Vintage Collection
Grand Admiral Thrawn
As it’s finally time for our review of VC296 Grand Admiral Thrawn, we decided that I was too lazy to do a review today it would make sense for us to ask our friend and Thrawn fanatic/connoisseur, Tyler, to do a guest review. If you’re a frequent reader of this site, you may have seen his occasional commentary below our articles/reviews. But he is known as one of the crew that operates the SWTVC Instagram page @SWTVC. He also has his own page @swcollector3.75. So without further delay, enjoy the review.
Review by Tyler 12/11/23 7:05 AM
Greetings Bantha Skull readers! Let me start by thanking Chris and Bret for the honor and privilege of being able to write a guest review for this figure, it was completely unexpected and such a nice surprise. I was delighted when I was invited to do this and it was an immediate and emphatic “YES!” And of course, I then took forever to do it. Sorry guys. The delay on this review is not Bantha Skull’s fault, it’s mine. More on that later.
But let’s get into it, what you’re here for… The review of VC296 Grand Admiral Thrawn from Star Wars: Rebels. Grand Admiral Thrawn is a character created in the early 90’s by Hugo Award-winning and The New York Times Best Seller List author Timothy Zahn for his fan-favorite 1991 book Heir to the Empire, which became the “Thrawn trilogy” including Dark Force Rising and The Last Command. Thrawn is undoubtedly his biggest claim to fame and is arguably the most famous and beloved Expanded Universe character. The success of that trilogy cannot be overstated. It transformed the Expanded Universe from niche curiosity into full pop culture consciousness and was the driving force behind providing George Lucas the motivation and confidence to create the Prequel Trilogy. The rest is history. In many ways, we can thank Timothy Zahn and this compelling character for most of the Star Wars content that exists today. That kind of significance and contribution to the fandom I think would have been more worthy of the VC300 milestone, but I digress. That may just be my personal bias bleeding into this review. Needless to say, it’s been a long, 30+ year road to get this much beloved character in super-articulated, definitive 3.75” form on a beautiful vintage Kenner-style card back. It’s about time, and it has been worth the wait.
Of course, this isn’t the first Thrawn in 3.75” figure history. In the 90’s we got our first Thrawn in Power of the Force 2. It was decent for its time. In 2008, we got a super-articulated (at least by 2008 standards) Thrawn in a the Legacy Collection comic pack alongside Talon Karrde. It was a pretty great figure, if perhaps a bit short, and for many, served as the definitive Thrawn for collectors’ collections for the past 15 years. It has certainly had many years of service in my collection as such. There was also an animated-style 5POA Thrawn figure packaged in the Rogue One line, but since 5POA is not okay and the figure often couldn’t even stand without falling over, we’re just going to pretend that doesn’t exist. It was terrible anyway.
You can safely and permanently retire your comic pack Grand Admiral Thrawn now. He is rendered immediately and decidedly obsolete by this release. They are not even remotely in the same league. Kind of like how the VOTC Stormtrooper has been obliterated by VC231. (Seriously guys, it’s time to retire those. Your collections and displays deserve better.) If you’re thinking you can skip this figure because the old comic pack one is “good enough,” you’re just wrong. Do yourself and your collection a favor and get several. Although based on Star Wars: Rebels, the portrait is a realistic interpretation, and honestly doesn’t look much like he does in the show at all. Which is fine, because it is still fantastic, and can serve as an EU-style Thrawn portrait. A Lars Mikkelsen version would seem like a virtual certainty in the near future, so in my opinion, I welcome likely having both options soon and it would be nice to be able to choose which one we want to display.
The figure is of course based on VC270 - Admiral Piett’s tooling (the gift that keeps on giving for us Imperial Officer fans) but with some notable differences. Interestingly, this Thrawn sports newly tooled upper legs, making his trousers tighter to the legs than the other Imperial officers wearing the poofy jodhpur pants. This gives him a few extra millimeters of height when compared to the other officers, but some would argue he is still too short given that Thrawn is particularly tall. The front torso is also newly tooled to accommodate the glorious Grand Admiral rank badge, the four code cylinders, and the gold shoulder bars. Thrawn does unfortunately suffer from the same limited elbow articulated range as Piett and the other officers, which is a shame, as he often places his hand on his chin in the iconic pensive, strategizing pose. This is sadly impossible to accomplish with the limited range of motion.
The lower tunic “skirt” also sports a new holster to accommodate his included RK-3 blaster pistol, which he used on a number of occasions in Rebels, and is a nice, pliable/bendy plastic that accommodates sitting in a command chair well. I do have to mention that I think it’s a missed opportunity not to include removable helmet and armor pieces from the Season 3 finale, Zero Hour: Part 2, as this release is likely the only opportunity for that. While not absolutely necessary accessories, they would have been very welcome inclusions. (Mine are custom 3D printed/painted.)
There is a lot of potential for re-release with this figure. As mentioned above, the live action Lars Mikkselsen version from Ahsoka is an absolute must (although, he should come with the poofy jodhpur pants because that’s how he appears in live action), but beyond that, they could retool the torso to give him the old Expanded Universe epaulets on his shoulders, and put him on an Heir to the Empire cardback. I would just about die. There’s nothing I could possibly want more (did I mention how delighted I am to be able to write this review?).
I’ve also been tremendously jealous of the The Black Series SDCC Thrawn with office accessories for years. Such a release in TVC (though with an actual desk, at a minimum) would be most welcome and I think would sell quite well. The talented 3D printing community has already made such a concept a reality, like this one on Etsy (I need this).
Alternatively, a simple command chair would be very cool too and seemingly feasible for a deluxe release.
As for the delay in this review, it’s because I’ve been working hard to finish my Star Destroyer full bridge diorama from Hole in the Ground Productions for this review and the painting was giving me a hard time. Specifically, painting the dark gray trim around the crew pits. Getting the lines to be neat and perfect was a pain, but the urgency of this review lit a fire under my behind to get it done much faster than it probably otherwise would have, so thanks to Bantha Skull for that and I hope you enjoy my very amateur photography.
Putting my obvious bias aside (Thrawn is, as many of you know, one of my favorite characters in all of Star Wars), I have to judge this figure dispassionately and fairly. Due to the limited elbow range, arguably being a bit too short, and the omission of the helmet and armor, I’m going to give this figure a 9. But none of these are deal-breakers; make no mistake, it is an exceptional figure and definitely a must-have for your collection that’s been a long time coming.
Some additional post live notes from Tyler:
- The emblems on the collar are also sculpted specifically for this release.
- Thrawn is noticeably off-white when compared to the ISB Officer in the 4-pack. Thrawn’s uniform has never been described as being “off white”, so it is unclear whether this was an intentional decision; however, if there is ever another release in the future, it would be preferable to make the uniform bright white like the ISB officer.