$26.49.  That is all.

Nah, I get paid by the word, so let’s do this.  Boba Fett (Tatooine) is the first figure to be released in Hasbro’s new TVC Deluxe “expression.”  It is packaged similarly to some earlier TVC 1.0 offerings, such as the Ewok Scouts.  Inside, the packing is sparse, and has no plastic (unless you count the tape).  The figure is kept in place by a cardboard band, and the accessories are wrapped in something resembling tissue paper.  Although we’ve seen this look before, there is something ominous about it, at least if you’re a carded collector.  This plastic-free deluxe packaging replaced the one-and-done type used for the Maldo Kreis spider pack, which took its cue directly from basic TVC figures.  It only adds some evidence that Hasbro will, at some point sooner than later, cease the existing iconic plastic figure bubbles that have adorned the Star Wars line’s basic packaging since its inception in 1978.

We’re getting an early look here at Banthaskull, but technically this may not be the first figure that Hasbro has sourced from The Book of Boba Fett, as it seems that Fennec Shand is starting to be found at brick and mortar locations.  Mr. Fett first appeared in this outfit during the end credits scene of the Season 2 finale of The Mandalorian.  Since there are no figures or toys directly from the show beyond this one, it was a little challenging to come up with scenes to shoot for this gallery.  Fennec Shand is imminent, but not yet in hand.  Otherwise, I used close-but-not-exact figures and toys for the images.  To complete the scenes in the images above, we’ll need a new 8-D8 (which would work fine as an OT update as well), and a proper Cad Bane.  A Scorpanek Droid would be awesome, along with some Pyke soldiers, the Pyke boss, and the Twi’lek majordomo.  I drew this list out a bit, beyond what was necessary for the images I captured, simply because after going down the rabbit hole of research, I found out a couple of neat tidbits about the majordomo and the Pyke boss.  First and foremost, neither character has been officially named.  Lucasfilm needs to remedy that ASAP.  The Twi’Lek actor is David Pasquesi, who is known for playing the ex-husband of Julia Louis-Dreyfus on Veep.  But more fun than that, is that the Pyke boss is voiced by Phil Lamarr, who portrayed Pulp Fiction‘s Marvin, the guy that got his head accidentally blown off by John Travolta.

Anyway…the figure is, in a word, awesome.  The likeness to the older Temuera Morrison in the head sculpt is outstanding, and the Photo Real paint is excellent.  The figure is painted very nicely; perhaps a bit on the vivid side, but it works for me.  In addition to the colors, Hasbro added some excellent scratches and scuffs around the chest armor, helmet, and knee pads.  Included are the ubiquitous Fett “tampos” with the Mythosaur skull (Bantha skull, to you OG fans) emblem on the shoulder and the “wheat” sigil on the chest. And yes, the chest readout is sculpted in there.

The articulation is pretty much perfect, and Hasbro designed the sculpt to ensure that nothing hindered the range of motion of any of the joints.  The shoulder armor is soft plastic, allowing the arms to move freely.  I suspect that if you left Boba in a pose with his arms above his head, over time the soft plastic of the shoulder armor might warp, but otherwise it works great.  There are three hoses that emerge from the right shoulder pad and feed into the flamethrower wrist gauntlet.  Now, you may have noticed in some of the earlier pics in the gallery that I didn’t realize at first that the right forearm is twisted 180 degrees straight out of the package.  When I got to the point of taking shots of the figure holding his blaster across his abdomen in that iconic rest position of Boba’s, it wasn’t happening.  The frustration led me to believe this was a near-fatal flaw, but after examining the figure more closely, I realized that turning the forearm to the proper position released the pressure caused by the hoses, and allowed the pose to be realized.  The soft plastic holster and soft goods kama also allow for full range of motion of the hips.  These hips are of the recently upgraded ball-jointed variety, and along with the rocker ankles, give this Boba Fett figure the full JLA (Jedi Level Articulation) that we have come to expect for main character figures.

As for the accessories, the figure comes with quite a few.  The removable helmet is top notch in sculpt and proportion, and easily fits over the head.  The only nitpick here is that the rangefinder is not articulated.  Fett comes with a blaster that fits neatly into the holster or his hand.  The EE-3 blaster rifle is made of a too-soft plastic, but it looks nice, is painted well, and can fit in Boba’s hands well enough.  The elbow articulation goes past 90 degrees, and with the floating trigger finger and soft hands, Boba can achieve all manner of realistic looking shooting poses.

The jet pack is removable, and fits into a semi-circular peg hole in the figure’s back.  There are also two small notches at the shoulder blades, but I have no idea what they are for.  My only guess is that this figure was sculpted with repaints/retools in mind, and these notches serve some purpose for a different figure.  The jetpack includes a removable rocket, which snaps into the central tube.  It can be “launched” (pretend-like), and includes fiery exhaust which is well-hidden when loaded in the jet pack.  Also included are two flame effects that plug into the jets at the bottom of the jetpack, so you can simulate flight.

Finally, the figure comes with two damaged stormtrooper helmets.  These helmets include the double barbell inside, and can be swapped with the helmets of existing stormtrooper figures.  Since the Fett figure is labeled parenthetically as “Tatooine”, it would seem the intent of these helmets is to be displayed on pikes in Mos Espa, as originally seen in The Mandalorian.  Swapping the helmets onto stormtrooper figures allows you to recreate the action when they first got smashed, as was achieved by the gadderfi-wielding Fett on Tython.  However, as we don’t have a Tython Fett yet, I couldn’t bring myself to use this Boba for the that photo, so I called upon Chirrut Îmwe to help out in the last photo.  He moves so fast that the first stormtrooper hasn’t even collapsed by the time he’s delivered another skull-crushing strike to the second stormtrooper.

So, the outfit is very well sculpted, the articulation is superb, the paint applications are top-notch, and the accessories are numerous and cool.  It’s an amazing figure, and a lot of fun to pose and display.  It will be awesome when Hasbro (slowly) builds out toys from The Book of Boba Fett.  But to address the elephant in the room, is it worth the approximately $27 MSRP?  It’s twice as much as a basic figure.  This includes outstanding paint applications, a soft goods kama, and more accessories than for a normal figure.  But it seems as if you’re really not getting two figures’ value here.  I see this as more along the lines of the $18 VC162A “Armory” version of the Sith Trooper.  Maybe a few dollars more to account for both the soft goods and for inflation.  So I could see $20 being something that collectors wouldn’t complain too much about. 

Eh, who am I kidding.  Collectors complain about everything.