Toy Review: Star Wars The Acolyte Black Series Figures

Lucasfilm plays Star Wars spoilers close to the vest even when dealing with Hasbro and other merchandise partners, so they toy teams have to do a certain amount of guesswork when choosing which figures to make. We didn’t get action figures of Snoke or Old Man Luke until over a year after The Force Awakens for that reason, and now the first wave of figures from The Acolyte is hitting stores, and four of the six characters in it are dead. The upside is that most of them are played by popular actors — people who may not specifically be fans of Indara, for example, might nonetheless buy Carrie-Anne Moss as a Jedi.

Stranger Things

The most surprising omission is the villain, officially named “The Stranger,” and who was shown enough to Hasbro that they were able to roll out a helmet replica. Perhaps the thinking there is they wanted audiences to keep guessing whether it was a man or a woman, and revealing the character’s physique might have given the game away. They still haven’t even scheduled a figure of the one we now know as Qimir, suggesting Lucasfilm may have kept the assets under wraps. Survivors Vernestra and Bazil are in the pipeline, at least.

With that out of the way, let’s look at the review samples of the first wave, which features twins Mae and Osha (Amandla Stenberg), Jedi Masters Sol (Lee-jung Jae) and Indara, Knight Yord Fandar (Charlie Barnett), and Padawan Jecki Lon (Dafne Keen), who may or may not have had a thing for Osha once upon a time.

‘Nic of Time

Osha is a multi-layered character — literally. With a removable backpack, vest, and shoulder holster, she’s equipped like a mechanic, or “meck-nik” or whatever they call it on the show to make it sound sci-fi. She includes a blaster, a welder, and her little pocket robot, who has a toy ball joint and fits in her hip pocket.

Hasbro didn’t cheat with the face sculpts, as Mae and Osha have different scans. Mae includes her soft, hooded robe, two versions of her facemask, and four tiny throwing knives. The knives by themselves are tiny and easy to lose, but if you wedge two each into her hands, they stay put. That said, a little license a la Marvel might have been fun here, attaching multiple knives to some kind of throwing-effect energy.

As for the masks — one up and one down around her neck — they require popping her head off to switch out. Without either, as below, her neck looks a little bulbous, so you’ll want one or the other on there. Here I might have preferred these to be clip-on, like the original Attack of the Clones Zam Wessell, but as they are certainly works visually, even if the head pop is mildly finger-hurty the first time around.

Girl in the Hood

Mae is the only figure in the line with a hood that can raise. This may be due to issues in the past — Tatooine Boba Fett had a terrible one that raised high above his scalp. Mae’s hovers slightly, but it’s workable.

The Jedi, however, all have their hoods stitched back. Careful customizers could probably break the holding stitch, but it’s by no means certain the hoods would work well if freed. As they are, they at least hang nicely.

A noticeable detail on the figures that wasn’t as obvious on the show is that the female Jedi have robes in a brighter shade of brown than the males. I don’t think that’s an across the board gender thing on the series, but with these particular characters at these ages, it does seem to be accurate. The robes are all the same basic design, but appear to be different enough; the Jedi figures also seem to my eye to have entirely original sculpts. Hasbro probably could have cheaped out and shared parts, but they didn’t. Kudos.

Each Jedi has a lightsaber with removable blade, and a peg on the handle that clips into their belts, albeit not necessarily in the same place. Being High Republic era, they have the yellow tunics that were in style, with Indara a bit more forward-looking to the pale cream that will be the norm in 100 years.

Strike the Pose

The most notable aspect of the articulation is true ball-and-socket hips, perhaps considered easier to do for characters with robes and tunics that hide them. It makes action posing more fun, generally. The waist ball joint varies — on the men, and on Osha, it’s truly at the waist, while on the other women, it’s just below the bustline. Note also that the Jedi women wear their belts higher than the men. Based on stills from the show, this is accurate.

Necks are double ball-ended, and Yord’s seems especially long. Knees and elbows are disc-and-pin, with the elbows having a “lip” that looks awkward when the arms are bent at a full 90-degrees or more. Shoulders are well-hidden disc-and-pin, and every character also has a cut joint at the top of their footwear. Wrists and ankles are as you’ve come to expect, hinge and pin.

Actor likenesses are solid, though Carrie-Anne Moss is an odd one, as it does not look a lot like her in close-up, but absolutely does from a distance. I never noticed the spots by her left eye on the show, and initially thought they were dirt specks on the toy, but no, they are part of the print, and subtle.

Lee-jung Jae, on the other hand, could use just a touch more contouring on the face print, but the sculpt is there.

Gear up

Mae and Osha will presumably be the hot sellers of this wave, and are worthy as such, with intricate sculpts and a lot of gear. The Jedi may pegwarm, but customizers should have fun with them. The metal (not literally on the toy) forearm guards distinguish them from the style we’re more familiar with.

The Acolyte wave was scheduled to hit around September-ish, but is in stock now at most online retailers. I suggest grabbing the twins quickly if you want them, and expect the rest might hang around a while. They’re all well-done figures, but Jedi are just visually less interesting most of the time. That said, if you’re looking to make custom figures from Squid game, or The Matrix, or Logan, you know what to do.

Here are a few more photos: