[Note:  Chris took the 2 Cantina pics, which I stole for this review.  Don’t tell him.]

#MaketheMains seems to have been (and continues to be) a successful campaign that was conducted by Banthaskull and nobody else.  No, seriously it’s been a great community rallying point to get some VERY long overdue assistance for our absurdly outdated figures of the ANH main characters.  Recently we’ve gotten new/mostly new updates to Farmboy Luke, Leia, Han, Chewie, Ben Kenobi, and Vader, along with some tweaks/repaints to R2 and the Stormtrooper.  And while they’re not necessarily all perfect, I believe they’re all incredible and worthy additions to TVC and should satisfy most collectors.  The biggest complaints so far have been about the lack of a soft goods skirt for Leia and the lack of full newness for Chewbacca.  While I don’t have Chewbacca or Ben in hand yet, I’m optimistic I’m going to love them. 

Let’s take a quick look at Han.  Chris already used this figure for a few images in our Cantina review, but we’ll go into more detail here.

Initial reaction from many fans after seeing early Hasbro shots was all over the place.  First and foremost, there was much rejoicing that the figure looked to be mostly new, so collectors dodged the bullet of having to deal with a frustrating repaint of the sub-par VC281.  Chris gave it an abysmal 5/10.  The figure reused parts from the Alden Ehrenreich figure that already became woefully outdated by 2023.  As a standalone figure, it probably deserved another point or two, but because it’s Han Solo, it deserved a lot better.

On the downside, there were some complaints about the sculpting of the hair, the arms, the face, the torso, and others.  I’ve seen plenty of instances where early imagery didn’t paint the proper full picture, and I was hopeful that having the figure in hand would dispel any disappointment.  Now that I have the figure, I’ll say that there is some merit to these early reactions, but I think the problems are more muted in reality.

For newness, Hasbro did the right thing here.  They went all out.  I could be wrong, but I believe the only reused parts for this figure are the hands.  It’s possible they are not new, but they look mighty similar to the VC281 hands.  That’s not too much of a problem, but as Chris pointed out in that review, the left hand’s “C-grip” is a little too exaggerated.  He doesn’t come with an accessory that warrants this hand position, but whatever, it’s a minor gripe.  Or grip.  All the other problems were addressed:  The Torso is now one piece, and is articulated at the waist, not the offending chest joint.  The legs are completely new, and sport the current articulation standards of the barbell hips and rocker ankles.  The holster is still attached to the hip, but with a moveable thigh strap, rather than being glued in place, allowing for almost full range of motion of the right leg.

I think they did a great job with the face sculpt.  I see this as 1977 Ford, complete with the chin scar.  While the hair might throw off the look just a bit, the face looks great to me.  The vest is removable, if you feel like doing that.  The blaster seems to be all new, or at least it’s different from the one that came with VC281.  He grips it well, and it fits into the holster perfectly.  Han is very poseable, thanks to the updated modern articulation.  I don’t think there’s anything that would improve this figure in that department.

As for the negatives, I’ll start with the hair.  I feel like the sculpting is good, and reflects the style on screen from ANH.  There’s just something off - perhaps the thickness of the plastic hair piece makes it seem too poofy, especially on the sides.  And the torso does seem a little too…heavy.  I feel Ford was thinner in ANH than he was in ROTJ, but the figure doesn’t represent this as perfectly as I would like.  And finally there are the wrists.  This seems to be the source of the biggest complaint so far.  There’s definitely something not right about the wrists.  Hasbro went for the slightly short sleeves look, which is basically accurate to the outfit on screen.  But it doesn’t translate perfectly because of the wrist joint.  It makes it look like he’s got cuffs on his sleeves that are the same color as his skin.  I think Hasbro could have done a couple of things a bit differently to help with this.  They could have shortened the sleeves a bit, or even made them full length.  I’m not sure this would have been called out as inaccurate, and that compromise may have been preferable to the current result.  Another solution may have been to sculpt the sleeves as a little more loose-fitting, so there was a gap between the clothing and the forearm.  Sometimes the wrist joint does double duty and provides this aesthetic (look at VC281), but in this case, it just looks odd.

Those are my complaints.  They amount to a an overall feeling of “this figure is a bit off and I can’t quite put my finger on it, but I can’t give it a perfect score.”  But I think that in the end, it’s still a great figure that captures the spirit of Harrison Ford’s portrayal in 1977.  A slimmer chest and an alternative take on the sleeves would make this figure close to perfection.

I’ll still give it a 9/10.  I find myself being particularly critical of these main character figures.  Hasbro seems to be just a tad off base when it comes to many Han Solo and Luke Skywalker figures.  It might simply be that we feel we know every detail of these character’s looks that we have an outsized expectation for the results.  It might just be impossible for us to translate what we see in our mind’s eye for young Mark Hamill and young Harrison Ford to match what Hasbro produces.