I think there’s a misconception about me as a toy collector.  I have reason to suspect that people think that I’m against 6” action figures in general.  I am not.  I will certainly be picking and choosing certain figures from the Indiana Jones Adventure Series when and if I see them in stores.  I have bought the entire Dungeons & Dragons animated series line.  I would have bought all of the Into the Spider-Verse Marvel Legends figures if I could have found the Spider-Gwen figure at brick and mortar.  I’m not opposed to the 6” scale in and of itself.  I’m only opposed to it for two properties:  Star Wars and G.I. Joe because of the world-building nature of both lines.  If I were going to conduct an intervention for a Black Series collector, this is one of the figures that I would bring.  You give up so little in exchange for being able to set up an entire Jedi Survivor battle diorama on an bookshelf with plenty of room left over.

The primary reason I appreciate this figure is the lower body articulation.  Everything works as I would expect within reason.  The figure stays balanced in dynamic fighting couches.  That is what I want out of my Jedi and trooper figures.  With the new style barbell hips and the modern range of motion achieved by the ball jointed knees, the legs can be contorted into some extreme poses and angles.  This can result in it being impossible to get the foot to lie perfectly flat, but the figure is so well balanced, that it still stands.  In less exotic poses, the rocker ankles function perfectly so that aggressive and natural dueling stances are easily achieved.

The arms function well too, but not to the same degree as the legs, and it’s one part why this figure is a 9 out of 10 instead of a perfect score.  The hinged wrists greatly assist with the sword fighting poses.  If you watch the end of the Jedi Survivor trailer, the way Cal wields the saber, it gives a strong broadsword vibe.  This means you want to pose the figure in two-handed poses, and a number of them can effortlessly be achieved, but…not all of them.  I really wanted to pose Cal in a two-handed grip with the saber extended straight out simulating the end of an aggressive overhead chop (i.e. the powerful finishing move of a combo attack in the game).  I feel like this is very much part of the nature of the character.  The shoulders lack the range of inward motion to achieve this.  Truth be told, this is an impossible pose for most 3.75” figures, and this is when my fictional Black Series intervention-ee would bring up the butterfly shoulders from that scale.  Point conceded.  The only way to bring the hands together in front of the figure is by engaging the elbows, and the resulting saber pose doesn’t look natural.

The other reason for a point deduction is the swivel waist.  Cal’s “Ellen DeGeneres” vest offers a perfect natural break in the sculpt to obfuscate a barbell construction torso.  That little bit of ab crunch capability would have unlocked a few more poses, such as the Kenobi-esque hunch over the saber.  I’m thrilled that Hasbro include the BD-1 accessory.  If you played the game and didn’t fall in love with BD-1, you have no soul.  Unfortunately, and not that I would expect it to, but it doesn’t attach to Cal’s back like in the game.  Whenever Cal is engaged in combat, BD-1 is peering over his shoulder like Yoda during Luke’s Dagobah training (which was the game designer’s exact inspiration),  If Hasbro ever released a deluxe version of this figure with a folded up BD-1 accessory that can plug into Cal’s back, I would buy it, but I’m probably in the vast minority on that.

I love this figure, and even if it weren’t in the Vintage Collection, I’d keep a carded sample like a few other figures that I’ve really connected with such as Voolvif Monn.  In fact, shortly after opening the figure, I ordered another one on Pulse forgetting that it’s being carried forward into the next wave.  With all this free flowing poseability, my only real gripe is that this ins’t an Episode IV Luke Skywalker.