Solo: A Star Wars Story

SOLOMISC

Mission on Vandor-1

Info and Stats
Year:  
2018
MSRP:  
$29.99
Grade:  
6/10 Bantha Skulls
 
Review by: Bret
Review date: 09/10/2018

Hasbro has made it somewhat of a tradition release a “Home Entertainment” 4 pack to commemorate each film’s release on some form of home media, whether for the first time or as an update with new tech or new gimmicks.  The Disney-era sets have been hit or miss, but are trending in right direction.  The TFA set was fairly uninspired with repacked Finn and Rey, but at the time, included the somewhat hard to get BB-8 and the first version of Maz Kanata, which was a pretty good figure, by 5POA standards.  Rogue One stepped it up with a desirable troop builder and two must-have characters in Edrio and Saw, which did enough to counter the inclusion of another Jyn repack.  TLJ was somewhere between those two releases, which included yet another Rey and a dull troop builder repaint, but managed to include a new Rose and and a new FO Gunner. 

This set outdoes them all.  The only straight repack (not quite, actually…) is the fairly popular Range (Namath) Trooper.  You get a new Han, a new Qi’ra, and a completely new character, Weazel.  The set is much more inspired than the previous releases, and should be relatively popular.

Han Solo comes with his Vandor Heist outfit.  I love the fur coat.  It just seems like something that Han hastily picked up (or stole) from a local vendor (a Vandor vendor, if you will).  It’s hideous, but it’s cool that the designers didn’t give him some slick cold weather outfit to wear, that he basically would have had no real means of obtaining, since he seemingly only owned the clothes he was wearing when he went AWOL from Mimban.  The fur coat is separately sculpted (minus the sleeves), but isn’t removable.  It seems to be glued at the belt buckle, which is fine by me because it would look insane if you removed it and left the sleeves.  He’s got a belt/sash sculpted over the coat which includes a holster which holds his trusty blaster.  The face sculpt as quite good, as it has been for each young Han figure so far, looking very much like Ehrenreich.  This figure comes with goggles, which are pretty neat, but could be better.  They are separately sculpted, but are (probably) glued to his temple.  I actually popped one side out in an effort to see if it was removable, but wasn’t comfortable that this was supposed to happen, so I didn’t press my luck further.  A strap is sculpted into the back of the head.  The goggles are meant to be clear, but the plastic is quite blurry, and the rims aren’t painted well.  The figure has 7POA, which include wrists.  Han can hold the blaster firmly in his hand.

Qi’ra is wearing an all new outfit, which she actually wore later in the film when the heist was over, and she went with Han to Fort Ypso to find Lando Calrissian.  The outfit is nicely sculpted, although there is nothing particularly outstanding about it.  The look is perfect, even if Hasbro opted to not go with a separately sculpted jacket, holster, or anything else.  It’s a simple but well-executed figure.  The tiny holster allows you to not lose the blaster pistol, although I’m not actually sure if it’s screen accurate.  I don’t care, I’d rather have the holster.  Qi’ra holds the pistol firmly.  The face sculpt and paint applications are definitely well done (the lipstick is a bit off the sculpted lips, though), but I don’t feel the figure looks anything like Khaleesi, and that’s a shame.  She has basic 5POA.  All told, this is a nice, if not exactly game-changing, effort by Hasbro.

Weazel is pretty nifty.  It’s a yoda/jawa/ewok sized figure.  The sculpt is outstanding, with a lot of detail.  The vest/gear is separately sculpted, but doesn’t seem to be removable, so I didn’t try hard.  The helmeted head (no Warwick Davis face underneath, unfortunately), seems to be engineered with several separate pieces.  It is executed extremely well.  Even though the figure only has 5POA, and we know Hasbro is capable of packing more into small figures, it works well enough, and I don’t really feel like it needed more articulation.  Maybe wrists would help him hold handlebars, should you desire to have him seated in a speeder or swoop.  He comes with a blaster, which he holds well in either hand. Although he has no holster, I decided I can tuck it away in the back of his harness.  He also comes with something akin to a Stinger missile launcher, which brings back fond memories for me.  It’s a neat figure, and probably the star of the set, even though the others are pretty good as well.  Weazel was part of the unexpected attack during Beckett’s crew’s heist attempt, but he wasn’t really given a good look (as I recall) until much later in the film when Enfys Nest and her Cloud Riders surprise Han and team on Savareen.

Finally, there is a Range Trooper repack.  It’s the same sculpt and paint of the somewhat popular carded version, but believe it or not, comes with a completely different Force Link 2.0 chip with all new lines, so technically, it’s a variant, if you don’t actually consider it a completely new figure. 

The set is overall a good value, with 4 figures that were good choices for the Vandor-1 theme, although perhaps they don’t all interact with each other this way in the film.  The figures also go reasonably well with the Vandor-1 playset.  With Val, Beckett, and Rio coming soon (5POA), along with an SA Lando and Range Trooper, Hasbro at least made some strong effort to give collectors and fans at least one set piece from Solo to fill out.

Overall, 3 new figures and a desirable army builder at a slightly discounted price make this a solid 5POA set.  I give it a 6.

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