Captain Cassian Andor - Elite Series

An Alliance Intelligence officer with combat field experience, Captain Cassian Andor commands respect from his Rebel troops with his ability to keep a cool head under fire.

You win some, you lose some. If you purchased the Disney Elite Series Captain Cassian Andor figure, you probably realized you lost here. Human characters don’t translate well in a die-cast metal line, and Captain Cassian Andor is a picture perfect example of why Disney needs to focus on other Star Wars characters, like aliens and droids, instead of humans because they don’t look right. When it comes to head sculpts and portraits cast in die-cast metal, the finished products don’t come out right. And it’s because the deco process on metal rarely looks good. Even with plastic action figures, when a figure receives a painted face, it comes across as looking inauthentic, fake and porcelain. And this is the result Captain Cassian Andor receives, thanks to this approach. Plus, we believe it’s difficult to paint human faces with any realism in this line because there aren’t enough natural textures and imperfections to bring life into these figures. Captain Cassian Andor looks like a deer in headlights.

If you can forgive how the head sculpt turned out, you might be able to appreciate Captain Cassian Andor’s other features. Admittedly, the body and extremities turned out quite well. Disney considered the character well, and incorporated a crazy amount of detail in the textures of his costume. They also tooled a separate vest shell to help create a more layered look and feel. Sometimes too much airspace exists around the shoulders and affects the aesthetics of the character a bit, but overall we believe it isn’t a terrible idea and ultimately works, depending upon your point of view. However, the deco leaves a bit to be desired. As you know, Captain Cassian Andor has a yellow blood stripe running down the sides of his jacket. On our sample, the blood stripe looks to have a mind of its own and does not follow the contour of the seam. Maybe it’s a an isolated case, but it looks sloppy and poorly executed. This paint detail is hard to overlook, but if you can, then more power to you.

On a more positive note, Captain Cassian Andor comes with a functional holster/belt piece and a blaster pistol. It took a little bit of wiggling, but we managed to secure the blaster pistol inside of the holster with relative ease. But more importantly, Captain Cassian Andor can hold the blaster in his right hand. His left hand is useless, except for waving at other figures in the line. The articulation in the Elite Series line is nothing exceptional either. We imagine we get a decent amount of it applied to these figures, but many of the points don’t offer a range of movement needed for an action figure. These figures might go over better with less articulation and a more defined sculpt with better paint operations. But some overlook the faults of these figures because they appreciate them for what they are. We still feel that this figure isn’t going to meet collectors’ stringent expectations. Captain Cassian Andor comes with a Star Wars display stand which helps to center the figure in your collection.