations on the planet Kessel.  (Taken from Wookieepedia.)

Image: Adam's photo lab.

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

Click here to buy it at Amazon now!

Commentary:  Packed with Lando, the Kessel Guard is kind of neat.  It's not perfect, but it's interesting - and has a few spots that, functionally speaking, need help.   It's a real rarity in the toy line these days as something that's wholly new - there hasn't been another Pyke or Kessel Guard action figure yet.   It looks somewhat similar, like a remix of other costumes.  The wrist gauntlets look vaguely like something on Chirrut Imwe, and it's very Star Wars-y.  Just like the movie from which it comes.

The figure has a gorgeous paint job and an exquisite sculpt, giving you a beautiful figure with only five points of articulation.  Two of those joints are utterly worthless - the "skirt" looks awesome and has rusty, weathered deco on it.  It also completely hinders leg movement forward.  The arms swivel forward and angle out when you swing them ahead, and this allows it to hold the included tri-pod cannon or the nifty staff.   The figure has a ball-jointed head on a giant, thick neck - it almost looks sort of like a bowl has been placed on a headless neck.   Still, it's a nice helmet with gritty dirty yellow paint and a CD-ROM slot for eyes.  The not-quite-SCUBA gear looks cool, but it also feels like we were robbed from another cool alien monster mask.  Since the Disney era, we've seen a lot more aliens in helmets, masks, or are otherwise unseen to the audience.  Hasbro did an expert job representing the design, plus or minus the dubious skirt.

In addition to the legs being worthless, there's a place to peg in the staff to the backpack. It doesn't work.  The design looks like it should be a perfect fit, like a puzzle piece.  While you can put it in there, it slowly spits the staff back out - it's almost amazing.  A few seconds after cramming it in there, it plops out on the table behind the figure.  Maybe yours will work better than mine, but it's almost laughably crappy.  At least the hands can hold it.

There are some missing elements -  like some paint on the gauntlets, the light-up eyes, and their rifles - but it's still decent.   I don't know if I'd army-build these, but the design looks like it would exist within a higher-budget version of the original Star Wars film.  The visuals are good, and it warms what's left of my heart whenever Hasbro gets to put out something that isn't a new version of a toy I already own.

Force Link 2.0 Notes: Something that sounds like running. Something that sounds like pounding a staff on the ground.  Some sort of a "whooshing" sound.  You would not at all miss it had they left this one out.

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

--Adam Pawlus

Day 2,494: June 27, 2018