Yesterday I was accused of burying the lede.  I don’t want to do that today, so let me state right up front that this figure is not EV-9D9.  I’m glad we got that out of the way so we can dive into the meat of this review.  If you own the deluxe VC343 - Cobb Vanth (Mandalorian Armor) release, you are already familiar with this figure.  This Cobb Vanth takes VC343 and performs the following alterations:

• Mandalorian armor overlay removed
• torso slightly retooled to remove the jetpack peg hole
• newly tooled forearms without gauntlets
• retooled removable scarf
• clip-on knee armor removed

The end result is that Hasbro took the Sheriff Cobb Vanth from Season 2 of The Mandalorian and gave us Marshal Cobb Vanth from the Book of Boba Fett.  As a community, we sometimes bristle at the partially tooled figures, but that is because they often take shortcuts and are inaccurate.  When a partially tooled figure, such as this Cobb Vanth, are accurate and warranted, the community welcomes it.

I always struggle to write these reviews of figures that we’ve essentially already reviewed.  It becomes repetitive.  As with its predecessor, this is a very good, but not perfect, figure.  However, in this case, the negatives are not as impactful.  My main gripe comes from the interaction with the rifle.  Two handed weapon grips are possible, but they are a tad difficult due to one of the hands tending to pop off.  You get the off hand on the barrel, and the trigger hand pops off.  You put the index finger back in the tigger guard, and the off hand pops off the barrel.  It reminds me of my proficiency with the Rubik’s Cube.  Every time I’d solve one side, I’d scramble another.  The good news is that as marshal, Vanth is a gunslinging pistoleer, and doesn’t use the rifle.  This sculpt interacts very well with the sidearm.  The figure can shoot from the hip as the character does on-screen, or employ more traditional shooting stances.

The Mando-verse through the first two seasons of The Manadalorian and the Book of Boba Fett perfects the space-western vibe of A New Hope.  Sergio Leone’s spaghetti western “Man with no name” trilogy is a huge influence on Star Wars as a whole.  Boba Fett is inspired by Clint Eastwood’s titular character.  Cad Bane is based on Lee Van Cleef’s Angel Eyes character in The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly.  With this in mind, casting Timothy Olyphant was a master stroke since he is western-genre royalty from his role as Sheriff Seth Bullock in Deadwood.  He often employs classic Eastwood-esque poses in the Book of Boba Fett where his hands are on his gun belt with his hip slightly cocked.  I love that this figure can do a passable version of those poses.  In fact, I would argue it’s the iconic pose for Marshal Vanth.  In almost every scene, he’s got his trigger hand tugging his gun belt precariously close to the holster in typical gunfighter fashion.

Those poses are possible because of the greater-than-ninety-degree bend of the elbows, and the hinged wrists, but the legs are no slouches themselves.  They function very well with the new barbell hips and the now standard rocker ankles.  My only complaint with the functionality is, you guessed it, I feel that the thighs are a little long.  It makes some of the crouched poses look a little goofy.  Additionally, Olyphant has a distance runner’s physique.  This figure captures that thinness in the torso, but I feel it gets a tad thick in the hips compared to the on-screen character.  These are just nitpicks, and don’t undermine and otherwise very decent release.  Once again, I had a lot of fun posing this figure for the gallery.  Even though they are largely the same sculpt, I enjoy this Marshal Vanth more than the armored VC343 offering.  I feel like it captures the essence of the character better.

As with VC343, the negatives are a bunch of paper cuts, and not any single fatal blow.  In addition to the mildly frustrating interaction with the rifle and long thighs, the lack of paint applications to the rifle completes the minor complaints, the constellation of which compels me to deduct a lone point for a 9 out of 10 score.  Since I spent three paragraphs talking about the source material yesterday, I feel emboldened to broach the subject again today.  I did not hate The Book of Boba Fett at all, and the ending of From the Desert Comes a Stranger was “chef’s kiss” perfect.  Yeah, I could have done with out the Mods and some of the hokier elements, but the show entertained me.  I really hope it gets a season 2 some day.