If there is one drawback to that shaggy sculpt, it’s the limits it places on the articulation. We’ve got a ton of potential here: ball-joints at the neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, knees, & ankles, swivel thighs, and two (Two) joints in the torso. Bicep swivels are all that’s really missing. And yet? Poses can be tough due to all the excess fur. There’s still fun to be had, and if you’re an aesthetic over function guy, you’ll be golden.
SWB is pretty good on sculpts. They’re sharp on articulation. What they’re fuzzy on though is paint. Chewbacca is spared the worst of it by not having any flesh tone areas. He’s all fur and it helps hide the paint issues that hamper other figures, but not entirely. The dark on the upper arms & legs doesn’t really transition to light well. And when we get to the completely unpainted fur areas, the plastic sheen looks funny against the flat paint. There’s no real dealbreaker here, but I think all of SWB could come alive in the hands of a talented painter/customizer.
Chewbacca included two accessories. His trademark satchel & bandolier looks fantastic and fits great on the figure while still moving easily with the articulation. It can pop out from under the head now and again, but it looks good. The bowcaster – I must’ve gotten a bad one. It’s packaged in two pieces and seems like it has assembled easily enough for others, but not so for me. The front bow part just will not stay on the main part of the rifle. I don’t know what’s up but it is frustrating.
Overall, SWB is still just find its feet. We’re only on Wave 5. It’s only been a year. And the figures are surprisingly ahead of the curve in that regard. The sculpts are top notch. The articulation is what we expect from nicer 6” figures. The accessories are the ones you’d expect to get (& expect to fit together!). It’s really just the paint, or lack of paint, that keeps these figures from being something really special to me. I’d love to see Hasbro step up their game. If nothing else, that would make it a lot more difficult to bow out on so many of their releases. I know I’ve gotten picky, but I’d have trouble sticking to it if Anakin Skywalker were painted better. I wouldn’t dislike the Obi-Wan I did buy as much as I do. Hasbro has gotten so much right, I just want to see them round it out.
For more Star Wars Black reviews, check out our
Star Wars Black Collector’s Guide.
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I don’t know why but Teen Wolf came yo my head after looking at that sculpt 😛
I haven’t seen Chewie yet, as all my local stores seem to have choked up on peg warmers, but as for selection, I do wonder if they put in a number of prequel versions and army builders over OT as several of the original cast are shooting the new sequel for next year, and we’ll get more versions of them then? Seriously, we’re going on six waves and the lone female is finally getting ‘A’ variant, yet neither figure is one that make her look pretty (gold bikini was another face disaster, but not quite MF-Leia debacle of the 90s).
Anywho, how are the feet and hand sculpts? and is that layered fur on the torso from joints or what? I might pick one up for a potential custom.
and that SNL skit was….yeah.
Really nice. Feet look very Bigfootish. Hands are great and have fur sculpted as hanging down.
There’s artic at the layered fur areas, so torso joint and waste joint.
He’s beautifully scultped. One thing of interest is the fur underneath the bandolier is sculpted flatter, to simulate an impression of the bandolier. Which is kind of cool if you have no plans to remove the bandolier from him (it’s loose) but probably sucks for those who plan on using these for customising.
I imagine it was sculpted that way to make the bandolier give a snugger fitting look.
BTW, Noisy, does your crossbow come apart because of a little notch of plastic stick out of the front section? Mine had it, and at first I thought it was a tab to lock it in place but soon discovered it’s likely superfluous plastic that makes the front section come off as it’s forcing itself to do so. So just shaved it off and the font part stays on.
saw the latest wave at Walgreens yest/today. Chewie looked good. Jedi Luke seems to have same derp face as Bespin, but a new hairstyle? Didn’t really look at Vader or the other figure (Stormy?). No sign of White Fett. (or that Rad-Man/Ms Marvel 3pk at Target!) darn.
Great review and pics, as per usual.
I know what you mean about cooling on Star Wars. I think I’m winding down on enthusiasm for most collecting (bar MOTUC), actually. Still, I may continue to get the 6″ Black series bounty hunters.
Excellent review. Chewie looks great. I would be tempted to collect these but I can’t justify the scalper prices on eBay and Amazon (£22-£50 each). The distribution in local toy shops here is also awful, the only toy shops in a 60 mile radius only have a few figures on the pegs and they are all Greedo and Leia figures.
Every time I buy a human in this line, I want to quit it. Every time I buy a non-human, I want to continue. One has to win out over the other.
The face sculpts haven’t been great.
Between the poor distribution in my area (pegwarmers are all from wave 2), the slow release schedule, the poor sculpts on the humans, and my lack of interest in prequel characters, Hasbro is making it easy for me to pass on most of this line. I do appreciate how they thought of me and how they could help reduce my toy spending! Thanks, Hasbro!
Haven’t popped on any since Han & Leia. Chewie maybe a if see and have $$$$$ may buy. I like the big lug and all just ponder if wanna do Star Wars toys like did in youth. (Had an okay set as a kid yet mice killed my Jabba liar) I haven’t seen many of these other than Greedo Leia and Kenobi. A Xwing luke pops up once in awhile but vanishes quick.
I snagged Chewie and RotJ Luke from Nerd Rage Toys when they got them in stock a couple weeks ago. Really wanted Chewie to go with Han and only got Han to display with Funko Legacy’s (hopefully) soon to be released Mal Reynolds. Figure Mal and Jayne will look cool next to Han and Chewie. Anyway…
My Chewie’s bowcaster went together just fine. I did screw up and remove the sight from the top and had a hell of a time putting it back on. But the bow stays on the front just fine so far.
I do agree that his articulation, while probably the best of any Chewbacca ever released (first Wookie with balljointed hips?) the sculpt does interfere with a lot of it. But its not like he’s dancing around the Death Star like Spider-man. Just wish I could get his arms in that holding the bowcaster across his torso with his arms crossed pose, like Boba Fett does sometimes. But the fur around the elbows won’t let them bend enough.
Oh and the Wookie ROAR face bugs me too. I like neutral facial expressions unless they also come with an alternate head. But it wasn’t a deal breaker.
All in all I think he’s a great figure. The feet look weird (who knew he had Bigfoot feet) and his articulation is hampered by the sculpt. But aside from that I think he turned out about as well as expected.
When SWB was first announced I pretty much knew right away that I would get the inevitable Storm Trooper and Bossk if they got there (lucky me!). I like SW but it’s definitely a lesser obsession for me.
So far I’ve resisted most of them. I’m not a big R2 fan, there would need to be a Dewback to sell me on a Sandtrooper, and an X-Wing to sell me on pilot Luke. I may break down and get Maul still. Maybe. And probably Greedo. LoL
I picked up the SDCC Jabba because I was there and I feel like he’d make a pretty decent centerpiece for a display. Which means I’ll probably get ROTJ Luke and Slave Leia. Or I may eventually flip him. Time will tell.
I have Boba (unopened) and a Storm Trooper and a Clone Trooper. The Storm Trooper is fantastic. One of my favorite 6″ figures ever. I really want to like the Clone Trooper (I’m a sucker for multiples in different colors so the upcoming red and green ones tickle my fancy) but his armor hinders his articulation a surprising amount.
As for Chewie up there…he looks like a lot of fun. But that means I’d have to buy Han, lol.
I don’t think I’ve ever had a line where I’ve felt such a strong sense of wanting to cherry pick before.
Argh, still waiting for my Chewie to arrive from Amazon. He looks glorious. Hoping Amazon get Vader in soon.
I’m a bit torn on this line. I’ll appreciate it more when I’ve got the core characters covered, but only having a few here and there doesn’t look great.
Having said that, I have stockpiled Stormtroopers. Grabbed 6 Sandtroopers early on and stripped a few down to be dirty Stormies. Now have another 6 regular Stormies and another 2 on the way (with Cheeie). Looking forward to having a display of Vader just surrounded by them.
Sticking to OT myself and not every character. Skipped Greedo, just no interest. Got Han, Boba, R2, X-Wing Luke and Leia (only got Leia when she went to $10 on Amazon… really want ANH version). Want to grab Bespin Luke (he’s in my Amazon cart but waiting for Vader to show) but a bit meh on Jedi Luke… doesn’t look that good. :/
Got a couple of Scouts on speeders… the current Amazon price is tempting for more but talk about space eaters… 2 will do.
Passing Jabba in protest because of Hasblow’s SDCC decision. Give me the fat slug with the lot otherwise what’s the point?
Woohoo! Chewie arrived today! He’s magnificent. Absolutely love him.
Funny that you feel that way about the line because I thought I would be the only one. I was super-excited when I hear about them, but have only gotten the first 2 waves. Army building is cost-prohibitive as well (a lot of my money will got towards DCC Batman Animated line is they posed decently) and the face sculpts have been only okay. I will see what is in store, but might stick to the original trilogy only.
“He may be a hair tall”? “A little fuzzy on the paint”?
I can’t tell if these were intended or not…
If I had to save up for just one six-inch Darth Vader figure, should it be the STAR WARS Black Vader or the Play Arts Kai Variant Vader?