The biggest "Huh?!" in wave Series 2 of the Star Wars Black Series 6" scale figures is unquestionably Greedo. I get the befuddlement somewhat, since he's not really a core SW character, but neither is the Sandtrooper, and everyone loved that figure. So why not Greedo?
The bounty hunter Greedo attempts to capture
Han Solo in the Mos Eisley cantina and meets with an unfortunate end.
I was excited for this figure for a few reasons. I loved Greedo as a child. I enjoyed playing with his action figure because it was a funky alien dude, even though the outfit didn't match the screen look at all. Also, his scene establishes the "scoundrel" part of Han Solo's lovable scoundrel persona (or at least it did before it became a jumbled mess with each subsequent "revision"). But the most important reason I was anticipating this figure? We have seriously never had a good Greedo figure from Hasbro. The vintage figure, as mentioned, was practically naked, and the most recent 3¾" figure had a really terrible cloth jacket. In between we got some decent efforts, but they were always done up in these weird washed out colors. A decent Greedo was needed.
And we finally got one, just not in the 3¾" scale. But at least with the 6" line, Hasbro's getting it out of the way early. Greedo's sculpt is really great, and he really takes advantage of the detail the increased scale allows for. His double ridge of spines is now two defined rows, and each spine is individually sculpted, rather than the whole thing just being one solid chunk. His antenna and ears are much more defined as well.
His suit is sculpted with a lot of wrinkles,
which normally I'd think was a bit excessive, but his outfit in the film always seemed very wrinkly (and according to the behind-the-scenes production diary on Entertainment Earth, the wrinkles on the final product have been toned down from one of the earlier sculpts). His vest is a separate piece, as is his belt. Both fit very well. Sadly, he's sculpted wearing boots and not the high heels the actor was actually wearing on set (just kidding... about the "sadly" part; the rest of that sentence is 100% true).
Greedo's paint is one area that suffers a bit on my figure. His overall color is good, accurate to the film, unlike many of the previous 3¾" scale figures. Everything gets a grimy dirty wash, I suppose to represent the grit and dust of Mos Eisley, but it looks a bit out of place next to the other figures, which are pretty clean. It's not too bad though. The only real area that bugs me a lot is the eyes: the metallic purple used spills over the borders of his bulging eyes and onto the scales that surround them. It's one of those things that I'm more willing to put up with on a 3¾" figure, but irks me more on a larger scale toy. I've seen other examples of Black Series Greedos online that have just fine eyes, so inspect them if you get a chance and choose the best. I ordered from Hasbro Toy Shop, so I didn't get to compare.
The articulation is the same as Han's, except Greedo actually has a peg joint between the shoes and the pants that makes his ankles much more versatile. The hip joints on mine are very slightly loose; he can still hold a pose just fine, but I have worries about their longevity.
Thankfully, from my experience, this seems to be the exception and not the rule in the 6" Black Series.
Greedo isn't quite as accessorized as we're used to seeing in this line. He gets his blaster, a removable gun belt with a working holster, and I suppose you can count his vest if you wanted to force it off. He really gets the short end of the stick, but there's not really much else to give him. A cantina drink? Maybe, but is that really necessary? Interchangeable high heels to give him a "behind the scenes" look? Intriguing, but silly. A separate vest with a puffy collar so he can be either Greedo or his cousin Beedo? I can't imagine too many people are dying for a Beedo in their SW display, at least not at this point in the line. So blaster, holster and vest it is.
It might seem like we're coming down hard on Greedo, what with his lack of accessories, loose hips, and sloppy eyes. But even though he's a conglomeration of annoying issues, no one issue of his is a deal breaker. And two of those issues may very well not affect the Greedo you may end up with. Loose joints are a problem, but the hips on this guy aren't so bad that they affect posing or anything, so I can cope. Mostly, I'm just happy to have a Greedo figure that actually, finally looks like the character on film. For too long, one thing or another has kept Greedo figures from reaching their full potential, but this guy has the right outfit, the right colors, and the right level of detail that make me more forgiving of the few things that bother me.
-- 12/07/13
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