Action Figure #538: Star Wars The Black Series Cal Kestis(Inquisitor)(Inquisitor Cal Kestis 3-Pack)

 Everyone loves a bad boy.

 Considering Cal Kestis is, alongside Anakin, one of my two favorite Star Wars characters, why not get his evil Inquisitor incarnation?

 I really like how he came out. The body is, as far as I know, completely new, but the headsculpt is the same. That said, they used different on his head, and as subtle as it is, they managed to make him look meaner. At first I was disappointed that his double-saber isn't the mixture of Cere's and his mater's... but then again, this Cal became an Inquisitor, so fair enough, he probably never met Cere. Maybe? He was nothing more than a half-a-second vision AND a bonus boss in the original game! But, yeah, this is a fantastic looking evil Cal. That said, Inquisitor Cal could separate his saber into two so it's kind of a missed opportunity that his saber can't be split.

 I find it interesting that he is made in the newer style of Black Series figures, as opposed to the original, so he has single jointed elbows and knees. His ab-crunch is on a ball joint, and he has no swivel on his waist, but there are swivels on his thighs.

 Minor nit-pick, but I feel as if his butt is kinda... it kinda looks like he is wearing a diaper, doesn't it? He is a bit shorter than Bucky Cap and just as tall as the original Cal.

 Overall, I really dig this figure. I had fun posing him against Cal.

8.0

Action Figure #537: Star Wars The Black Series Second Sister(Inquisitor Cal Kestis 3-Pack)

  Not all villains wear capes... but she does.

 I kinda love Trilla AKA The Second Sister, and I didn't know that she had a figure. As a matter of fact, this is a rerelease of her, as she was sold on her own a few years ago. While she was not the specific reason I purchased this 3-Pack, she was a huge bonus because of how much I loved her role and character in Fallen Order.

 So, at a glance, I think she looks great, exactly like I remembered her. Her helmet is pretty cool, and I love her two-tone soft goods cape. I feel like her saber should've been a deeper red, but I'm good with it. Much like the other two figures on the pack, she has a pointing right hand, but unlike the Purge Trooper, hers doesn't get in the way of her weapon's hilt. Alright, despite how great I think she looks, I have one MAJOR issue with this figure... Trilla spends most of the game without her helmet. Fine, don't include an alternate head, I can live with that, but considering this was a rerelease... why not have her unmasked? I think Trilla is much more iconic without the helmet. But posing her against Cal, or Cere once they FINALLY release her, would look much more personal if she was unmasked.

 Articulation follows the older scheme of Black Series. Double Jointed knees, with thigh swivels, but single jointed elbows and no arm swivels. Her waist is on a ball-joint. Overall? Pretty solid. She is quite shorter than Bucky Cap.

 So, on one hand, I love this figure, but on the other hand, releasing her without her unmasked head is just criminal. We've had so few Fallen Order/Jedi Survivor figures, considering how many iconic character that series has, that at this point I'll take it, but... c'mon, release her without her helmet already!

7.5

Action Figure #536: Star Wars The Black Series Purge Trooper(Inquisitor Cal Kestis 3-Pack)

 What if Darth Vader and a Storm Trooper had a baby.

 I'm gonna be honest, I don't remember the Purge Trooper, even though I positively adored Fallen Order, it's the reason I got my first Black Series figure! As part of a three-pack there was no way I could say no to him. Literally.

 Well... he's not the coolest design out there. I guess the black and white with red eyes is supposed to look threatening, but it simply doesn't do it for me. His electro-hammer weapon is his most interesting feature, but they could've given it some electricity effects or something. His skirt is made of soft goods, for what it's worth.

 The articulation follows the oldschool model of Black Series figures. Double jointed knees, thigh swivels, but in this case... he has double jointed elbows! However... more on them later. He has no arm swivels. He has no butterfly joints, and his ab crunch is on a ball joint.

 For whatever reason, every figure in this pack has a pointing right hand, which in the Purge Trooper's case is actually a detriment for how he can hold his weapon. Why was he given this hand? Who knows.

  These grey bands that extend from his belt go... nowhere? I don't understand what they are supposed to be, but they don't get in the way of his legs. And his legs have pretty good range, unlike...

 His arms. What the hell is this? While he may have double-jointed elbows, he has the same issue as the umbra arc Trooper, the elbow-pad gets in the way, so he barely reaches a 90 degree bend. His pauldrons also don't let him raise his arms too much, which kinda sucks. He is almost as tall as Bucky Cap.

 The Purge Trooper... kinda sucks, and he doesn't have the cool paint job the Umbra Arc Trooper has going for him. What a dud!

4.0

Action Figure #535: Star Wars The Black Series Kit Fisto

 What if Squidward was one with the force.

 Well, there's never enough Jedi in one's collection, so it's time for one of the weirdest background characters: Kit Fisto. To be honest, I only wanted him in my collection because I love prequel era Jedi, hopefully once I watch Clone Wars I'll like him more...

 So, I'm gonna be honest with ya... Kit Fisto is a Phantom Menace Obi-Wan headswap. No, really, same exact mold, sans head, hands and color. For what it's worth, the tendrils on his head are very detailed, and all the brown... bracelets? Headlets? Tendrilets? are sculped onto them... and he is one ugly guy! The paint on his head is really nice too, he has grey spots all over and what not. But yeah, considering he was made on the cheap, I think he turned out really nice. His only accessory is his lightsaber. Considering he wore a cloak during the Palpatine Arrest scene.... a soft-goods cloak would've been a good accessory.

 For all intents and purposes, he has the same articulation as Young Obi-wan...

 Including the weird angled hip-pegs. He is as short as Obi-Wan which... I think is not quite right.

 This Kit Fisto figure is alright. I mean, considering he is not a character I'm fond of but I do like the figure... they did do a good job with him.

6.0

Action Figure #534: Star Wars The Black Series Pre Vizsla

  And what happens AFTER Vizsla? And DURING Vizsla?!

 I'm not gonna lie, I just discovered that this Mandalaroian with a horned helmet and the Darksaber existed and I just had to get him. There was also the Mandalorian Super Commando, but he is too expensive, so Pre Vizsla will have to do for now.

 At his core, this is just a Jango Fett recolor. He has all the benefits and detriments of that buck. I do love this gun-metal grey accents he has on his armor. But I did look this guy up, and Pre Vizsla shouldn't have all those cables coming out of his gauntlets, but I guess they didn't want to retool Jango's buck. Aside from that, I think he is a badass looking Mandalorian. He also comes with the darksaber, two guns and a jetpack, and his jetpack has a tiny hook for the darksaber's hilt, but let's be honest, it can barely hold it.

 Articulation is the same as Jango, for good or...

 ...bad. Remember how poor Jango's arm bend was? They didn't fix it, and in Vizsla's case it sucks because he fights with a sword. Also, for whatever reason, while it's easy to get him into dynamic poses, he has a hard time standing in neutral poses due to his tiny feet.

 Pre Vizsla is alright, but he is riding on coolness alone, because his articulation leaves a lot to be desired.

6.0

Action Figure #533: DC Super Heroes Doomsday

  Did you ever notice that Doomsday has a ponytail?

 I had Darkseid and Luthor, but I was missing another key figure among Superman villains: Doomsday. Not my favorite villain, but one of the most important ones in Superman's history no doubt. 'Sides, last year I read DAROS entirely for the first time, so now I'm a bit more knowledgeable about his origins!

 He looks alright. I'll tell you this much, quite a bit of work went into him, because all the spikes on his back, chest, shoulders, arms and hands are new sculpting done exclusively for him. As a matter of fact, I think his entire sculpt was made from scratch just for him. His proportions are a bit off when compared to other figures in the line, but he is not too bad.

 Articulation is the standard DCUC fare. He is taller than Bucky-Cap, and while he is larger than Superman, he does have different proportions, as seen below, Superman has a larger head. So it's not a perfect match-up between figures, but you can make him work. But even then, I think Doomsday should've been a bit taller and beefier than he is.

 Doomsday is an alright figure. I think that the killer of Superman could've been done a bit better, as just making him a tad taller could've worked amazing for him.

6.0

Action Figure #532: DC Universe Classics Clayface(Fists of Clay 2-Pack)

  He's got feet of clay.

 Talk about a more iconic villain than ClayFace, thanks to Bruce Timm at least. I've been wanting a Clayface figure for a while, since he seemed like a good, large villain I could own.

 Well, as far as the sculpt goes... this guy is incredible, he looks threatening and muddy, and I love how all the goopy details came out. It doesn't matter how you pose him, he will look incredible, that said, there's one big, bad flaw with: He has an expiration date. For some reason, they decided that his arms should be made of rubber, a material known for how badly it ages. So yeah, enjoy him while you can.

 The articulation is your standard DCUC fair, but with rubber arms that you can bend. In fact, ha has no wrist articulation whatsoever, so doing this only hurt the toy. It was a horrible idea.

 Being a 10 year old figure or so, his arms are already showing signs of age. I think I might try to encase his arms in resin or something.

 If the figure was made entirely out of plastic, he'd be an easy 10. He is one of the best sculpts I've seen from Mattel's DCUC by far. But the rubber arms were such a bad idea... it makes me wary of liking this figure too much, as I know I will eventually lose him.

5.0

Action Figure #531: Star Wars The Black Series Chopper (C1-10P)

  HEAD TO THA CHOPPA!

 And with Chopper AKA C1-10P I've finally gotten the entire Phoenix team together! Now R2-D2 has another beepin' friend to wheel around with.

 Chopper is a really nice little figure, much like R2-D2 before him, he's got a ton of neat details. On a first look, yeah, he is a simple little rectangle with legs, but so much love went into all the partitions on his body and head, which makes him look very busy, but in such a simple shape, it's a good thing. He comes with a good amount of accessories: A fire-jet base and a center jet-leg to pose with(you can place him in an angle for a dynamic take off!), a center-wheel leg to roll with... and another side leg? I don't know what's it for, or what's a reference of, but fans will probably know/

 Well, for articulation... you can turn his legs in a full circle motion, and his head rotates. That's it. That said, he has two collapsible arms on his head, and one on his chest, that you can play with, so that's something, right? He is quite short! 

 Chopper is tiny, but delightful. He is such a fun droid to own! I love his tiny little arms, as well as his color scheme. Yeah, I love the guy!

8.5

Action Figure #530: Star Wars The Black Series Hera Syndulla

  Oh... we are back to green-skinned characters again.

 Well, I did mention I used a Phoenix Team, right? Well, Spoilers! That aside, the team needs their leader, so Hera Syndulla was a no-brainer.

 Besides being the leader I don't know much about her... but her sculpt looks very lithe, with very long legs... so I've been having fun posing her while kicking. I absolutely love how she looks. That said, I think the expression on her face is a bit too happy, mind you I know nothing about her, while I'd expect a leader to look a bit sterner. Aside from that, I love her looks. She comes with a tiny little pistol that can be slotted on her right ankle.

 First of all, while the leks on her head look as if they could rotate... they can't! Aside from that, it's the standard Black Series stuff: Single jointed elbows, double jointed knees with thigh swivels. In her case, she gets the ball-jointed ab-crunch. All of her joints have very good range, so posing her is fun. She is quite a bit shorter than Bucky Cap.

 I'm not too fond of the tendril-head aliens of Star Wars.... but, I don't know why, for whatever reason, I absolutely fell in love with this figure. I love the colors and the poseability.

8.5

Action Figure #529: Star Wars The Black Series Garazeb "Zeb" Orrelios

 An alien with a goatee.

 I know so little about Garazeb 'Zeb' Orrelios that I had to look up his name, but, hey! he is part of my Phoenix team in Star Wars Galaxy of Heroes, so I just had to pick him up. Plus, it's always nice to get more aliens!

 This guy looks great, he is a big alien and he is nicely sculpted. While his design is a bit simple, with no textured fabrics, it makes sense because he comes from an animated show, besides, he probably got an entirely unique sculpt. His paint job, on his multi-colored, striped skin is also pretty neat. He comes with a single accessory, his weird energy lance.

This guy is very nicely articulated. The way the shoulder-pads are sculpted they don't hamper his shoulders at all. He gets very deep cuts on his single-jointed elbows, allowing for a pretty nice bend. No ab-crunch, but he gets a ball-jointed waist... but, in his case, since his weapon is a lance, I feel like a ball-jointed ab-crunch would've been the way to go. His legs is where it gets interesting, as he gets swivels on his thighs, double-jointed knees, and then, below his calf, he gets a separate piece connected to his feet, since he has cat-like legs. He is definitely unusual for an action figure, but once you get the hang of how to pose his legs... he can be rather fun.

 His lance is collapsable into a more compact form that can be stored on his back. He is quite a bit larger than Bucky Cap.

 Zeb is a fantastic addition to my ever-growing Star Wars collection. I think he is a fantastic figure, but we'll see how faithful he is to the show once I finally get around to watching Rebels.

8.0

Action Figure #528: Star Wars The Black Series Captain Phasma

  You can call her Lady Phasma of Tarth.

 Since it seems I'm on a sort of Trooper binge, it was time to get Captain Phasma. She's the Bobba Fett of the Sequel Trilogy, an extremely cool looking character that amounts to very little! That said, I'm quite happy to add her into my collection.

 Phasma is one tough Trooper. She is taller than the other trooper figures, and he is cast in this dull silver plastic that makes her stand out from all the other troopers. I really like the sculpt, although, quite oddly for a Black Series figure, her cape is molded plastic and not soft goods. As for accessories, she comes with a gun.

 The articulation on Phasma is a bit clunky. She has single jointed elbows and double jointed knees with swivels on her thighs as well as a ball jointed ab-crunch and no waist swivel.

 Her arms can barely hit a 90 degree bend, which is quite unfortunate.

 And her legs, while they can go up relatively high, you have to play with the thigh swivels in order to get her to do something like this. She is quite a bit taller than Bucky Cap, making her quite taller than other troopers.

 Phasma is alright, but she is more of a looker than anything, because she looks cool as hell, but, sadly, doesn't get the best articulation she could've gotten.

5.5