We asked for it.  And Hasbro delivered.  The Imperial Officer buck was something the collecting community wanted dearly, and we were as confident as we could be from the vantage point of our couches at home that it would result in a multitude of desirable characters being brought to market.  Overall, this is a great thing, but it’s not without a few minor frustrations, and a ghost from the past that may be rearing it’s ugly head once again.  So we’ll play the game of The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly.

The Good.  First and foremost, we have an Imperial Officer sculpted to modern standards.  That’s overwhelmingly the best news, despite the gripes that I’ll get into.  And as we knew they would, Hasbro has run with the baton.  Earlier this year, the base figure debuted with the long-anticipated VC270 Admiral Piett.  Somewhat controversially, he came with the “ROTJ Wardrobe Malfunction” rank badge, which was what he was correctly wearing as a captain in the beginning of ESB.  A mere 14 sequential cardback numbers later, we got an updated VC284 Moff Jerjerrod.  That figure was identical to Piett (aside from the new head sculpt) up to and including the blooper rank badge.  With that, I opened my window, and screamed at the clouds for Hasbro to stop perpetuating known errors (whether they be from the sources or from Kenner).  They listened, and in the Imperial Officers troop builder pack, they added Piett (unnamed in the set) with the correct admiral badge.  Also included in that 4-pack were the (also unnamed) Admiral Motti as well as two generic officers.  Adding quickly to the lineup (only 12 numbers later), we got VC296 Admiral Thrawn.  Barely able to catch our collective breaths, we now have the 8th Officer in about 8 months - this very VC302 Director Orson Krennic.  And there is one more announced in the pipeline - Cal Kestis in an Imperial Officer uniform.  I actually haven’t finished the game yet, so I have no idea what this one was about.  Notably, these 8 releases + 1 pipeline cover a variety of OT-adjacent sources:  Jedi: Survivor, Rebels, Rogue One, A New Hope, Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi.  The sculpt is quickly joining the Stormtroopers and Mandalorians as one we may seemingly get an endless supply of in months/years to come.  I’m not complaining.

Overall, the figure is excellent, with a terrific sculpt, some excellent likenesses, and solid (not perfect) articulation.  They blow away every previous officer figure produced in the line prior - and we certainly got plenty of these.  Of these recent releases, this Krennic is technically the only debut character/outfit in the collector line (aside from the upcoming Kestis) - as we ignore his Rogue One 5POA release.  Thrawn is really his first as inspired by Rebels, and we did get Piett with the proper Captain rank.  But for the most part we’ve been getting updates.  I’d feel pretty certain that we’ll get an update to replace the abysmal VC98 Grand Moff Tarkin.  And we certainly need several (new and updated) characters that wear the black officer uniform.

The most interesting thing is the variety.  Hasbro has gone out of there way to mix things up with the details.  I’m not sure how hard it is for them to do this, and at what cost.  But we have several variants so far.  Most obvious are the rank badges.  So far we have 3 variants: 3-over-3, 6-over-6, and single 6.  We also have changes to the code cylinders.  Looking at the figures, from left side to right side, we have: 0 and 1, 1 and 1, 1 and 2, and 2 and 2.  We’ve also got two different hand sculpts:  1 pair bare, and 1 pair gloved.  Then we’ve got 3 belt variants: No holster, holster, and unique holster with the silver pip to the left of the buckle along with 3-pack of some ammo/cylinder thingies (Krennic).  We also have 3 different blaster options.  And then you’ve got Thrawn, who’s got shoulder epaulets and special insignia on his collar - not to mention his straight-legged pants.  Oh, and Krennic has a cape.  Take all of this and throw in different paint applications, and you have some decent variety.

The Bad.  My only real complaint with the sculpting is the lack of range of motion of the elbows and knees.  For the past year or so, most TVC figures have been sculpted with the ability to bend well past 90 degrees at both of these points.  Even going just a little past 90 is enough to coax some really nice realistic poses out of the figures.  In the case of these officers, we have two “iconic” instances that cannot be replicated by figures.  Motti’s figure is unable to bend his elbow enough for him to grasp his neck as he’s Force-choked for having a disturbing lack of faith (something the POTF2 figure was actually designed specifically to accomplish).  And Thrawn is unable to pensively brush his chin, as he is left to clasp his hands behind his back like all the other mere mortal officers.  Also, the knees don’t even reach 90, which is kind of embarrassing for a modern TVC figure.  It’s not a deal breaker, but from my vantage point (on the couch, as stated earlier), I don’t see how this effort would cost any more to sculpt the joints to allow more range.  It’s not like it’s a different joint with more pieces.  But what do I know?

The Ugly.   So here’s something that should maybe raise a few eyebrows.  Do you remember this image?  We’ve referenced it a few times over the years.  It’s an image of the range of colors used across the history of the line (at the time) which probably covered about 15 years of figures.  Yeah, there’s some debate amongst the color-sighted that, like Han’s Hoth coat, the Imperial officer uniform varies by source.  Personally, I think it should be clear that whatever color the original uniform might be (lighting and film editing aside) that would logically be the color across the Imperial Era.  One thing we collectors hoped for with a modern officer buck was a chance for Hasbro to just pick a color for the uniforms and stick with it.  Well, there are now 3 different releases of characters in the white uniform.  We’ve got the unnamed ISB officer from the 4-pack, Thrawn, and now Krennic.  All three of the the currently available officers have different color whites.  The 4-pack guy is a bright white, while the other two are different off-whites.  And who knows what the pipelined Cal Kestis will bring to the discussion.  This is somewhat unnerving, and I hope Hasbro either has a solid reasoning (via ILM, or something like that), or it’s a mistake that still has time to correct.  We don’t need the nightmare of the earlier figures that made them look like they were serving in different militaries.  (Editor’s Note:  In the recent Q&A, Hasbro indicated that the different whites was to indicate differing degrees of service use.).

Okay, all that said about the base figure, what about Krennic himself?  It’s high time we got him in the main line, since we can’t acknowledge the 5POA silliness. The figure is excellent.  The portrait is a fine likeness to Ben Mendelsohn.  He’s got some unique tooling as described above (the belt/holster) as well as different weapon from other officer figures.  He also comes with a thin plastic cape.  It fits him nicely, and doesn’t hinder the articulation too much, unless you want the figure to hold its arms outward the side or up over his head.  I generally prefer soft goods, but this seems to work well for this figure.  For the record, Krennic sports a few different looks in the film.  He’s got two flashback scenes where he’s got a different rank:  One is wearing a black cap and a wind/rain poncho when he confronts Galen Erso’s family, while the second is wearing his basic uniform (without the cape) but also with a lower rank when he’s seen in a Coruscant apartment in a flashback with the Ersos.  He’s also seen on Erdu with his director rank and his rain poncho.  It seems unlikely we’d see those variants, but would easy to do if Hasbro ever wanted to get us a Galen Erso as a two-pack or something.  As I said, unlikely.

Really good figure (despite some of the issues described above), and long overdue, but happy to have him in my collection.  9/10.