Chirrut Ímwe - TBS [P3] - Six Inch Figures (36)

Deeply spiritual, Chirrut Ímwe believes all living things are connected through the Force. Though he lacks Force abilities, his sightless eyes do not prevent him from being a highly skilled warrior monk.

Wow, the dynamic duo from Rogue One: A Star Wars Story have turned out better than expected in The Black Series [Phase III] 6” line. After an impressive Baze Malbus, Chirrut Ímwe (who is packed in the same wave mind you) have exceeded our expectations. We think Baze Malbus turned out a hair better and we’ll explain why, but Chirrut Ímwe has thoroughly impressed us too. What Hasbro hasn’t mastered however is how they get these figures to collectors. They’re repacking the worst choices for carry-forward figures in the line, and sadly the line is bottlenecking distributions in terrible ways. As wave 11 makes its way out, stores are swimming in Captain Cassian Andor (Eadu) (23) and Sergeant Jyn Erso (Jedha) (22) figures. Its reminiscent of the Constable Zuvio and Finn (Jakku) debacle for The Force Awakens. In fact, distribution is already a concern because the perfect wave 10 hasn’t made an appearance at any of the big box retail locations. Store reports from smaller chains like GameStop have been reported, but nothing from the retail giants like Walmart and TARGET. If wave 11 does eventually make it out, it too is strewn with unnecessary repacks. In fact, Baze Malbus and Chirrut Ímwe are the only two new figures in the six figure case assortment. That just has “failure” written all over it. But cocky Hasbro believes they’re still going to sell through the repetition in this case with relative ease. They won’t.

So how about the figure? Chirrut Ímwe has turned out beautifully. We noticed immediately that he is significantly shorter than Baze Malbus. So either Baze Malbus is too large or Chirrut Ímwe is too small. We’re leaning towards Baze being too tall. If you can get over their significant size differences, there is much to enjoy with Chirrut Ímwe. Hasbro has designed a very screen accurate face sculpt. Thankfully his blind eyes are all blue and Hasbro recreated this detail very nicely as well. The sculpt is pretty much perfect and the standard articulation of the 6” figure has been worked into the sculpt wonderfully. Chirrut Ímwe has a fantastic range of movement and can attain an incredible array of poses. What we’re especially impressed with is Chirrut Ímwe’s soft-goods. Hasbro generously provided two layers of them: red and black to help recreate his multilayered look. They lay flatly on the figure and look like they’re really part of his outfit. Hasbro also decorated the black layer with a red band highlighted with white outer lines. It looks amazing. Hasbro also worked in molded soft-goods that hang down his back. But even with a different medium used for the robes on his back, everything really feels seamless. Hasbro did a wonderful job with this figure. We love how he looks and we love the versatility the soft-goods offer the figure when it comes to his articulation.

If that wasn’t good enough, Chirrut Ímwe comes with cool weaponry too. His first accessory is his walking stick. Hasbro paid careful attention to their source materials and crafted a very believable accessory here. What’s more, it split into two parts for extra play value. In all honesty, the attachment that holds the two parts together is very, very thin and small and we start sweating just looking at it. We fear that breakage is imminent. Both of his hands can accommodate it very easily too. His other accessory is called a lightbow and that too breaks down into two pieces. It also comes with articulation. The “bow” sections are hinge-jointed and fan out away from the body of the lightbow. And the lightbow also has two handles, so you can make Chirrut Ímwe hold it with two hands and he looks awesome doing so. The coloring is a bit off on the accessories, but it’s not a deal breaker, for us at least, and we’re really happy with how they turned out. Hopefully Baze Malbus and Chirrut Ímwe will make it out in greater numbers for collectors. They are two prime candidates if Hasbro were to ever bring back solid case packs. We sense that many collectors are going to be frustrated trying to secure both of these figures for their collections. Hopefully something will change in the future when it comes to case assortments to prevent this mess in the future. But do what you can to get Chirrut Ímwe. He is a fine action figure.