Star Wars Rogue One: The Black Series Two Review

Hasbro delivers some new villains and a Force Awakens favorite in the second round of Black Series 6″ figures.

Slowly but surely, Hasbro’s Star Wars Rogue One toy line is catching up with itself, and among the latest new figures to hit retail are the second wave of 6″ Black Series.  Refreshingly villain-heavy, this wave includes Rogue One‘s main villain Director Orson Krennic, as well as a Scarif Trooper Commander, and the red-armed version of C3PO from The Force Awakens.

Krennic is great, featuring a wonderful all new sculpt that I find much more imposing than last year’s General Hux. The Director’s design is excellent, and Hasbro has rendered every detail– especially that white cape– perfectly.  The choice of rubber over fabric for the cape was the right one, since it presents a rigidness to the figure’s overall design which fits the personality of a sinister Imperial ranking officer. The other thing that excites me about Krennic is that Hasbro now has many parts which can be used for other Imperial officers down the road in the Black Series. Krennic’s existence makes it much more likely we’ll see figures such as Grand Moff Tarkin sooner than later in the collection, and I’m perfectly fine with that.

Hasbro has been killing it with their Rogue One Imperial troopers, and the Scarif Commander is no exception. This guy has an interesting design, with deeply off-white armor and a very healthy mix of Clone Wars and classic Stormtrooper aesthetics.  I think the end result of this guy is more successfully “Star Wars-y” than many of the Clone Wars armors, but things like the skirt and color-coded shoulder armor do pay tribute to the Clonetroopers era of this saga.  The Scarif Commander is very poseable, even with the rubber skirt which does little to inhibit his leg articulation, and he can hold his rifle very organically in one or both hands.

While the Commander is part of this wave, his Scarif soldiers have been released as a Wal-Mart exclusive. Hopefully, they’ll be easy enough to find so as to be more plentiful than their commanders… but, since this is Wal-Mart we’re dealing with, it’s anybody’s guess which figure is ultimately easiest to come by.

C3PO is the final new figure in this assortment, and he’s one of the last core characters from the Original Trilogy to make his way to the Black Series. Overall, he was worth the wait, featuring a very nice all new sculpt and well designed articulation, particularly the very effective ab crunch built into the circuitry around his midsection.

This version of 3PO is being joined by an OT figure, exclusive to Walgreens and available at many stores now. For me, there are some differences between the two figures– the arm color, obviously, but also the details sculpted into his torso wiring– to justify owning both of them… but your mileage may vary on that count.  Regardless, each variant of the Protocol Droid is painted with a shiny gold finish, instead of vac metalization. Hasbro claims this is due to his copious articulation, which I can see being an issue for full chrome plating, but part of me still wishes they had found a way to make it work as that chrome finish would have really sent 3PO over the edge for me.

Krennic, the Scarif Commander, and C3PO are slowly making their way to retail now, particularly at Target stores, as well as online retailers including our friends at Mike’s Comics N Stuff. If you want to save yourself the headache of a retail hunt, Click Here and order your figures from Mike’s today.