So here we are.  Its been a long and difficult road for us.  But together, we did it.  This figure represents the final basic figure in the TFA line that we have yet to review.  This review marks a sad day in the 10 year history of Bantha Skull.  No, not because we wax misty eyed that the line is now in our rear view mirror, but it because we can now look back and realize exactly how much time we’ve wasted on the abomination that is Hasbro’s TFA 5POA line.

While there are still some TFA toys and figures that we will cover at some point in the future, rest assured that there will be no more basic figures.  This is a good thing.  But the fact that we’ve devoted so much effort into reviewing the 34 different figures is a testament to the sorry state of the line in 2015 and 2016.  While figures in the line did improve a bit over the course of the TFA run, we are left to lament what could have been, as many long time collectors were left to rot in their own personal hells.  Of course, all of this will be forgiven if we get the sail barge!

This particular figure was of the somewhat hard to find variety.  It was in one of the later waves, along with the FO Stormtrooper Squad Leader and Nien Nunb.  Distribution problems are likely the cause, but that’s nothing new.  While the figure was not easy to find at retail, I can only assume the demand for it didn’t significantly alter the secondary market price.  A few dollars extra will get you this figure, if you’re either insane or run a website that does such things as take pictures and review it.

The figure is one of many versions of Kylo Ren out there.  This one was the second in the TFA basic line. The first did not have a removable shmata, and was more neutrally posed.  This one has a slightly action-oriented stance, but most importantly, it was the only Kylo Ren figure in this scale to show him without his mask until the TLJ line came along 2 years later.  This version has no mask at all.  Later, in the Rogue One line, we got a figure that had the same body and removable shmata, but the head was masked.  The first figure had part of the shmata removable, leaving the hood behind to frame the masked face.  The Kylo face is missing the lightsaber scar he obtained during his brief duel with Finn on the surface of Starkiller Base, so it representshis pre-scar visage from the earlier part of the film. 

The figure is pretty straight forward. It has a nice sculpt to the body, with plenty of texture detail all over the tunic, robes, and shmata. The face sculpt isn’t bad, although I keep thinking Snape rather than Ren.  The figure comes with a fully ignited lightsaber, which he grips tightly in his right hand. His left hand is formed into a force-projecting gesture, which is pretty cool.  The figure stands sturdily, has decent paint apps (minimal beyond the head), standard 5POA, and nice weapon.  I will say that the brown paint on the hair is a bit sloppy.  This figure might have benefitted from the separately sculpted hair that we see in some of the more recent 5POA figures, but it seems this technology was not available at the time.  The build-a-weapon piece is stupid, of course.  It’s some sort of grim reaper-ish scythe that shoots a flamey projectile about 4 inches.

Oh, and one last note:  Should you desire, the unmasked head of this figure does actually fit onto the Walmart Black Series figure, so perhaps that might be reason enough to buy this beyond the previously mentioned insanity.

So that’s it.  I’ll give the figure a 4.  It’s solid, although a little dull because we’ve seen so many versions of this figure.  It calls to mind the history of Hasbro constantly making small, but important updates to characters, rather than giving us a definitive version.  But if you use the unmasked head on the black series figure, that’s pretty darn close to definitive, I guess. 

Thus, we conclude this emotional run through the TFA basic figures.  Don’t worry, there is plenty more subpar stuff for us to review, but this marks the end of this particular subset.  We thank you for your support!