Kylo Ren - TBS [P3] - Six Inch Figures (03)

A dark warrior strong with the Force, Kylo Ren commands First Order missions with a temper as fiery as his unconventional Lightsaber.

If there is any consolation to the disappointing focus placed on simply articulated action figures for The Force Awakens line, it would unequivocally have to be The Black Series [Phase III] line. Unbelievably we have reached a tertiary collection in this lineup in three short years. It seems that every year means a revised line look and new symbolic color. Red and black are the two main colors that adorn the latest The Black Series phase, and admittedly it might be the most attractive. It has been designed to seamlessly tie in with The Force Awakens main line and Hasbro has made this a reality with not only the colors chosen but the modern looking packaging. Instead of a tiny circle encapsulating the likeness of a figure on the packaging art, a wonderful faux pencil sketch takes up the better portion of the bottom right quadrant and then the figure is beautifully displayed in a window box as red and black ornament the display. As evidenced by the new The Force Awakens line look, we know that Kylo Ren is the symbol of Episode VII and we completely understand why he is a character that was chosen for multiple formats and scales and readily available on Force Friday. The Black Series [Phase III] Kylo Ren is a gorgeous work of art. As you know well by now, the format is pretty similar from one sculpt to the next. You can almost predict the articulation system. But it’s a good system that provides a vast array of movement. And that’s important to Star Wars collectors.

We don’t know much about Kylo Ren. That much is true. Although leaks have revealed who he is in greater detail, we honestly don’t know how full a role he'll have in The Force Awakens. Thankfully his mysteriousness is shrouded equally well in The Black Series [Phase III] line. Although we get to see his head without the cloak covering it, there is very little revealed on this beautifully sculpted action figure. The articulation systems on these figures are quite complex, but Hasbro opted for the simpler ball-jointed elbows here. That’s fine by us because we think a nicer aesthetic exists with ball-jointed elbows than when double hinge-jointed elbows are applied. Hasbro made the articulation points as seamless as possible throughout the entire sculpt of Kylo Ren and overall we’re quite pleased with the final results. We’re especially impressed by the soft-goods used for Kylo Ren. We’re including the quality of the fabric used as well as the drape and fit of them in our praise. Think of the fabric style with a pattern similar to an ace bandage, but soft like a woven cotton waffle fabric. That’s about the best way we can describe the soft-goods on Kylo Ren. While the hood is a little more difficult to shape and position, the rest of the fabric throughout the figure has a very nice drape and interacts with the molded robes beautifully. In short, we have very little to complain about when it comes to Kylo Ren’s outfit.

He doesn’t come with many accessories, but Kylo Ren comes with a lightsaber hilt and lightsaber blade. To add the T-shaped blade to the hilt requires a little bit of bending, but with a little determination you can get the blade attached with little to no difficulty. Lit or unlit, you can make Kylo Ren wield his lightsaber in an infinite amount of ways and the figure looks incredible holding it. With the wonderful ball-socket hips, double hinge-jointed knees and ball-jointed/”rocker” ankles, Kylo Ren can pretty much do anything you want him to do. And he looks amazing doing it. Although mostly adorned in black clothing, you can see a couple of finer details here and there throughout his costume. For example, there are some beautiful details in his belt. And the parallel horizontal lines on his helmet look very nice as well. The mask of the costume is very predatory bird like. We can’t help but make that comparison. But that might be very relevant to the backstory of this character and perhaps a good description of the character that is Kylo Ren. Collectors have figured out that most Star Wars figures, when made across various scales and formats, utilize the same digital files as each other. Hasbro then just determines how much articulation or what scale gets worked into them. But hopefully we can expect a rather impressive Kylo Ren in the Walmart exclusive The Black Series 3.75” line. And if it is anything like the 6” figure, collectors are in for a real treat.