Sorry.  That little bit of lyrical syllabic exchange was stuck in my head the entire time I was photographing this figure.  But it’s over now.  GALILEO!  Okay, now it’s over.

Yesterday we reviewed The Mandalorian figure which I gave a perfect 10 score despite the fact that it comes with a less than ideal plastic cape.  My reasoning was that the posability of the figure was so off the charts that I couldn’t bring myself to knock a full point off.  This Cara Dune figure looks amazing, but I found myself a little frustrated with the posability in one area. If you look at the pictures above that show the figure aiming the pistol, you will see that I have it balancing on the tip of the back foot, which is not a pose in which you could hope to display your figure long term.  This is particularly true if you’re like me and have a habit of banging into your shelves in the most painful way possible. 

What I never managed to do was get the figure into a good shooting semi-crouch.  Why this pained me so was the way Cara Dune interacts with her heavy blaster rifle, which appears to be a variation of the RT-97C Heavy Blaster Rifle, on-screen.  Cara places her off hand on the foregrip on top of the barrel, and tucks the stock under her arm in a “shoot from the hip” style.  It’s reminiscent of the Old Republic Trooper in that respect.  That shooting style is best displayed in an aggressive crouch, in my opinion.  Unfortunately, I could never get the figure’s right leg to agree to this pose.  I think the holster complex might be part of the reason for this.  That is the extent of my complaints with the posing and part of the reason for the one point deduction in the score.  Whereas the Mandalorian figure effortlessly moved from action pose to action pose, it was a slight chore with Cara Dune.  This usually resulted in me settling on a less than ideal pose with one of the feet riding on edge, or some other precarious balancing act. 

So that is a frustration, but Cara Dune can still achieve all those poses, which puts her in the upper echelon of Star Wars action figures.  The fact that the upper body can achieve the exact on-screen pose with the heavy blaster is a delight.  This is particularly facilitated by the ball jointed wrists.  Whereas the awkward lower body poses serve to “break the fantasy” a bit, the perfectly natural looking way the figure interacts with the heavy blaster rifle earns back some realism points. The included sidearm pistol is tiny, as is the actual prop.  It doesn’t store very securely in the aforementioned holster and has high potential for becoming lost if you’re not careful.  I had the pistol fall out four times during the photography process which resulted in extended “hands and knees” flashlight searches on the floor.  [Editor’s note:  You’ve been Hrcheked!]. This is another reason for the one point deduction.  The same articulation which allows the figure to interact well with the heavy blaster also facilitates posing her with Din Djarin’s sniper rifle so you can recreate Cara Dune taking on the AT-ST Raider.  This is another nice bonus.

As far as the sculpting, it’s amazing.  I’m always impressed when Hasbro manages to coax out expression in the head sculpts in this scale.  The figure has a great “I’m not putting up with any nonsense” expression, and bears a good likeness to Gina Carrano.  While I couldn’t achieve all the exact poses I wanted, I can’t imagine this figure won’t be a favorite in most collections.  One painful point is that, unlike this figure’s 6” counterpart, the knife in the boot sheath is not removable.  It’s a sculpted element. 

At the time of this review, this VC164 - Cara Dune figure is available for pre-order on Entertainment Earth (SPONSORED).