Fifth Brother, Inquisitor - TFA - 12-Inch Figures

A towering presence, the Fifth Brother, Inquisitor is tasked to hunt the Rebels by Darth Vader himself. A man of few words, he uses his intimidating physicality and brute strength to try and best the Rebel crew and capture the elusive Jedi.

Um, OK. Why do we have a 12-Inch Figure version of the Fifth Brother, Inquisitor who we know nothing about before Sabine Wren and Hera Syndulla (or even Chopper)? Something is awry at Hasbro. They throw out the baby with the bathwater way too often. Here they have an exciting new Star Wars television show, and they’re hoping the newest villain is the next Darth Maul or something and decide to make a relatively unknown character before the known ones. Please focus on the main characters Hasbro! Kids aren’t buying your products, but even if they are, they’re going to want the characters they see often. Anyway, who is the Fifth Brother, Inquisitor? We already got a poorly painted version of him in the 3.75” Build A Weapon line. Now he’s available as a shampoo bottle. There’s no doubt ever that villains are always going to be popular. But if the audience barely knows anything about the character, shouldn’t the toy company maybe hold off a little bit to see how he or she resonates with the audience before entering him or her into the basic figure line, let alone a 12-Inch Figure line with an even smaller audience and support base? We don’t mean to come across as know-it-alls, but we don't know that much about the Fifth Brother other than the fact he's an Inquisitor. Obviously, as the show goes on, we’ll learn more about him, but right now not too much is known. He and the Seventh Sister were dispatched by Darth Vader to hunt down The Ghost crew following the death of the Grand Inquisitor. And that’s about all we can tell you at the moment.

Fifth Brother, Inquisitor is a nicely designed 12-Inch Figure, and he has some weight and height that exceeds your normal 12-Inch Figure in The Force Awakens line. Once again, unannounced and unknown to be coming in this scale, Hasbro has updated some of the points of articulation to make him a little bit more premium compared to the other figures in this line. The most notable update is the inclusion of ball-jointed shoulders. The movement is inhibited by his shoulder armor, but the gesture of including this premium articulation is fully appreciated. This coupled with the inclusion of swivel wrists make the 12-Inch Figures line enviable to most 3.75” collectors. (Can Hasbro not include this upgraded articulation in the 3.75” line too?) Granted, Fifth Brother, Inquisitor still comes simply articulated when you get down to the nuts and bolts of it, but the figure has a nice sculpt and nice paint operations. Another nice update is the correct paint operations on the face. The 2016 TFA Fifth Brother, Inquisitor (Space) Build A Weapon figure looks like a mannequin because of the missing paint operations on his face. That’s been corrected very nicely for the 12-Inch Figure version. For those of you who don’t know yet, the Fifth Brother's design was based on unused concept art for The Force Awakens. While so much of Rebels has focused on Ralph McQuarrie’s gorgeous designs, it is cool that they’re branching out a bit more to give the Star Wars world a truly unique first-time character design.

Fifth Brother, Inquisitor is the silent enforcer type. Some have compared him to a less intimidating version of Savage Opress from The Clone Wars. But sadly, Fifth Brother, Inquisitor comes without the character development that fan favorite Savage Opress did in so many episodes of The Clone Wars television show. As of the figure’s release, the Fifth Brother, Inquisitor has been ineffective and disappointingly underdeveloped. The good news is that the toy is a little more exciting. Fifth Brother, Inquisitor comes with a three-part double-bladed “spinning” lightsaber. The blade spins for extra play value, and the hilt can attach via a plug into the figures back where an appropriately-sized hole has been beveled. By comparison, Fifth Brother, Inquisitor has a much large frame than The Inquisitor, so he has a commanding presence. If the Rebels TV show does indeed develop this character, he has the physical presence and stature to be an extremely viable character in the series. As a 12-Inch Figure, we don’t know how to properly react to it, because we don’t know where this character is “going” (for lack of a better word) and whether or not he’ll ultimately resonate with fans. Whatever happens, this figure still feels very premature. Fifth Brother, Inquisitor may not make you rush to find him and purchase him for your collection. But if you’re a Rebels fan, you’ll probably want to track him down. We do wonder however how many more unannounced 12-Inch Figures Hasbro has planned for this line. Will they just continue to show up one by one?