Here’s a figure that at quick glance may be a dull repack with a new accessory, but there’s some interesting aspects worth discussing - some good, some bad.

First of all, let’s address the numbering.  As we’ve noted multiple times before, Hasbro can’t seem to settle on a consistent method of numbering or naming figures that are basically repacks.  And they’ve taken a different approach here.  Not too long ago, we got VC312 The Mandalorian (The Mines of Mandalore).  The figure itself is essentially a straight repack of VC292, which came with the N-1 Straighter.  The only difference was the accessory packout.  Hasbro must have thought that the figure was worth releasing in the mainline, as VC292 was locked behind a $100+ vehicle.  I really don’t fault that reasoning.  Fast forward a few months, and Hasbro is taking another shot at the same figure (more later on whether or not this is a straight repack).  This time, he has a new jetpack; one he pilfered off a dead Imperial Beskar Trooper.  (His was taken when he was first captured and disarmed by the Beskar Troopers under Moff Gideon.)  For some reason, Hasbro made it VC312A.  They had done this once before, with VC162 Sith Trooper / VC162 Sith Trooper [Armory Pack].  As I’m not a carded collector, I don’t have strong feelings about this choice, but it bothers me because it messes up our TVC Numbered Figure menu.  I can’t even complain about consistency, because we have VC162/VC162A as the same entry, but VC312 and VC312A are separate.  The world is coming to an end.

OK, so as for the figure, blah blah blah, it’s great - we’ve seen it and reviewed it twice already.  It is…basically…a repack of VC292 and VC312.  But there are two meaningful differences.  The first is that this figure is finally upgraded with the new hips.  This is an overdue upgrade to Beskar Din Djarin.  Second, the imperial jetpack peg is a different shape and location than Din’s regular jetpack.  You’ll note in the comparison picture that Din’s has an oddly shaped peg that is off center.  This was done, I assume, to accommodate the plastic cape on the initial releases of the character.  Now that Din has a soft goods cape that seems to be standard, you can push it to the side, and he can have a “centered peg” on the jetpack.

But that seems like a silly thing to do.  Why create a backpack that forces Hasbro to retool the torso?  It can mean only one thing:  invasion this backpack is something that already exists in Hasbro’s library - and it belongs to the Imperial Beskar Trooper that Hasbro is planning.  Yay!  Well, that’s the only logical reason, so it must be true.

The only accessory that Din comes with, aside from the Imperial jetpack, is his trusty blaster.  It fits nicely in the holster, as well as Din’s hand, as you would expect. 

The biggest problem I have with this figure is that it currently is, at least somewhat, context-less.  He’s only wearing the backpack while interacting with a few characters up until the last scene when he is with Bo-katan and Grogu - both of whom we have.  Otherwise, we don’t yet have any other character he is seen on screen with.  We don’t have the custom IG-11 for Grogu, the Beskar Jetpack Troopers (although they must be coming), the 3 Praetorians, or Death Trooper Gideon.  I feel there’s a decent chance we get some of those, so that should help solve the problem of whether or not this is a completely gratuitous and useless figure.

And by the way - Din never uses the damned thing.  He makes it a point to swipe it from a dead trooper since his was taken from him, but he never actually flies with it at any point.  I have no idea why they even bothered with this moment in the episode, but it compelled Hasbro to make the variant, and compelled many of us to buy it.  Oh well.

Just a quick note on the evolution of Din Djarin figures:  Some might complain that we have too many of them.  One argument in favor is that he’s an ultra popular main character, and he, like Vader for example, should perpetually be available for casual purchases.  I agree with this. But more importantly to me as a collector, Hasbro seems to make important changes with almost every release.  Looking at the lineup in the gallery, you can see how we have almost every possible variant of this character.  Back in the day, if Vader or Luke or Anakin got a ketchup stain on their shirt in the film, Hasbro would make that variant.  Some people hated the repetition, but I always like the scene specific variants, even if they weren’t always executed so well.  In this case, We have 2 variants of Din’s original Durasteel armor - the first release, and then the Blurrg version which has the beskar shoulder - which also has the new hips (but not rocker ankles!) and a soft goods cape.  Aside from adding the rocker ankles, I think the only significant version of this armor we could get some day would be from when he was fighting the mudhorn and got covered in mud.  As for the Beskar upgrade, we have versions that are clean, dirty, and snowy; helmeted and unmasked; new hips and rocker ankles; plastic and soft goods cape; old and new right thigh armor; weaponized vambraces; a bunch of different weapons/accessories (pistol, Amban phase-pulse blaster, beskar spear, Darksaber, whistling birds, flamethrower, beskar ingots, a camtono) and now Mandalorian and Imperial backpacks. I believe the only variant we may be missing is the Beskar armored version before Din gets the Mudhorn signet on his shoulder - the look he wore through most of Season 1.

There you go.  9/10.