I’m back for a second review in the same week!  That’s exciting news!  Less exciting is the subject of the review, a straight repack of K-2SO.  But there’s some stuff worth discussing (or is there?), so let’s get to it.

Yesterday, we looked at a “preview” figure for the upcoming Disney+ series, Skeleton Crew.  V310 Jod Na Nawood is pretty good, if not exactly groundbreaking.  The most notable aspect is that it’s the first time in, like, forever, that we got a TVC/collector grade figure before the source material premiered. Disney must be getting soft, because I can only assume that the release of this figure ahead of the show will cause millions of potential viewers to lose interest because the big secret that Jude Law wears a trenchcoat is now out there for everyone to see.  I’m not sure how I will still want to watch the show with that kind of spoiler.  They might as well cancel the series now.  The wonder has been ruined.

In that review, I did mention that you could technically argue that this figure, K-2SO, is also a “preview” figure because he’s on an Andor card, and Season 2 has not premiered yet.  We did see a random KX droid in Season 1, but not the lovable K-2SO.  And while this may be true, it’s a straight repack of an existing figure of a character we are already familiar with, so for the purposes of the discussion, it’s not nearly on the same level of “preview” as Nawood.

Yes, it’s a straight repack of VC170 K-2SO.  You can get the details in that review, but I’ll mention a few notes to catch up to the times since it’s 4 and half years later.  K-2SO holds a special place in our hearts here, because Banthaskull was given the opportunity for the exclusive reveal back in 2020.  This was shortly after the rousing success of the “MORE!” petition, and things were looking up for TVC after a dismal 2020. 

Fast forward to today, and the lack of rocker ankles makes it difficult to achieve some poses.  Sure, K-2SO is a droid, but he’s rather dynamic, like a Magnadroid or BX Commando droid (which I very much want Hasbro to make, especially since I’m playing Outlaws).  There also seems to be a bit of a balance issue.  It’s probably a bit of combination of the center of gravity being off, while the small feet and thin legs don’t provide a solid foundation for poses - even standing upright can be a challenge. 

An important “miss” here are the eyes.  Previous releases (not just VC170, but also the slightly modified VC256) had the photoreceptors painted silver.  This figure is missing that detailing, so the eyes are just black - at least on my sample.  I didn’t realize this out of the package, but when setting up the comparison shot for the gallery, it jumped right out at me.  It’s a kind of a big deal, just for two tiny dots.  Hopefully it’s isolated, or something that was corrected for later runs.

The biggest intentional change here is the cardback.  Not something an opener such as myself cares much about, but K-2SO gets and all new source (Andor), photo, and name pill.  This time, he gets a parenthetical “Kay-Tuesso”. As is usually the case, I have know idea at this point why Hasbro makes these decisions, but this has a new number (VC340) differentiating it from the Rogue One release (VC170).  Since the figure is just a repack, I’m not sure why it’s not just a card variant of VC170.  Hasbro has done this before, as was the case with VC60 Clone Trooper (501st Legion) and then VC240 501st Clone Trooper.  Different image, different number, and different name pill - but same exact figure.  I had thought the thing that made most sense was if the figure is just a cardback variant, it should maintain the same number.  It should only be on a different card if the figure (or the accessory packout) is different.  That’s why I feel that the upcoming Aurra Sing should have a different number than the original VC73, because the accessories are different (missing, to be exact).  Whatever, man.

It’s a solid figure with a great sculpt, and I love it being a preview figure for Season 2 of Andor.  But with aging articulation and missing eye paint apps, I have to drop the score from the original 9 to an 8.