I feel I need to start off by saying that I don’t love the character of Rey.  I find her kind of “meh”.  Maybe trending towards “meh+”.  I would go into detail with what I feel are benign, yet legitimate, storytelling criticisms, but I see how well that goes over at that other site.  My mother reads this site.  I don’t need her seeing her favorite son being called “literally Harvey Weinstein”.  I am only bringing this up for one reason. While I don’t love the character, for some reason I love Rey figures.  And NO that’s not because the source happens to be an attractive young lady.  I’m not a weirdo.  Well, not that kind of weirdo anyway.  It’s because Hasbro seems to be able to nail the balance of form and function with Rey figures.

Before continuing with the review, I need to set the table on one item.  Please don’t make fun of the flying kick picture.  It didn’t come out the way I envisioned it in my mind’s eye, primarily because it was so hard to balance in that pose.  After having the figure topple several times, I stopped trying to perfect the alignment and quickly snapped the pic.  The angle is too high, but I was holding my breath.  You might be wondering why, if I’m so dissatisfied with the finished product, did I include it in the gallery?  Simple.  I spent at least 20 minutes trying to get the figure to balance in that pose.  IT STAYS IN THE GALLERY!

This Jakku Rey figure, which is a re-release of Black Series Rey, is another figure from the “big hits combined with narrow misses” category.  The pose-ability has amazing potential.  The small ball joints at the elbows give the arms tremendous range of motion, and the ball jointed wrist allow figure to grasp the staff in some dynamic combat poses.  If you’ve learned one thing from my reviews, I hope you’ve picked up on the fact that I love figures that can strike natural and aggressive dueling poses, and this is one can. 

The legs likewise have tremendous range of motion potential and the joints operate easily.  This is also where those “narrow misses” start to creep in.  The lower portion of the figure’s tabard is sculpted instead of soft goods.  Soft goods would have been a homerun here, and I’d be talking myself down from a 10 score.  The left side of the tabard is a continuous loop which is screen accurate, but is doesn’t move out of the way easily.  In order to fully engage the articulation of the figure’s left leg, I had to contort it to pass it through that loop.  When trying to get the figure to kneel, which the articulation would allow, the plastic lower tabard gets in the way.  It almost has to be trained out of position.  I earlier praised Hasbro for striking a balance of form and function with Rey figures.  Here’s a case where form was slightly prioritized.

The other “narrow miss” with this rendition of the figure (or perhaps my sample) has to do with the paint applications.  My sample suffers from the dreaded “anime eyes” where the eyes are painted too large.  It’s not an extreme example.  If you want to see oversized eyes run amok, look no further than the Black Series Phase I Dagobah Training Luke. In this case, it’s just a little overdone.  I feel like the Black Series predecessor looks better despite the dot matrix blush on Rey’s cheeks.  One step forward from that previous release is that the ankle joints now match the color of the boots.  That’s a big win.  Top marks there, Hasbro.

Taking this all into account, this figure narrowly misses perfection (see how I brought that home?).  Mr. Nomadscout gave the previous release a 9 out of 10.  Thinking about the score I hear a David Puddy-esque “yeah that’s right” in my head.  The step back in paint applications and the step forward with the matched ankle joints net each other out to keep the score at a 9 out of 10. 

One last comment, I feel the carded product is stunning.  It’s aesthetically one of the best Vintage Collection cards I’ve ever seen.  If you think packaging is nothing more than trash, you’re not giving some very talented artisans their due.