IG-88 - TBS [P2] - Six Inch Figures (#15)

In any scale, once Boba Fett is made, you know it’s more than likely that another bounty hunter is inevitable. But once you see Bossk, you know that IG-88 is right around the corner next (and in all fairness, the rest of this hive of scum and villainy will follow shortly behind as well). IG-88 finally enters the world of The Black Series [Phase II] 6” line. We’ll tell you right up front that this is a pretty solid effort. But it didn’t have an easy time proving its value in the line. This assassin droid got a bad rap from the start. The bounty hunter sort of looked like a stick in the mud as far as its articulation was concerned. In fact, we didn’t have any clue how Hasbro would articulate it. Admittedly, we felt similarly about the toy until we started playing with it a bit more. IG-88 actually has a significantly greater amount of articulation that suspected. And much of this surprise is all because Hasbro found some pretty impressive ways to make it seamless to the figure. Before you get too excited, IG-88 is far from perfect. He has been cast in a plastic that is much too soft for its needs and the articulation is a little too flexible in that it doesn’t want to maintain its position for too long. But ultimately IG-88 succeeds in doing what it needs to do as a 6” action figure. This droid can stand at attention waiting for Darth Vader’s specific orders, or you can position it in action poses while trying to fight off Boba Fett for the bounty he is bringing to Jabba The Hutt. Altogether, IG-88 is both tooled and decorated nicely and should meet the expectations of all who are waiting to add this assassin droid into their collections. Let’s talk about IG-88’s key points on how this figure meets, exceeds or perhaps doesn’t meet collectors’ expectations.

As you know with many figures in Star Wars collecting today (really 2014 and forward) that it appears that Hasbro utilizes one digital file to create the figures across multiple scales and formats. We believe the same holds true for IG-88. The most recent figure was released in 2015’s R Bossk/IG-88 Mission Series (MS11) set. When you compare that figure to The Black Series 6” version, you see many similarities which makes us believe that what we’re surmising is true. Obviously, The Black Series [Phase II] IG-88 figure is loaded with an inordinate amount of detail and articulation, but for all intents and purposes, both figures share some common ground. As mentioned earlier, IG-88 has a significant amount more articulation that initially realized. With an impressive 25 points of articulation, IG-88 comes with enough articulation to satisfy even the biggest articulation snobs. Although IG-88 is loaded with articulation, it’s the quality of articulation that will limit what this figure can achieve. We have quickly discovered that the biggest omission to IG-88 is the lack of ball-socket (or even ball-jointed hips). The droid’s legs are SO CLOSELY together that it makes posing the figure in any action pose extremely difficult. Because we can’t spread out the legs a bit more to cover more surface area for balance, IG-88 wants to fall over more than the average figure. This is because of rubbery plastic used to cast the figure as well as the inability for the joints to maintain the exact position because they want to “jiggle” a bit which doesn’t aide the figure in achieving a good center of gravity. With a little patience you can get the action figure to stay in some pretty cool action poses.

We’re especially impressed with IG-88’s paint job. Hasbro did the character justice in the 6” figure line as he is loaded with pearly metallic details. You’ll find elements of copper, silver and charcoal mixed seamlessly within the textures of this droid’s frame. Even the red lights on the head sculpt have been added. We really have no complaints when it comes to the deco on this figure. As far as The Black Series 6” line goes as a whole, IG-88 literally has one of the nicest paint jobs of them all. It’s that good. If you inspect IG-88 from head to toe, we believe that you’ll truly be impressed with the amount of detail Hasbro sculpted into this action figure. Where the Saga Legends and Mission Series lines thrive on simplicity, well made The Black Series 6” figures impress with an inordinate amount of detail. No shortcuts exist with IG-88. We feel Hasbro went above and beyond here. They even added pins to IG-88’s claws so that this bounty hunter can hold both guns effortlessly. It has been engineered so well in fact that only the left hand can hold the blaster rifle while only the right hand can hold onto the E-11 blaster. The way the pins are situated prevent which gun can be placed in each hand/claw. It’s inevitable now that we have 50% of the bounty hunters from The Empire Strikes Back that the last three are only a few announcements away from being made. As IG-88 is part of the final wave of The Black Series [Phase II] line, they obviously will come in another format. But there is no doubt by anyone that we will see them soon enough. IG-88 is another highlight in The Black Series [Phase II] line. We hope Hasbro keeps it up.