Last week was exhausting.  Making two pieces of content back-to-back almost put me in the hospital.  But with a new week, we get a new review. 

Here we have Zeb “Zeb” Orrellios, sourced to The Mandalorian and Grogu.  I watched it once, and since it’s not yet available on Disney+ for me to reference, I have to go by memory.  I recall that Zeb wore his blue New Republic pilot suit briefly at some point, and then switched to some kind of casual civilian attire for when he was working with Mando.  He also wore it during an episode The Mandalorian, so the figure can handle double-duty in your displays.  I’m not sure I care enough to want Zeb in his civilian attire, but it seems like something Hasbro should probably get to by 2038. 

Zeb has the “honor” of checking in as VC400.  Despite the weird collector clamoring for a meaningful figure when we were at the 200 mark, I’m not sure anyone cares (or should care) about such things.  Even though Hasbro seemed to answer the call by giving us the Emperor as VC200, we merely got Hera as VC300, and now Zeb as VC400.  Of course, this ship was sunk the instant the bottle of champagne was broken across The Vintage Collection’s bow when Hasbro selected Dengar to launch the line in 2010 as VC01.  I know there’s something planned for VC375, and maybe VC500 makes some sense as a notable achievement, but otherwise we should just move on.  Hasbro seems unlikely to celebrate SW50 properly, let alone make sure that each VC milestone is commemorated with some kind of iconic figure.

The figure itself is, predictably, quite good.  Aside from the occasional goof like Obi-Wan’s knees, the Clone Trooper Lieutenant actually being a Phase 1 501st, and the Sandtrooper being a complete mess of a figure, Hasbro has a great track record for crushing it on the execution of the figures themselves, leaving us to criticize such ancillary things like character choice, price, and distribution.  Zeb Orrelios (New Republic Pilot) is no different.

The figure has a terrific sculpt.  It looks to be an all new figure.  As far as I can tell, no parts are reused from the previous Rebels versions of Zeb.  He’s got on a New Republic flight suit, which is in the style of the ST suits, rather than the OT suits, particularly the white vest.  The blue coloring is striking, and marks the second pilot in this scheme, along with VC351 LT Callahan.  Of course, the blues are different, so it looks like we’re going to repeat history all over again, like we did with the orange for the X-Wing pilots, and the gray/green for the Imperial officers.  Yay!  Otherwise, the paint job is well done, particularly the face, which is expressive and nicely detailed.  One note:  The “tiger” stripes that were formerly present on the arms and legs of his Rebels-sourced figures is now gone.  I struggled to find a clear image that could definitively rule whether he has the stripes on screen in either the M&G film or the Mando episode.  It seems that the stripes are not present, or at least are much less pronounced.  I don’t know if this was a CGI oversight, or if Lasats lose their stripes as they get older.  In any case, I was going to ding Hasbro for the missed paint apps, but I’m not sure it’s their problem.

Articulation is full JLA, including ball jointed torso, rocker ankles, and elbows/knees that flex past 90 - although the knees seem to benefit from the shape of the alien legs more than the range of motion of the joint.  You can get a lot of action poses out of this articulation system.  The figure is also well balanced, able to perform the one-legged running pose that Banthaskull has made famous around the globe. 

For accessories, Zeb comes with two versions of his bo-rifle.  Like previous releases, he has one that is fully extended into melee mode, and one that is in rifle mode.  The sculpts are all new, as it would seem Zeb got an upgrade from the duct-taped one he had back in his Spectre days.  Unlike his previous releases, this time around Zeb is lacking the translucent blue electrostatic effects that would bring the bo-rifle to life.  His flight suit does not accommodate any holes on his back to store the bo-rifle, as was the case with his older armor.

So, of course, the question comes down to price.  Things are getting more and more expensive, and now that Hasbro is putting deluxe on regular cardbacks, it becomes harder to justify the price point for this “expression.”  He’s obviously a little more hefty than other humanoid figures, but not overly so.  For paint, the operations are significantly simpler on this pilot outfit than they were on his Rebels outfits.  And for his accessories, this time he lacks the electrostatic effects.  It just doesn’t seem to be a deluxe, in as much as his previous retail release may have warranted it.  His Haslab release was on a single card, but it’s hard to assess the “value” of such a figure in that context.

The figure is great, although perhaps not quite as eye-catching as Zeb’s earlier figures.  It’s hard to give it the same 10/10 we gave the other 2 figures.  I’d call it a 9.5, but since we don’t do that here, I’ll settle on a 9.  But it’s an excellent 9.