It’s never a bad thing when we get an OT alien in TVC.  They are certainly few and far between lately.  But like the last one, ROTJ’s Bib Fortuna, this one is merely an update to a figure we already have.  I’m certainly not angry or upset at the fact that I can now remove a bunch of 25 year-old 5POA figures from my displays, but I can’t say I was losing sleep over them either.  So when Hasbro announced Figrin D’an would be getting the modern treatment, I greeted the news with merely a slight feeling of pleasantness. 

The previous mold dates back 25 years.  The Cantina Band Member (unnamed) was a Fan Club exclusive.  It was a single figure in a while mailer box, that included 5 different instrument.  That figure was repainted a bit and given a soft goods tunic and then packed as figures each with their own instrument in a special tin box in 2007’s Figrin D’an And The Modal Nodes Commemorative Tin.  Those same 5 figures were then re-packaged as individuals (although unnamed), and packed with a musical/light up base as the exclusive Cantina Band Member Disney Weekends figures. 

In those reviews, we gave the Legends and Canon accountings of each bandmember.  Chris then followed it up with a summary and a bit more detail in the article How Many Members Of The Modal Nodes Are There?, after this TVC figure was first announced. 

If all that is TLDR, then the bottom line is that there were 7 members of the band on stage, and an 8th alternate member was sitting in a booth.  So you would need to by 7 (or 8, if you’re fancy) of this figure to complete the scene properly.  I bought 3, and held off on the rest, as I assume the rest of the band, and their appropriate instruments (some of which have either not been made, or were not accurate), will be coming soon in some kind of multipack.

As a standalone figure, in a vacuum, it’s not particularly exciting, but it’s nicely done.  Reusing some part (I assume), and tooling a few others, we get our first super-articulated Bith figure.  This is important, because the original versions didn’t always stand upright so well (maybe a couple of mine had warped a bit, or something).  But perhaps more meaningfully, at least one of the band members needs to sit in order to play the drums.  And the 8th guy needs to sit in the cantina somewhere else.  The articulation is more than enough, and includes just about everything except rocker ankles, which is certainly fine in this case. 

The paint job is basic.  Black tunic, grey pants, black boots.  The hands are sculpted nicely, and seem to grip the 3 included instruments well.  The headsculpt is super Bithy, and includes a puckered mouth so that the instrument mouthpiece fits in there convincingly, allowing the figure to actually look like it’s playing the instrument.  This version is a bit taller than the previous sculpt, so it looks a bit odd playing together. 

Overall, it’s a nice figure, and as it’s been so long since the last time collectors got a shot at the band members, it’s not terrible that it’s available now.  It would certainly be awesome if this figure was just a preview of more to come from the cantina - including the cantina itself.  Along with the Death Star, these are my top 2 wants for the next HasLab.  And we should get a bunch of aliens as well, either as part of the project, or as companion figures in some “expression” at retail.

When all is said and done, it’s a very nice, but not exceptional figure.  Its merit is based more on our love of OT aliens, rather than on anything groundbreaking or mind-blowing with the figure itself.  As such, it gets an 8/10.  That may seem low, given that almost every figure over the past year or so has been a 9 or 10.  The 8 is only because it’s such a simple figure, and is not in the same league as other recent offerings.  But there’s nothing not to love here.  So absolutely you should get one.  Or 3.  Or 7.  Or 8.