Outdoing The Force Awakens, the collector line really gave Rogue One the ol’ what for.  Only four figures were released in the 2016/2017 Black Series 3.75” line.  All four were excellent, and eventually (although at least the case of Jyn, “tragically”) were re-issued for TVC.  Back then, the only real way to get figures from this film was to debase oneself by buying the 5POA versions.  It’s annoying to me that I bought the inferior K-2SO at the time, when Hasbro should have just been pumping out the Black Series figures in the first place.  Almost 4 years later, K-2SO finally gets his due.

We were excited to be able to get the exclusive reveal of this Vintage Collection K-2SO figure back in March.  And for us, the moment is a little extra special now that we have him in hand.

The figure does not disappoint.  I may very well be wrong, but it seems that VC170 K-2SO shares the head as well as a re-tooled upper body (to accommodate the new ball jointed torso) from the original 5POA release.  Beyond that, it looks like all other parts, including the abdomen below the torso joint, are new.  Regardless, the figure certainly counts as all new in my book.

The most important update here, of course, is the articulation.  The 5POA release had joints at the shoulders and hips that were a bit of a step up from typical swivel joints, as the “ball-joint-ish” nature of them gave you a bit more range than normal.  But here, K-2SO has full ball joints at the shoulders and hips,  along with additional ball-jointed articulation with the aforementioned torso, as well as at the elbows, wrists, knees, and ankles.  The neck, which is of the very modern “dumbbell” type, gives a great amount of variety to head positioning.  It should also be noted that the 5POA figure had this same superior articulation at the head.

Also upgraded, as expected, is the paint job.  Besides a lot more detail and coloring, the silver accents at the joints are brighter, and Hasbro seemingly added bits of rust in several areas.  Along with the wear and tear throughout the figure, it’s a striking result.  While the laughable 5POA “BFG” wrist launching claw thing wasn’t carried forward, K-2SO does include the blaster that Jyn gave him as they parted ways for the last time during the heist on Scarif.  Posing K-2SO with the blaster in hand, with arm raised parallel to the ground and out to his side, just like in the film when he did his no-look stormtrooper blast, is something the 5POA figure could not achieve.

The figure isn’t perfect.  In my case, it seems that the legs/feet aren’t quite aligned, so it takes some careful micro-manipulations to get him to stand up in a neutral position without tipping over.  Your mileage may vary on this.  Also, it’s likely some collectors will take issue with the thicker arms, which Hasbro needed in order to accommodate the added elbow and wrist articulation.  It’s something that would seem to be necessary if Hasbro were to upgrade their Battle Droids as well.  The tech just isn’t there to make the limbs as thin as they are on screen, and still be articulated.  Nevertheless, it doesn’t bother me in the least.

We gave the 5POA figure a very respectable 6/10 back when we reviewed it in late 2017.  The TVC figure is obviously a huge step up, but since there are other generic K-2 droids in the Star Wars universe, feel free to use your 5POA figure for background fodder where appropriate, like for the one that Jyn blasted, and then thought was K-2SO himself. 

This TVC figure gets an easy 8.  If I knew that my sample was an uncommon sample that had tipping problems, I might be persuaded to update to a 9.