There is something extremely satisfying when Hasbro completes a crew or a scene.  We’re still in the celebratory afterglow of having a complete Prisoner Skiff with the release of VC288 - Velken Tezeri.  Similarly, Hasbro has been making great strides towards completing the Darth Maul Mandalore arc from season 5 of The Clone Wars.  We have previously received:

• VC201 - Darth Maul (Mandalore)
• VC226 - Bo-Katan Kryze
• VC243 - Mandalorian Super Commando
• VC246 - Mandalorian Super Commando Captain
• VC247 - Mandalorian Death Watch Airborne Trooper

Now we add this Pre Vizsla figure.  The only two must haves remaining are Savage Opress, which, thanks to the deluxe program is a possibility, and Almec, which is difficult to imaging ever seeing action figure form.

Pre Vizsla, together with the aforementioned Savage Opress, we’re in my Top 25 for last year’s March Madness, so I was quite pleased to see this figure announced, but its release is somewhat bittersweet.  It’s not bittersweet because the figure is lacking.  It’s bittersweet because this figure is a reminder that the sculpts where better in 2022 than they are today.  The quality of figures is regressing in 2023.  If this Pre Vizsla were 100% newly tooled, it wouldn’t be as good as this retool of a 2022 sculpt.  That type of statement should never be true.  At best, action figure quality should be improving in perpetuity.  At worst, it should be staying static.  The fact that our figures are regressing is inexcusable, and it’s a factor that helped usher in a temporary end to the super articulated 3.75” scale in 2015.  The range of motion in the elbows and knees would not be nearly as good today.  If you want to be extra sad, check out MAKMCSWF’s review of the just released Darth Revan.

This Pre Vizsla starts with the same base sculpt as 2022’s Mandalorian Super Commando, Mandalorian Super Commando Captain, and Mandalorian Death Watch Airborne Trooper.  It’s an outstanding sculpt that is effortlessly poseable.  The elbows articulate to just beyond ninety degrees. The amount of expression afforded by that little extra range of motion can not be overstated.  You will notice that this Pre Vizsla is a little shorter than its Mandalorian Death Watch Airborne Trooper predecessor.  It appears this was achieved by shortening the gap at the torso joint by a few millimeters.  When sculpts are engineered with this type of flexibility built in, we should applaud Hasbro.  I’ve heard that 2019’s Rebel Pilot buck also has the same capabilities to adjust figure height through the torso joint without requiring new tooling (I just wish Hasbro would get going on giving us some).  I believe this height variation is achieved by adjusting the length of the barbell that connects the upper and lower torso.

The height difference is not the end of the changes Hasbro made for this release.  A new belt, left forearm, jetpack, helmet, and head sculpt were tooled.  The head sculpt is brilliant, and the Photo Real technology is starting to become unbelievable.  Hasbro is verging on photorealism.  The removable helmet fits perfectly over the head while also being perfectly proportioned.  It further questions what went wrong with the helmet on the deluxe Sabine Wren.  The jetpack is sculpted so that the flame attachments from the deluxe Boba Fett (Tatooine) can be inserted.  Regrettably, I didn’t remember this as I was photographing. I love that Hasbro achieved the Dark Saber “crackling” effect for this release.  It present much nicer than the Dark Saber that was included with VC180 - Moff Gideon offering.  My only major gripe with the figure is that the saber fits too loosely in the hand, and that’s the downside of reusing a sculpt that is intended to hold blasters and not a thin saber hilt.  Also a tad disappointing is the lack of an unlit hilt.  Those two issues compel me to have this figure stop just short of a perfect score with a 9 out of 10.

One last thing we should mention is that this is Bantha Skull’s first look at the new (old) card back.  Gone is the cross-sell, and it’s replaced with the VOTC/VTSC/2010-11 TVC style card back.  The exception in this case is that instead of showing the character’s action figure debut, it’s just a self-reference to the front of the card and figure.  That’s a little odd, and I think Hasbro owes Steve-O a royalty:

Nevertheless, I have to say that a refresh to the card back was long overdue.  Hasbro has been using the 20-back inspired multi-colored squares in the cross-sell since 2012.  That’s longer than Kenner used the similar look, which only lasted through the 41-C cards backs.  I’ve been calling for a refresh for a while.  I just would have preferred the solid blue cross-sell background of the Kenner 41-D card :

Regardless, I’m happy that it was refreshed.  The old one was getting stale.