Stop me if you’ve heard this one before.  Boy opens figure.  Boy effortlessly gets figure in dynamic shooting crouch with a natural two-handed-weapon-grip as the cape drapes perfectly.  Boy falls hopelessly in love with figure.  You know.  That old chestnut.  And it will be the kiss figure by which all others in your life will be judged.  When I first opened this Lando Calrissian this past Friday, I texted Mr. Nomadscout the following:

Lando is an 11 out of 10 figure.

You might think that statement is a bit hyperbolic considering it lacks the beloved rocker ankles, but it features the next best thing.  The ankle joints have tremendous range of motion which affords almost as much pose-ability as rockers.

Before we delve too much deeper, I should divulge my personal bias toward the Bespin Lando figure.  I told this particular story “off the record” during a podcast with Victoria, and she encouraged me to share it, but I was reluctant.  Well, here goes.  Right before The Empire Strikes Back came out, my father, with whom I was very close, started working a night shift every other week.  He would leave for work before I got home from school, and return after I was asleep.  I would literally go a week at a time without seeing my dad.  It took it very hard.  One day when I was feeling particularly sad about the situation, I came home from school to find my first Empire sourced figure sitting on my dresser.  It was the Kenner Bespin Lando.  It helped lift me out of the doldrums, and the figure and character have held special places in my heart ever since.  I welled up when the trailer for The Rise of Skywalker showed Lando in the cockpit of the Falcon.  I welled.

Suffice it to say, I have a soft spot for this source.  So already having been blown away by the pose-ability of the figure, when I saw Billy Dee Williams staring back at me from the head sculpt, it was all over.  2021 has added yet another of entry into the action figure hall of fame.  I’m not saying that VC186 - Boba Fett has been surpassed, but this Lando joins the ranks among my favorites of all time. In addition to how well this Lando poses, the likeness and the soft goods execution are perfect.  The two sided printing looks great and isn’t too bulky as it is with the two-ply version on the VOTC predecessor.  Hasbro add two stitches to the back of the cape so that it curls around the figure instead of flaring out.  Comparing this release to its predecessor is almost comical.

If I had to cite some negatives, which won’t dissuade me from giving this a perfect score, I would first say that the neck is a tad too short.  Second, I don’t know why it’s packed with the DH-17 blaster instead of the E-11 that Lando uses on-screen.  I think the DH-17 might be a wink toward something (perhaps Battlefront), but I’m not sure what it is. As mentioned, these quibbles won’t prevent me from giving this a 10 out of 10.  This is the definitive Lando Calrissian figure, and it will be for quite some time.