Here’s a long one.  It makes up for the brief Clone Commmander review.

First off, a bit of news that most should already know:  The Haslab gunship is shipping.  I received shipping notices for several of mine, and they should arrive on Wednesday.  I’ve tried to get ahead on my photography so I can do this review and at least one more before the Gunship arrives, so I can dedicate my time to getting that gallery and review done.  This is more work than I’ve put into Banthaskull ever since Chris was killed.  I hope the Gunship is worth the year long wait!

The wait for Bodhi Rook wasn’t quite as long as the 53 years I waited for the Knicks’ championship, but we finally have a complete, proper Rogue One crew.  Of the recent two-wave batch of figures that have been delivered, this should have been the one that I was most looking forward to.  Well, it was, but I think the long and unnecessary wait for it has somewhat dampened my spirits.  Unlike the arrival of Velken Tezeri after 41 years, which caused me to do cartwheels around my house when I was able to complete the prisoner skiff crew, Bodhi isn’t a blink-and-you’ll-miss him character.  He’s a member of the titular crew of a feature film that should have been available within the first wave or two following the release of Rogue One in late 2016. 

Of course, we all know that the state of 3.75” in 2016/2017 was so pitiful, we only initially received two crew figures in the collector line, which was relegated to the Walmart Exclusive The Black Series 3.75” line.  Everything about that last sentence makes me retch.  Speaking of retch, here are two videos you should watch. And before you roll your eyes, please note that these aren’t about sports.  The first video is about retching…

...while the second video should generate some good Banthaskull Crotch Talk (BCT).  You may need to click the Youtube link to actually watch this one:

You’re welcome.

Anyway, both of those WETBS375 figures (VC119 Jyn Erso and VC130 Captain Cassian Andor) were re-released in TVC in 2018 before we got any of the other four.  We then got VC170 K-2SO (which was a Banthaskull exclusive reveal!) and VC174 Chirrut Îmwe in 2020.  Then it took another 6 years for us to get VC397 Baze Malbus and now Bodhi Rook in 2026.

Rogue One was very well received and did quite well in theaters, and hit before “fandom” crossed too far into the dark side with The Last Jedi, and yet it still took 10 years to get the crew.  With more media available and reduced production budgets for toys, is there really any chance we’re going to get the appropriate “crew”, or main cast, of figures from any media source within a reasonable amount of time?  Bad Batch? Season 1/2 Ghost crew? Shadow Lord? Fallen Order? Outlaws? Skeleton Crew? Acolyte? Obi-Wan? Solo? It’s almost an exercise in futility.  I don’t think Hasbro has put real resources into any new media except for The Mandalorian and Ahsoka.  The rest of the lot has gotten something between nothing and almost nothing.  At this point, I’m fine with the “nothing”, because I don’t need any more orphan figures.  The “almost nothing” is actually more annoying, because it’s a vicious tease.  The main crew of a source is the bare minimum that needs to exist before you can reasonably world-build around it.  The current state of the line beyond the OT, PT, Rogue One, Mando/Ahsoka, and maybe The Clone Wars, is such that true world-building isn’t even close to happening.  Rebels is probably the source with the next closest opportunity, but that’s only because it got a Haslab - and Hasbro better get cracking on support for that ASAP, aside from more versions of the Ghost crew in different outfits.

Until I had this figure in hand, I have had to use the Bodhi Rook 2017 5POA figure from the Rogue One line in my displays for a decade.  That’s just gross.  So does this acquisition allow me to yeet the old version into Kiwi Man’s backyard?  This figure is quite good, but there are some aspects prevent it from being perfect, and others that are actually a bit of a downgrade from the 2017 5POA release. 

First of all, the sculpt is excellent, as it should be.  I believe the figure itself is all new - also as it should be.  There are plenty of details carved into the pilot jumpsuit that, while not particularly exciting, do help bring the figure to life.  The right hand has a bit of a throwback sculpt to the early days of articulated wrists.  It has a rather large and bulbous lower palm/wrist, while the upper palm and fingers are small.  Many figures from the late aughts and until very recently look like this, so it’s possible this hand is re-used from some older sculpt.  The grip is narrow, allowing it to hold the scomp accessory (more on that later) more firmly, but it otherwise looks odd.  The base headsculpt appears to be very similar to the 5POA figure, but I do believe it’s different - even aside from the obvious update that removed the permanent goggles from his forehead. 

Articulation is about as good as you would want. It’s essentially JLA.  Even the knees and elbows go past 90!  That’s amazing for a less action-oriented figure, while so many recent Jedi and troopers can’t even do that.  The rocker ankles are good, but there is some effort required to execute plantarflexion (toes downward) by working the shoe heel into the back of the pant cuff, but there is less dorsiflexion (toes upward) available than I would like - which tends to be a common shortcoming. The wrists - as is the case every single time, still only have the ability to flex in the one way Hasbro chose to make the hinge, so I’m still holding out hope we will soon have a true ball-jointed wrist to eliminate this limitation. The neck doesn’t have a ton of range of motion, which isn’t any kind of deal-breaker, but along with so many figures, it could be better. Improved range makes the figures so much more expressive.  And here’s another thing that has bothered me with a lot of figures, but I’m mentioning it here for the first time:  Figures need the soles of their feet to be flat. I know that for humans, this isn’t perfectly accurate, but for an action figure, the reduced flat surface area caused by the slight upward curl of the toes often creates balance issues.  I have lost count of how many figures will actually rock forward and backward slightly because the feet are not flat, and it makes it harder to pose and stay upright.  Bodhi was a little annoying to stand upright, especially with his backpack accessory.  It’s just another nitpick that I think can be easily remedied for figures going forward.  The good news is that this jumpsuited base figure could maybe be repurposed for characters like Imperial technicians or other backgrounders.

So for the record (again) I shall plead the case with Hasbro that they need to improve/standardize: neck range of motion; dorsiflexion range; ankle and knee range past 90; flatter soles on feet; and innovative wrist articulation that gives better posing options.  After all that, we also need butterfly shoulders as the next big thing.

There are two big differences in the paint applications to the 5POA figure.  Most importantly is the usage of Photo Real.  This Bodhi, as expected, puts the silly 5POA figure to shame.  While not necessarily a doppelgänger for Riz Ahmed, it does pass the resemblance test.  The other big difference is the tone of the uniform color.  The jumpsuit on the original 5POA figure was a brighter blue.  This time around, it’s more of a muted blue-gray.  I don’t know which is more accurate, but I like the TVC color for this character better.  Maybe it’s just dirty and drab from his time attempting to defect, find Saw Guerrera, and then get fondled by the Bor Gullet.  One random note - the imperial Cog tampo is the reverse - or the negative image - of the tampo on the 5POA figure.  No idea why, or if it really makes a difference, but the cog was silver, and the surrounding negative space was unpainted.  Now the negative space is silver, and the cog is unpainted.  Weird, I guess.

Ok, the accessories are interesting.  Just like Baze Malbus, there’s a lot of re-use or slight retooling from the original 5POA accessories.  For the most part, I don’t have a problem with this if the accessories are good, nevertheless I can’t help but feel it reduces the value of the $20 retail price if the included accessories are from the dumbed-down 5POA line of a decade ago.  That said, if it also means this was the only way we could get Bodhi Rook, then so be it - as annoying as that might be.

The 5POA backpack with the communications reel is pretty good as is, so it works here as well.  The arm straps that need to be rolled around the figure’s shoulders, twisted a quarter turn, and then slid through a notch on the backpack utilizes sculpting technology that goes back to the Hoth backpacks of the Kenner days.  It works okay, I guess, but I also find that the straps tend to slide out on their own.  The scomp on the end of the string (which fits pretty well in Bodhi’s aforementioned weird right hand) is not screen accurate.  It’s not a grappling hook; it should be a scomp link.  Maybe Hasbro thought it would look like a sex toy or something, or maybe they just didn’t want to spend the money on tooling up a new scomp.  Whatever.

The goggles are nice in that they are a separate accessory, rather than sculpted onto the head like the 5POA figure.  That’s obviously preferable.  But the traslucent clear plastic looks unfinished, because other than a couple of pips on the front of the goggles, it’s unpainted.  The strap should be black, at least.  Also, the lenses aren’t exactly crystal clear, so it’s hard to make out Bodhi’s eyes through them.

He comes with what may be a new blaster accessory - at least I can’t recall seeing it before.  It’s a standard DH-17 “Rebel Fleet Trooper” blaster (unpainted), but it has a shoulder strap, allowing Bodhi to stow it over his shoulder, even while using it.  It works great.  Unfortunately, I don’t recall Bodhi using a blaster in Rogue One, but it’s still cool.

That brings me to the most disappointing aspect of the figure.  Bodhi comes with a separately sculpted vest which re-uses the tooling from the 5POA figure to start.  However, for unknown reasons, it is slightly modified.  On the 5POA version, the right side of the belt area is a working peg/hole fastener that allows you to remove the vest.  Throughout most scenes prior to Scarif, Bodhi isn’t wearing a vest, he’s just wearing his plain jumpsuit. So the 5POA figure provided this key versatility. Once again, for reasons unknown, Hasbro made a slight change to the existing tooling to remove the fastener on the right side, and replace it with an oversized pouch on the left to perform as the new fastener - except it’s glued shut.  I have no idea why Hasbro did this.  If you’re a butcher and you customize/mangle/destroy/vandalize/brutalize your figures, than you probably would have no problem tearing this vest open.  But for those of us that consider ourselves cultured, enlightened, and civilized, such barbarity is not an option.  As such, we’ve lost that versatility that was provided with the 5POA figure.  In the “diorama” image above where Bodhi is standing behind Jyn on Yavin, he’s not wearing the vest in the film.  So I’ve committed the cardinal sin of ignoring screen accuracy.  Please forgive me!

Overall, Bodhi is an outstanding figure.  I’d give it a solid 9 (maybe even a 9+), deducting a point for the weird right hand, the mostly unpainted goggles, and the fact that I often had balancing issues when he carried the backpack.  Unfortunately, I’m going to deduct an additional point for allowing the 5POA figure to remain in service, because if you want to pose him without the vest, you can’t accomplish this with the TVC figure without performing some kind of customization - however minor that may be.  I’m paying $20 for a figure, I shouldn’t have to put it under the knife in order to accomplish something that a 10-year old 5POA figure did perfectly.  And again, while I love having this new Bodhi Rook in TVC, my enthusiasm was definitely tempered by the overly long wait for this “main” character.  Do better, Hasbro.  8/10.