I’m going to start off by talking about the source media as opposed to the figure.  I’ve checked around that internet, and that seems to be a wildly popular move.  In 2019, Star Wars was floundering, and it’s place at the forefront of pop culture consciousness was no longer secure.  Then came along Jon Favreau with The Mandalorian.  He didn’t take Star Wars back to its roots.  He went further.  He took it back to its prototype having the actors study the films of Akira Kurosawa and the spaghetti westerns of Sergio Leone.  The results were immediate.  Star Wars went from being on life support to dominating entertainment discourse.  When “this is the way” is being quoted during sports broadcasts, you’ve fully escaped the niche nerd-sphere and made it to the “normies”.  Favreau made it look so easy, that the did the Good Will Hunting meme. I would embed it, but those Boston street toughs have the filthiest of mouths.  So I’ll transcribe:

Do you know how easy this is for me?  Do you have any [expletive deleted] idea how easy this is?  This is a [expletive deleted] joke.  And I’m sorry you can’t do this.  I really am.  Because I wouldn’t have to [expletive deleted] sit here and watch you fumble around and [mess] it up.

Favreau so quickly and effortlessly returned Star Wars to the pop culture forefront, that it had to have bruised the egos of those who struggled so mightily to do so in the previous years.  I assume it is for that reason that the priority for Season 3 was not to build on the successes of the first two seasons of The Mandalorian.  It was to nip the series in the bud lest it usurp the larger narrative.  Season 3’s mission was to dead-end every single thread that the Mando-verse spun that was clearly intended to extend into the larger Star Wars canon.  There is zero question through the first two seasons that Gideon’s cloning program was to remove some of the cringe from the most mocked line in Star Wars history:  “Somehow, Palpatine returned”.  Then, in completely unearned fashion, Season 3 decided that cloning program was so the Moff could make Force sensitive clones of himself instead.  Din Djarin almost literally flushes all of those clones down the toilet.  It’s almost laughable.  Moreover, Gideon was starting to earn the status of Star Wars archvillain.  That too would not stand, and the character was ingloriously and unceremoniously dismissed in the fiery wreckage of his light cruiser that Axe Woves scuttled into the secret Imperial Base on Mandalore.  Bo-Katan, Din Djarin and Grogu were 10 feet away from the inferno, so they naturally survived.

Just as Din and Grogu were stuffed back into their little silo of the Star Wars universe by the conclusion, The Mandalorian likewise receded from the overall pop cultural zeitgeist, and returned to the domain of Star Wars nerds.  “This is the way” is no longer a cultural touchstone the way “yadda, yadda, yadda” or “d’oh” are.  I promise this lengthy lead-in is working toward commentary on the figure in that it did not appear to sell well.  It took a long time to sell out on Pulse despite a very low stock level.  This is probably due to two factors.  First, Season 3 of The Mandalorian isn’t very popular for the reasons mentioned above, and two, the figure is being released long after its optimal window.  Moff Gideon in Dark Trooper Armor debuted on our screens over two years ago.  This is simply a bad formula for capturing sales.  I honestly don’t know what the answer is especially when factoring in Lucasfilm secrecy. If the Vintage Collection is to have a representative Mandalorian collection, this armored Gideon must be in it, but there’s almost no way to release it in a timely enough fashion to maximize its sales potential.  It’s a damned if you do, damned if you don’t situation.

So maybe for some or all of these reasons, you’ve passed on this figure.  I will be perfectly honest, I’m not so sure I would have ordered it were it not for this site.  But I can tell you that skipping it would be a mistake if you’re a fan of 3.75” Star Wars figures.  This is one of the better engineered entries into the line.  If a figure is difficult to pose, it’s guaranteed to fall out of favor with me even if it’s one off my favorite characters.  A few examples of this would be the recent VC364 - Asajj Ventress and 2022’s VC264 - Luke Skywalker (Light Imperial Cruiser). On the flip side, if the figure is one that I would otherwise ignore, but it poses like a dream, I’m bound to fall in love with it.  That’s where I am with this Moff Gideon (Dark Trooper Armor).  I had so much fun posing it for the gallery. I loved how effectively it can be placed into dynamic and kinetic poses.

This is particularly noteworthy since it’s a bulky designer, and sometimes the stouter figures can’t get out of their own way in terms of range of motion.  Not so here. The elbows bend to a shade beyond ninety degrees which facilitates effective melee poses with the included electrostaff.  This is further aided by dual side hinged wrists which likewise have great range.  The knees bend to ninety, but that ends up being plenty to express the desired poses.  This Armored Gideon can do the highly regarded natural kneeling position.  Take a look at image 18 above.  I think it’s one of the most natural looking kneeling poses ever for a figure in this scale.  The torso and head complete the “range of motion” love fest.  Taking everything together, you can get Gideon into all manner of twisted and coiled dueling positions so he can square off against Bo-Katan until Woves hits him with a battleship.

Okay, so after gushing about this Armored Gideon for two paragraphs, why does it not get a perfect score?  Well the first reason is that it’s not EV-9D9.  But that reason is like an honorary doctorate.  It doesn’t count.  I probably won’t get tired of this joke for a while, but don’t blame me.  Blame nomad for dinging the recent VC363 - Carton Teva for not being the Carson Teva he wanted.  For real negatives, the first is that, unlike its Black Series counterpart, the Vintage Collection Armored Gideon does not come with a swappable un-helmeted head.  During the reveal, Hasbro mentioned that fans could simply swap in the head from VC180 - Moff Gideon.  First, having to cannibalize another figure is not a suitable answer.  Second, it’s not possible in my experience.  The barbell from this VC368 does not work with the head from VC180, and the barbell from VC180 does not work with the neck post of VC368.  To make it work, I feel like it would take some customization, and that is a bridge too far for me.

The second negative is that the backpack lacks any paint applications.  On-screen, it’s adorned with red and white lights.  I was reviewing episode S3:E8 for some diorama potentials before I opened the figure.  When I saw those lights, I thought to myself that they would really stand out against the gloss black of the figure.  I was disappointed when they were not there.  I highly suspect this figure was on the fence between the basic line and deluxe (which likely would have come with flame and missile effects).  If so, Hasbro probably (and rightfully) assumed that it wouldn’t sell at the deluxe price point, so they scaled it back to a basic figure which meant ditching the swappable head and scaling back on some paint applications. But that’s just my personal theory.  Temporarily switching back to the positive side, the cape, which attaches around the shoulders via a pair of elastic straps, features two-sided printing (like the Moff Gideon that comes with The Rescue Set).  The crimson really pops against the figure.

The negatives are really about what didn’t come in the box, but should have.  I have no complaints with the contents that were provided.  As I said, this might be a figure that fans feel like they can skip since the narrative lines are now dead.  But if you like well executed 3.75” Star Wars goodness, you shouldn’t.