The text below is mostly copied from the original review by Bret on 11/16/17 for the Black Series release of this figure.  This TVC version is a straight repack of that figure.  New notes are added at the end of the review.

Captain Phasma is one of the Elite Eight from The Force Awakens to have the honor of being selected by Hasbro to be manufactured as an action figure in super-articulated 3.75” form.  She was released about 6 months after the film debuted. 

There’s something inherently cool about this character, in a Fett or Maul-like manner - at least until her apparent cowardly and treasonous act at the end of the movie.  Supposedly this was rectified in the comics a bit, but it’s still hard to reconcile.  All that aside, Phasma is an imposing presence, towering over most of her troops.  She’s mysterious, she wears a cape, and she has mesmerizing mirror-like silver armor.  Plus, she’s Brienne of Tarth!

The figure looks great overall, although the thing that unfortunately stands out the most is the flat silver paint, rather than the vac-metallic finish that we would prefer.  Understanding that this probably isn’t possible from Hasbro for the foreseeable future due to environmental concerns, we’ll have to settle for the flat finish.  It’s not bad on it’s own, it’ll just give you that feeling of wishing this was the old days, when you could eat a steak and doughnut sandwich with cigarettes on it.  If you are able to get over this, then the rest of the figure is a pretty awesome sculpt.  There are paint details in the right places around the armor, and the joints are well hidden by the sculpt.  The paint applications are a little sloppy in some places, but not so much that it’s going to offend you. There’s something slightly off about the lower leg sculpt.  The calf armor almost seems to be misshapen, and you kind of have to work the joints a bit to avoid a slightly awkward knock-kneed look, at least in my sample.

The articulation is plentiful, but I have a couple of nits.  The hip joints are not that poseable.  This, in conjunction with the ankles being limited in their ability to angle inward or outward (only forward/back and left/right), means that lower body movement is hindered a bit from what would be ideal.  It’s tricky to pose Phasma in that much of a dynamic pose, at least from the waist down.  A wide stance or a mild action pose is about the best you can get.  It’s obviously lightyears ahead of 5POA, but Hasbro has done better in the past.  More recent Walmart figures have the added thigh cuts, which help make up for the less-than-ideal hip joints.  Upper body is great, with all the articulation necessary for a variety of display options. 

The cape is soft plastic.  The good thing is that it doesn’t really hamper the articulation much, so this is a success.  But I would have preferred soft goods, and left the hard plastic to the 5POA budget figure.  The one area where the cape is a bit of a problem is at the neck.  Phasma’s head is slightly limited in movement options with the cape on, but when the cape is removed, the head has a full range of motion.  The figure holds the included blaster well - and of course can achieve the vaunted THWG*.  The weapon can be stowed in the notch located in the armor of the right hip. 

This figure is pretty much superior in every way to the 5POA offering.  It’s sadly a waste of time to gripe about the lack of vac-metalization, but I would feel better about the premium price point if the cape were soft goods.  Hip articulation and the slightly-off leg sculpts are negative points. It also would have been cool if she came with Oathkeeper, but it’s probably for the best that she didn’t.  Overall a very good figure.

*Two Handed Weapon Grip.  Acronym invented by me, despite what Trooper31 may claim.  That guy is nuts!

Updated Notes by Bret 6/8/19.

This is a straight repack of the Walmart Exclusive Black Series Phase III.  In yesterday’s review of the TVC re-release of the Elite Praetorian Guard, I mentioned how Hasbro has explained their internal accounting for “new” vs. “repack” figures.  They budget slots for both types of figures in each wave.  While fans may have preferred a variant of the original Praetorian (or perhaps, no re-release at all), to have done so would have sacrificed a slot for a new figure. 

The same logic applies here.  A re-release of Captain Phasma isn’t exactly anything the vast majority of consumers were looking for, but a couple of changes would have at least made it a feasible figure at retail.  Perhaps an alternate helmet with the smashed facemask showing the eye of Brienne of Tarth.  Or perhaps a soft goods cloak.  Simplest change would have been to include the silver spear accessory that was included in the Finn (FO Disguise) two-pack from the 5POA TLJ line.  Unfortunately, any of those changes would have qualified this figure as “new”, and if released in this same wave, would have come at the expense of either Lando or the Stormtrooper. 

As for the review, you can read the above entry, which came from the original Walmart Black Series release.  This figure is identical.  It is a very good figure, although a bit rubbery.  The legs are slightly warped.  But other than the disappointing but fully expected lack of shiny silver vac-metallization, it’s about as excellent a representation of the on-screen characters as we have any right to expect.  It’s just too bad that Phasma turned out to be as lame of a character as she did.  There was some potential there, and it was squandered.

If you missed out on the TBS release, you’re probably not interested in this one.  If you got the TBS release, you’re probably not interested in this one.  Hopefully this figure is the last really bad re-pack selection that Hasbro makes.  It would be a retail killer, except that (A) it’s mercifully only 1 per case, and (B) at this rate, the wave will never see the inside of a brick and mortar big box store.  So the only measure of success (or lack thereof) would be seeing it fester at a deep discount on the product pages of online retailers over a year from now.