It’s been an interminable wait, but we finally have a figure of Cobb Vanth of Vanth Refrigeration.  Husband to Phyllis.  Perpetually miffed by the antics of one Michael Scott.  Right now, Mr. nomadscout is hopelessly confused as he proof reads this.  He’s never seen The Office. He’s a total square and doesn’t know that I’m making a Bob Vance joke.  It can’t be a coincidence, right?  Cobb Vanth.  Bob Vance.  It’s practically the same thing.  But no, Cobb Vanth isn’t the proprietor of Vanth Refrigeration.  He’s the marshal of Mos Pelgo who later traveled to Mos Espa where he had lunch with his friend Mos Def.  BOOM!  Did you think I was done with the corny jokes?  Not even remotely.

For the Vintage Collection these days, it’s a perpetual waiting game.  Yesterday, we reviewed the Blurrg for which we had to wait five years.  Time was that the Blurrg would have been a midnight madness release before the media even premiered.  That time now feels as antiquated as the days of home phones.  Season 2 of The Mandalorian likewise launched with a character that, once upon a time, would have been in hand weeks before the episode aired.  We would have been whipped into a frenzy speculating how this cowboy ended up with Boba Fett’s armor.  But that is not how things work these days.  Instead, as Vintage Collection fans, we had to watch that tall drink of water Timothy Olyphant confidently strut into the Mos Pelgo cantina knowing that Black Series fans would be getting a figure of him in a few months.  For us, it wasn’t “when”.  It was “if”.

Four years later, that conditional prospect has become reality.  Truth be told, I’m not entirely opposed to waiting a tick or two before Hasbro goes into secondary characters from new media to make sure that it’s well received, but four years is excessive.  It’s been so long since Vanth’s debut that he’s actually made an unarmored appearance in The Book of Boba Fett.  This was setting up a bit of a nightmare scenario for TVC that played out once already.  It took so long to get a Vintage Collection Cak Kestis, that we bypassed the oft requested Jedi Fallen Order version and skipped directly to Cal’s appearance in the sequel Jedi Survivor.  We’ll probably never get that scrapper Cal.  It was similarly feared that we’d skip the armored version of Vanth in favor or the less expensive unarmored TBoBF version.

To Hasbro’s credit, they did this one right, and we got the most desirable version first.  This is likely due to the tooling reuse between the two versions unlike that Cal example, which would be two completely different figures.  As everyone who has reviewed this figure thus far has pointed out, there is little doubt that we will be getting the TBoBF version at some point.  This figure can mostly be detuned into the unarmored version.  The helmet is a swappable head.  The knee armor and jetpack are removable.  The chest armor is an overlay that can be removed by popping off the head and scarf, and unplugging the gauntlet hoses from the back.  Those gauntlets are the only permanently affixed parts of the Fett armor.  They would have been far too bulky if they were made as removable pieces, so they are part of the forearm sculpt.  That means that Hasbro only has to sculpt some new forearms and fill in the jetpack hole in the back (which I believe can be done with a simple modification to the existing tooling), and you have your unarmored basic carded Cobb Vanth.  I don’t know that it’s coming…but it’s coming.

This deluxe release is good.  Very good.  Maybe even great, but it’s not perfect.  It doesn’t fall short of perfection due to a single fatal flaw like so many other figures do, but rather it’s death by a thousand paper cuts.  The nitpicks accumulate to cause a one point deduction.  First, that chest armor overlay introduces an inaccuracy as there are gaps in the undershirt on the sides where it should wrap all the way around Vanth.  Next, there’s some unfortunate rubberiness to the hands.  This Vanth grips neither the sidearm nor the long rifle with much conviction.  This becomes particularly annoying when trying to engage two-handed grips on the rifle.  Every time I’d get the off hand on the barrel, the trigger hand would pop off.  Then I’d get trigger hand back on, and the off hand would pop off.  Rinse and repeat until I was on the floor impersonating Curly Howard:

This grip issue might be a fatal flaw if this were a figure designed to interact with a cylindrical light saber hilt, but pistol and rifles are more forgiving to weak grasps.  The pistol-grips on both the sidearm and rifle offer enough palm contact so that they don’t fall out unprovoked.  They will pop loose with an innocuous amount of contact, however.  My next gripe is with the flame effects for the jetpack.  The peg is maybe two millimeters.  It doesn’t plug into the nozzle with any great conviction.  It’s just friction holding them in place.  It’s like trying to “plug” a tennis ball into an upside down red Solo cup.  Finally, the lack of paint apps on the rifle is inexcusable at the $24.99 price point.  The wraps on the barrel and grip should have been painted off white.

So that’s the bad.  It’s a conspiracy of small problems that require a one point deduction, but that still leaves a very strong figure that poses wonderfully.  I think one-legged poses are going to be my new calling card.  I’m not saying this to be self congratulatory about my own photography, but I think image 7 above is the only argument I need to make for how worthwhile of a release this is.  This Cobb Vanth can be posed in a realistic “running and gunning” pose.  How [expletive] great is that?  I feel bad that I put more energy into discussing the negatives of these 100% newly tooled figures than I do the positives, but it’s a simple fact that discussing the positives gets repetitive.  How many times can I extol the virtues of barbell hips and rocker ankles?  If it’s a 100% newly tooled figures these days, it’s starting off on third base with a big lead. I’m going to take the “maybe” from earlier away and say it is a great figure.  It will definitely be in my Top 10 of the year in a few months.

Speaking of Top 10’s, armored Cobb Vanth was in the Top 10 of last year’s Last Figure Standing.  Nominations for this year end at 11:59 PM tomorrow night, so make sure you submit your 10 most wanted Vintage Collection figures HERE.  It’s definitely being followed (literally) by the powers that be.  Make sure your voice is heard.