Boba Fett (Prototype Armor) - TBS [P2] - Six Inch Figures (Exclusive)

Before he put on the familiar Mandalorian armor from the Star Wars saga, this notorious bounty hunter was initially envisioned as a “super trooper” in all-white armor. This special figure captures the beginning of a character that has become a legend who is both respected and feared across the galaxy... Boba Fett.

Although we got excited about the announcement of The Black Series 6-inch Boba Fett (Prototype Armor) figure, the final figure didn’t meet the expectations of the excitement. Don’t get us wrong, though, please. An all-white Boba Fett figure is just too darn cool, and we’re thrilled to have it finally, but Hasbro got L-A-Z-Y when they decided to produce this figure. Instead of tooling a few unique parts that are exclusive to the prototype costume, Hasbro just cast 2013’s TBS [P1] Boba Fett (#06) figure in white plastic, added a few black and off-white painted details, changed the cape, and called it a day. If you compare the costume from Episode V to the prototype costume, you will find some significant differences between the two. Plus, we would have loved to see a Star Wars towel used as the cape accessory to fully drive home the fact that this costume was homemade, with “things around the house,” and not necessarily parts from a special effects workshop instead. We had to get this criticism out because it would not have added much more money to change a few things on the costume and make it prototype-specific. From that angle, we’re mildly disappointed. But suppose you have been collecting Hasbro figures since The Vintage Collection era. In that case, Hasbro repeated the same laziness with the 2011 TVC Boba Fett (Prototype Armor) (VC61) mail-away figure. Repainting and recasting are parts of the formula here, but no new tooling occurred to make the action figure accurate to the prototype. So history repeats itself, just on a larger scale.

If you can put away your disappointment that there are no newly tooled parts here, you may be happy with the final product. There is no doubt about it. Boba Fett (Prototype Armor) is a fantastic addition to the 6-inch range. It makes sense why this figure has been so challenging to locate at Walgreens across America (if your store was lucky enough to get them in stock). Then again, once the word “exclusive” gets attributed to a particular product and then it becomes difficult to locate, everyone, including those without a remote interest in it, begins looking for it. We imagine that’s what has transpired with the Boba Fett (Prototype Armor) 6-inch figure. But if you still have yet to secure this collectible in your hands, have no fear. Per a recent Twitter post, the buyer at Walgreens has 40,000 more on order (as of this review post date). These will be everywhere soon enough. The figure itself is an excellent piece despite its imperfections. The sculpt still has limitations thanks to the storage pockets that fall to his thigh. But will a little perseverance, you can get this figure in some pretty unique positions. The paint job, albeit simple, is beautifully applied. We noticed just a tiny dot of black paint lingering on the left corner of the visor, but other than that, this figure has an excellent paint job. We had always hoped Hasbro would find ways to bang out every last version of Boba Fett utilizing this tooling. We hope they do, but we also want them to tweak things so that they can be the most authentic interpretations of those things.

Boba Fett (Prototype Armor) has the same accessories as the regular release. Of course, they’ve painted them differently so that they work with this version of the character instead. We have to make a distinct point of alerting you to the jetpack. It looks incredible in white and affixes to the figure flawlessly. The smaller gun fits beautifully into the functioning holster, and the larger weapon fits nicely into both hands, though we notice it gets warped from the pressure. It may not be an ideal fit, in your opinion. Another bone of contention, the rangefinder, is still not articulated, and for us, this is a move that still astonishes us no matter how many times we think about it. The enhanced articulation of all the figures in the 6-inch range is astounding. You can position these figures in ways most of us probably never anticipated were possible. But thankfully, they are possible, and Boba Fett (Prototype Armor) continues the trend of well-made action figures with impeccable detail and incredible articulation. Sure, you may want the Wookiee scalps removed, and you probably will wish that the rocket had those extra prongs and other missed enhancements, but you likely will be able to overlook the figure’s faults because this figure looks great regardless. We are sticklers for accurate details, and we hope that when the next Boba Fett is up, Hasbro will pay extremely close attention to future releases, but in the meantime, please be sure to enjoy this action figure. It’s part of a new trend by Hasbro to get Star Wars toys out there. And we think it’s working.