Rebels
Agent Kallus
I wasn’t really sure how to pronounce “Kallus”, so I asked Mike Francesa. He said it’s pronounced “McCluthiness”. Well, I’m not sure about that. Anyway, Agent McCluthiness is one of those classic Star Wars characters that drives the franchise (without gettting spoilery). He fills that necessary space of a bad guy who isn’t necessarily the arch-villain of the overall story. Furthermore, characters of this type are always interesting because, while they are portrayed for the audience as a “bad guy”, they clearly don’t see themselves as evil. It’s like the debate with The Walking Dead. If The Walking Dead were told from the perspective of the Saviors, Rick and the Alexandrians would be the monsterous villains. Kallus is also icy and determined while not being cartoonishly evil. This is despite that fact that he’s a cartoon. Meanwhile General Hux is real, yet cartoonishly villainous. Yes, this is exactly George’s explanation of the Real Peterman Tour. By now you should realize that this is all an effort to get my word count up before I start talking about the figure so I can meet my contractual obligations. Let me wrap up this pre-review paragraph by summarizing that I like this character.
With respect to the figure, it does its basic job well. The figure is easy to stand and does so assuredly. Aditionally, the paint applications, while minimal, are cleanly applied which was not always the case during this era of Star Wars figure manufacturing. The helmet features the recessed holes familar to the Imperial Navy Troopers. The actual movie props were based on World War II tanker helmets. This is a nice tie in to the movie universe. On the figure, the helmet is non-removable, but appears to be a two part construction with the head sculpt. This provides a nice touch of depth and realism to the sculpt.
The problem with the doing the basic action figure “job” with respect to this Agent Kallus figure, is that “action”. The character is decidedly action-oriented and demands additional articulation. I want to pose the figure squaring off in a Lasat bo-rfile battle with Zeb. Sadly that is impossible for both figures. All the figure can do is pose holding the rifle straight out as if he’s enacting half of a military saber arch. We want super-articulation in the collector line, and will never back down from that. But if Hasbro would just introduce arm articulation into the basic line I would be inclined to purchase many more figures than I currently do. So while this figure does its basic job, the character demands much more. For that reason I have to score this a lowly 3 out of 10.
While I am staunchly against including Rebels characters into the pending return of the Vintage Collection, I wouldn’t mind a TVC realistic super-articulated Agent Kallus for the simple reason that the figure can easily integrate into any Imperial display (and for non-ironic reasons). Unfortunately if you missed this version, it carries a hefty premium on the secondary market: