Well, here we go again.  Animated, shmanimated.  How many times do I have to tell Hasbro to stop making figures with animated styling?  I’m beginning to think they might not care what I think.  In fact, this is forcing me to take a more inward look, and take a personal journey to learn my place in this world.  In the meantime…yeah, I bought this.

To kick off the New Year, we are taking a look at some brandy new figures from the recently aired Resistance animated show.  Now, I’ve watched all the episodes of the first season so far.  Honestly, I like Dave Filoni’s stuff.  It took me a while to get into The Clone Wars, but I’m glad I finally took the dive, because there are some parts of it that are the most Star Warsy stuff in all of Star Wars.  And after getting over the first few episodes, I really started to get into the series.  I’m actually really excited about the return of the show, for a final hurrah.  As for Rebels, I really liked that, too.  It also took a few episodes to find its legs, but once it did, I felt it was also a really solid part of Star Wars lore.  Ahsoka had a wonderful storyline over the course of both shows, and I, for one, am really curious to see where the future takes her with regard to her search for Ezra (and Thrawn.) 

So I am giving Resistance a fair shake.  I think the episodes so far haven’t been great.  I like the concept of an outpost that is seemingly going to be the site of one of the first struggles between the First Order and the Resistance.  I like the concept of competitive racing as the backdrop to the story.  And I like the concept of pirates, bounty hunters, and known movie characters making appearances to flesh out this part of the galaxy.  However, so far, the stories have generally been very simple and kid-oriented.  While I like the animation styling, I don’t like the Loony Tunes style slapstick animation, which takes me out of the moment a bit.  But I’m hoping that this does a good job of adding some depth to the basically untold (on screen) story of the rise of the First Order.  As I’ve lamented many times, I don’t want to have to read novels and comics and visual guides in order to understand the basics of the story.  That stuff needs to be told on screen.  So here is Disney’s chance.  After what I feel were successes for the Clone Wars and Anakin’s character flaws, as well as how the Rebellion formed in the vacuum created by the loss of the Republic and the Jedi Order, I’m hoping Filoni can come through again and accomplish some much needed filling in of the blanks in this part of the timeline.

That brings us to Kazuno “Kaz” Xiono.  He’s the star of the show.  Some of you may think he’s Ezra 2.0, and that would be kind of hard to argue against.  He does come across a lot like an early version of Ezra.  He’s rough around the edges, but likable.  He’s growing as a character, but I have to say it still hasn’t fully grabbed me yet.  He’s a skilled pilot, and has been recruited as a spy by Poe Dameron.  Not sure I buy him having gained Poe’s trust so easily, but it is what it is. We’ll see if things get better with the show.  So far I don’t feel it’s up to par with Filoni’s previous efforts.

As for the figure, it is exactly what you’d expect.  It’s got animated styling and is 5POA.  That immediately knocks down the standard baseline score to a 3.  That said, it’s pretty good for what it is.  The figure looks exactly like it’s on-screen inspiration.  There is a separately sculpted vest, which gives some depth to the figure.  It’s probably removable, but there’s no point since the jacket sleeves would be left behind on the arms, so I didn’t bother struggling to make the effort.  The figure is otherwise simply sculpted.  The paint applications are a bit disappointing, because they should be sharper.  There are clean lines all over the sculpt, so getting the paint on correctly should have been easy, but there is overspray all over the figure. 

For accessories, Kaz comes with a small pistol, which has a metallic gold paint application, making it pretty unique among figures, as far as I can recall.  Kaz can grip the blaster nicely in his hand, but as you would expect, there’s not much else he can do with it other than hold it straight out in front of him.  Sadly, Kaz does not have a holster, even though I realize that the character probably doesn’t have one.  In fact, I don’t think he carries a blaster, other than when he needed one on a mission or two with Poe.  Kaz comes with his flight helmet, which fits over his head nicely.  It is well detailed, although as mentioned, the paint apps are a little sloppy.  The helmet has a visor, which is thankfully translucent.  It seems Hasbro has permanently moved beyond the dreaded idiot banana visors that were prevalent in the 2015-2016 TFA run.

It’s a colorful and decent looking niche figure, but unfortunately, serves no purpose in your regular collection of realistically styled figures.  I really wish Hasbro would stop making these animated figures.  I really think they would have wider appeal and integrate better with other figures and toys if they were realistically styled.  I think kids can handle identifying the figures even if they weren’t animated.  But who am I?  Apparently, just a sucker.

The figure gets the baseline 3.  The removable helmet is nice.  If the figure had a holster to store the weapon, I might have been inclined to give it a 4.