In 2014, the 6″ Star Wars Black Series became one of my favorite toy lines and right after I got back from Phoenix I found the newest wave in a local Target store. Wave 6 includes the TIE Pilot, Yoda, a Clone Commander (Clone Trooper with a green stripe) and a repackaged Obi-Wan. I picked up the TIE Pilot and Yoda, leaving the others behind. These are hitting stores now and are available online (Entertainment Earth has the case of four).
Package Bio: TIE Pilot: TIE Fighter Pilots battle rebel starfighters during the battle of Yavin. These elite imperial pilots deploy from the Death Star battle station and blast the rebel fighters with laser canon fire. “Look out!”
Yoda: On the remote swamp planet Dagobah, Jedi Master Yoda teaches young Luke Skywalker the ways of the Jedi and the power of the Force. “My ally is the Force, and a powerful ally it is.”
Thoughts: The sixth wave of 6″ Black Series figure includes the T.I.E. Pilot and Yoda but also a Clone Trooper Commander (clone with a green stripe) and a re-pack of Obi-Wan Kenobi. I picked up these two since they’re the newest in the wave. I picked these up at Target, but have seen them available online as well (Entertainment Earth has the case in-stock).
The TIE Pilot has the articulation that we’ve become accustomed to in these 6″ Star Wars figures – ankles, knees, thigh, hip, waist, shoulder, elbow, wrist and neck. There’s a ton of sculpted details on his uniform, but with the figure being mostly black, they don’t stand out very well. The limited paint on the figure – most notably the emblems on the helmet – are well executed. The TIE Pilot comes with a gun which fits snugly in it’s holster.
Yoda’s a bit of a departure from your standard Black Series figure. For starters he’s under three and a half inches tall. Due to his shorter stature, in his package there’s a ton of empty space. Yoda has similar articulation to the TIE Pilot with the exception of having no knees and having a ball joint at his waist instead of a swivel. Yoda’s wearing a soft goods cloak and comes with a necklace, cane, lightsaber and snake (a nice vintage figure touch). I can only describe the sculpt as being generically Yoda. It’s obviously Yoda, but it’s tough to know which Yoda he is…is this an Episode I Yoda, or a Return of the Jedi Yoda? Well, at least he came with a snake.
Summary: This pair of Star Wars Black Series, the TIE Pilot and Yoda, are the first ones that feel firmly in the “They’re ok” bucket. The TIE Pilot is a very good figure of a not terribly interesting trooper. Yoda is an ok figure of a fantastic character…when I’m most excited about the inclusion of a snake as an accessory the figure has missed the mark a bit. On the upside – both of these are better than the Return of the Jedi Luke figure, which I just don’t like at all.
