Amazon is the worst (except for Walmart).  Why did they have to deliver this figure to me yesterday, but Chris won’t get his until today?  You know what that means?  I have to do the review.  Mr. Vacation Man gets to extend his time off from Banthaskull another day.  Or two.  Whilst I toil away doing yeoman’s work.  And I have no idea how I ended up taking yeoman’s job anyway.  That guy sucks.  He never does anything.

So we finally get Baylan Skoll, about 13 years after he appeared in Season 1 of Ahsoka.  Sadly, it’s now a small monument to the late Ray Stevenson.  Assuming Skoll has a prominent roll in Season 2, it will be interesting if Hasbro releases a new figure with a Rory McCann head.

Nah, this is a pretty terrific figure - aside from one significant miss.  But first, the good stuff.  The sculpt is outstanding.  The buck itself is tremendous, with great sculpted details all over the place.  His upper armor is intricately detailed with layers and folds.  His shoulder armor has a screen-accurate uneven texture.  And his body glove appears to be stitched similarly to Darth Vader.  The greaves are detailed with tie straps.  The texture is also well done on the separately sculpted skirt.  For paint, it seems Hasbro tried to give Baylan’s armor some nice weathering and variations, particularly on the upper body.  There are also a few paint details on the belt and vambraces.  It’s nice to see these things, although we all wish this was standard for TVC figures.

It’s got almost everything you’d ask for as far as modern articulation is concerned.  The elbows flex a bit past 90, which is great, while the knees stop at 90.  The shoulder armor works like most contemporary figures, allowing for almost full range of motion of the ball jointed shoulders.  Also, the skirt is separately sculpted, is made of very pliable plastic and has 3 breaks.  These features combine to allow for full hip range of motion - almost completely unhindered by the skirt.  The only place where I feel the articulation is cut short just a bit is with the rocker ankles.  The greaves extend down the side’s of the foot (screen accurate), and the left/right flexing of the foot is limited - but only just a bit.

The face sculpt is…quite good.  It does just barely miss the mark as far as being a dead ringer for Stevenson, but it’s definitely passable.  I really like the way Hasbro sculpted and painted the head.  The figure seems to be giving a very life-like stare down when dueling opponents.

For accessories, the figure comes with a fully ignited orange-red lightsaber, as well as a hilt that plugs into a hole on the right side of the skirt.  Baylan can wield either item convincingly, and can perform a perfect two-handed weapon grip.

And that brings me to the big miss.  The figure lacks a cloak.  For the first half of the series, Baylan is wearing a cloak, and only removes it before he duels with Ahsoka for the first time on Seatos.  After that, he does go cloak-less for nearly the balance of the series, until his final scene standing atop the statue of The Father on Peridea.  So technically, you can’t really use him for much that is screen accurate during the first part of the series.  I don’t know if there are a plans to release a “deluxe” version for S2, but that may be the only way we get the cloak.  I’m not supporting the whole “deluxe” argument for items that really should be basic, I’m just being real. 

Overall, it’s an outstanding figure.  And just taking a step back and admiring it, it really is a work of art for this scale.  I will shave off some fractions for the likeness, and definitely ding it for lacking the cloak.  It’s a great figure that just misses perfection.  9/10.