Chewbacca - TBS [P3] - Six Inch Figures (05)

Faithful First Mate and co-pilot Chewbacca has loyally stood by his captain's side through the twisting fortunes of a galaxy in turmoil.

As you know from The Black Series [Phase II] Chewbacca (#04) figure, it’s a beautifully sculpted gem that is haunted by limited functionality. And because The Black Series [Phase III] Chewbacca (05) uses pretty much all of the same parts, you can expect the same from this one. We continue to struggle with the lack of functionality since the articulation given to this figure has limited mobility. And what little movement you can get out of the figure despite what is seemingly a very well articulated figure is very discouraging. While we didn’t expect an all-new sculpt and instead expected Hasbro to reuse the previously tooled sculpt, we can’t help but be disappointed that not even a little bit of fine tuning went into the 2015 release to make it better. Again, we love how he looks. No one can deny that Hasbro did a fantastic job on the sculpt and the new parts are just as beautiful as the previous version’s parts. Chewbacca is still the tallest figure in the entire The Black Series 6” line (this version is just a smidge shorter than the first), but he is still a little bit too tall when posed with the other figures in the line. Still, he looks perfectly scaled next to Han Solo and other figures in the line. Based on his appearance in Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens, Chewbacca is hopefully going to make many collectors happy and hopefully restore faith in the line that has experience one uphill battle after another. But distribution already seems better and that could only mean great things for the line going forward.

Not only does Chewbacca have a wonderful sculpt, he has also been given a pretty decent paint job. He seems a little too light in some areas, but we believe Hasbro did that as a concerted effort to draw out more of the texture of the fur. (In our opinion, Chewbacca has had little trouble looking consistent from one film to the next, but we don’t understand the lighter fur, unless that is because of the way the source materials were seen. There are plenty of instances of contrast which work hard to bring out the incredible amount of texture in his fur. And speaking of the fur, we will be shocked if anyone is displeased with how it turned out. Ironically, it is how Hasbro approached the fur that leads to the figure’s detriment. Hasbro sculpted hanging fur to cover the joints. Nonetheless beautiful, a big thanks goes to Hasbro for the treatment they gave this figure. But the design of the fur limits the full articulation capability of the premium joints they added to give Chewbacca the greatest range of movement possible. We don’t know if this should be weighted as a major or minor complaint either. Chewbacca does possess a great range of motion regardless of his limitations, so should we be pointing out that we’re a little disappointed that he doesn’t have more movement? We’re honestly stuck. For instance, don’t expect his head to turn as needed or desired.

While a wonderful convention having a carved out section for his bandolier to lay flatly on him and a space on the right side of his neck area to tuck it under, Chewbacca instantly looks awkward and silly when this accessory isn’t in place as a bevel or gap is present without out. So why make it removable then? At the same time, what else could have Hasbro done to make this feature better? We don’t know if they had any other options quite honestly. So again, should we be pointing this out as an issue? As you can see, this action figure perplexes quite a bit. We are however thoroughly impressed with the bowcaster accessory. Just like the 3.75” range, Hasbro decided to cast this weapon in three separate pieces. To our surprise, Hasbro decided to omit the strap that goes along with it, but we are nevertheless impressed with its design and how well it can be held in his hands (both can hold it). What we are slightly disappointed with is that Chewbacca is unable to hold it with both hands because his hands aren’t sculpted to accommodate that and his elbows don’t bend enough because of the hanging hair. We have decided to once again give Chewbacca a relatively good score despite nitpicking on multiple facets of the figure because we truly believe that many of the “issues” are unavoidable here. But we would encourage Hasbro to save articulation when it won’t be fully utilized. Then and only then will they save money and keep MSRPs at bay so collectors can maintain supporting the line. Chewbacca is still a great release no matter its issues.