by Austin Becknell
Star Wars has been one of the top grossing science fiction film franchises since the late 70’s when Star Wars: A New Hope was released into theaters. Star Wars toys and figures have evolved over the decades. Kenner was the only toy company that made Star Wars figures up until 1991 when Hasbro bought out Kenner, since then Hasbro has been the toymaster of the Jedi. Hasbro figures took a whole new path with new toy technologies. The figures got better and better and sales kept climbing and climbing. Up until about 2010 when Hasbro’s Star Wars toy line seemed the plummet, the figures were losing their desireability because of budget cuts; however the Force was still with Hasbro. The company decided to go above and beyond anything they had ever done before, they wanted to reanimate the franchise fame like it had initially in the early Oughts. Thus the Black Series was born.
The Star Wars Black Series is Hasbro’s newest figure line which is bringing back all of our favorite characters with an improved look and better articulation, and there is a sub-line that has changed Hasbro’s figure making forever. Along with the standard 3.75” figures the Black Series has now given collectors the option to buy the figures in a 6” scale. The 6” figures are some of the nicest figure sculpts that I have seen at the $19.99 price range. The first wave of the 6” figures were released sometime in mid-2013 and were composed of X-wing pilot Luke, Darth Maul, Sandtrooper, and R2D2.
The series is still very young and is rapidly growing. Most of everyone’s favorite characters have already been released and more are still coming our way. For those Empire lovers out there they have released most of the troopers, save the Snowtrooper, and the AT-AT Pilot. Stormtroopers, Sandtroopers (orange and black pauldrons), Tie Pilot, Darth Vader, and Biker Scouts with a speeder bike have all been released, and are in stores now, and here. There are also 2 versions of Boba Fett; the classic Empire Strikes Back Boba Fett as well as the prototype Boba Fett decked out in armor which is completely white. For those rebel lovers out there please keep in mind there are several versions of Luke, Han Solo, R2D2, Chewbacca, a Slave Leia and Yoda. However, we will see others early next year including Hoth versions of Han and Luke with a bit of extra goodies. The 6” figure line has already excited Hasbro’s projections, so this line isn’t dying out anytime soon.
In my opinion this figure line is the best figure line that Hasbro has ever done. The detail and the character sculpts are their best, the Stormtroopers are almost 100% screen-accurate. The figures are detailed and amazingly articulated. For any Star Wars fan or collector I highly suggest the Star Wars Black Series 6” line. Also, they are just now starting to make smaller vehicles -- I wouldn’t be surprised to see some larger 6” scale vehicles coming into existence in the near future. As one of the Hasbro’s employees said at a toy fair recently “we don’t mind making bigger boxes for bigger vehicles.” All we collectors can do now is wait and hope for a Tie Fighter and an X-wing, though neither have been confirmed. This figure line is quite amazing and personally, I will continue to add Stormtroopers to my small shelf army. If you haven’t already seen this line check it out, and may the force be with you.
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