I
almost didn’t bother with this one because I am so over people
regurgitating lamentations over Captain Phasma’s role in The
Force Awakens.
But I reviewed the larger
Black Series Phasma,
which is from a line I don’t even collect, so I thought I should
cover this one.
I
honestly thought that I had reviewed the 18” JAKKS Pacific figure
as well, but I can’t find it. Short review – it’s an awesome
big figure for the price. I’m happy to have it.
The Toys R Us Exclusive 12” figure from Hasbro is also great. That one has my favorite armor of any so far. That finish is shiny!
I
did not review the standard 3.75” Hasbro figure, though I will
reference it later.
I
decided before the
Force Awakens
was released that my favorite characters were going to be Finn and
Captain Phasma. I focused on figures featuring them – not that I
bought a lot and not that there were that many available before the
movie came out. I didn’t even find a standard release Phasma for
myself until after Christmas. Actually, I take that back – it
wasn’t until my son got the Amazon Exclusive First Order Troops set
for Easter that I had a Phasma because he gave me his extra.
Good
kid. His parents must be raising him right, even if they don’t
force him to wear capes and Doctor Who costumes to Home Depot so they
can post pictures of it on Instagram to impress their friends.
Man,
I am fed
up with
the internet today, huh?
I
dug Phasma’s shiny armor and I’m a huge fan of Gwendoline
Christie’s performance on Game
Of Thrones,
so she seemed like a solid pick for neat toys. As for Finn, I just
liked the look of the kid. And Jon Boyega delivered the goods.
As
for Phasma, if anyone should be disappointed with how she was used,
it should be the guy that went to the Disney Store every fucking day
for two weeks to try and get that die cast figure they made of her (I
never got one). But I’m not disappointed. It’s Star Wars. 98% of
the action figures made had three seconds or less of screen time.
That
is a math fact that I just made up.
Also
there are at least two more movies coming and maybe she’ll be
featured more prominently. Maybe not. If you’re sad because of this
or anything else about Episode
VII, I
don’t want to hear about it. Take your space angst elsewhere,
Sheila.
FIRST
GLANCE
It’s
funny how different these Phasma (Full Name: Elidonna Laserforce
Phasma) figures can look. Some are shinier, some have more detailed
cloaks, some have pointier boots, some are slender and some are a bit
squat. As you guys may well know by now, I am not the guy that’s
going to sit down with the Visual Reference Guide and critique every
little detail. I’m just going to try to determine if the figure
looks and feels right. And this one does.
PACKAGING
It’s
a smaller version of the 6” Black Series window box and is way
oversized. The back is impossible to photograph and I would prefer
Vintage style blister cards, but Hasbro is trying to create the
illusion of increased value. Also, there are eighteen languages
printed on the back. Let’s move on.
LOOKS
This
helmet doesn’t look quite a duck-like as the others I have. It
still is duck-like and that’s appropriate because the first thing I
thought was that her helmet looked like a chromed-out Mighty Ducks
helmet, but this one isn’t as obvious about it. The detail is solid
and the paint is good except for a stray squiggle in the corner of
the left eye that I didn’t even notice until I was looking at these
pictures.
The
shape of this Phasma seems more accurate to me. She looks taller and
slimmer than the others. I think Hasbro did a much better job with
the proportions on this one. For reference, here’s how it looks
compared to the standard release:
For
the price (almost thirteen bucks) I was debating whether or not I
even needed to get this one with the simpler one on my shelf, but I
sure am glad I did. That’s a huge difference to me.
The
armor is metallic fleck rather than shiny chrome and I’ll tell you
right now I’d buy a vac metal version of this or any other Phasma
in a second for a reasonable price. By which I mean not Hot Toys $275
figure.
There’s
plenty of detail and the colors of the armor and the body glove are
nice and separate. Her belt is a separately sculpted piece and has
painted pouches on the side and the trademark Trooper canister on the
back. I can’t quite recall what’s in there at the moment because
there have been so many jokes about it. Toilet paper? Thermal
detonators? Oxygen? Space coffee? Whatever the case, I’m impressed
with all of the paint around this area. It looks good and makes a big
difference in perceived value.
In
case you hadn’t noticed, Captain Phasma has armored cowboy boots on
over her greaves. They’re pretty slick. In addition to the overall
dimensions, I feel like this figure captured the boots a bit better.
They’re a little more slender and feminine. I’m not saying that
movie Phasma looks all girly, I’m just saying that there are subtly
feminine traits about her armor that some of the other figures have
failed to capture. And there’s nothing wrong with a woman looking
like a woman.
The
arms are similarly armored, but each forearm has a different gizmo on
the inside. I couldn’t get those to photograph for shit, so just
take my word for it. Or zoom in on the other pictures if you really
need to see a couple of unpainted instrument panels.
The
cloak is pretty shiny. So far I only have one soft goods Phasma cloak
(on the JAKKS Big Fig) and it’s my favorite, even though it’s
kind of crappy. I get that her cloak is an over-the-shoulder thing
and hangs a certain way, but I really feel like this is one of the
rare instances where soft goods would have been better. This thing
looks kind of like a garbage bag. A garbage bag with a red stripe on
the side, but a garbage bag nonetheless. The red is a little janky,
but it’s been consistently janky on all of the figures, so maybe it
looks like that in the movie? Someone check and let me know.
ACCESSORIES
Captain
Phasma comes with a Sonn-Blas F-11D blaster rifle. You might think it
should be solver like the rest of her, but you’d be wrong. While
there are some variations in the shade of sort-of-platinum that it
seems to be, it definitely doesn’t match her armor in the movie.
This one looks great. The sculpt is fantastic and the black painted
detail is spot-on.
It
can plug into the socket on her thigh:
And
the figure cannot hold it straight for shit:
This
is the one area where the simpler model wins, hands-down.
FUN
This
figure has all of the range you’d expect from the
pre-simplification Hasbro Star Wars figures. The joints all have a
good range and you can pop the head off and remove the cloak if you
so desire.
OVERALL
Aside
from the ridiculous fact that this Captain Phasma can’t hold her
blaster properly (which you could take as a nod to the original
Kenner line if you’re an idiot), this is by far my favorite Captain
Phasma as far as the appearance of accuracy goes. She’s the right height
compared to other 3.75” figures and she doesn’t look all squatty.
These
Walmart Exclusives have not been easy to find and I hold a
lot of
animosity towards Hasbro for letting the worst retailer in the
history of the universe have them. Walmart’s handling of Exclusives
has always been a shit show, from distribution to even just putting
them out on the fucking pegs. If you even think you might want this
figure or know someone that might, buy one if you see it. You will
never see another one.
Or
two months from now every Walmart in the country will have four rows
of them marked way down to $11.98 apiece for the next six years.
4
out of 5
Or
buy from Amazon and help Needless Things pay the bills!:
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