4-LOM - TBS [P3] - Six Inch Figures (67)

A rusty droid with insectile features, 4-LOM was originally a protocol droid, but logic glitches allowed him to escape his programming and become a bounty hunter. That proved a perfect occupation for the cold, calculating mechanical.

Steve Evans: PLEASE shrink this 6” 4-LOM down and make our first screen-accurate 3.75” 4-LOM action figure for The Vintage Collection. The 2007 sculpt is completely obsolete at this point. There. We got it out there. Now let’s look at The Black Series [Phase III] 4-LOM (67) figure, because it may just be one of the Top 10 best figures in the entire line. It’s that good. Everyone loves bounty hunters. If you don’t, you’re not a normal Star Wars collector. Hasbro has been extremely slow on the uptake getting them out to the collecting community. Interestingly, Hasbro has a pattern, a formula, when releasing bounty hunters. There are exceptions to this flow, but if you look back throughout the many years, you’ll often find that the characters get released in this order: Boba Fett, Bossk, IG-88, 4-LOM, Dengar, Zuckuss. And this is pretty darn close to how the 6” versions of them are released in The Black Series 6” line. 4-LOM is a mostly all-new figure where Hasbro has paid extremely careful attention to in order to create an amazing representation of the character that won’t age over time. While they reutilized the legs from 2016’s TBS6 [P3] C-3PO (Resistance Base) (29) figure, the belly wires and everything up from that point is all-new. They figured out how to give protocol droids new and improved upper body movement, and we are impressed with the results.

Hasbro included a novelty feature with 4-LOM. The eye glow green in the dark thanks to an old-school technology. It’s a fun feature to include with this figure, but it certainly wasn’t necessary. We didn’t see this bounty hunter’s eyes glow in the dark in The Empire Strikes Back, but the versatility this feature provides is pretty cool. Let’s focus on the revised articulation. The upper body has wonderful movement. When you compare what they did with 4-LOM against what they did with C-3PO, you’ll find that a little extra effort has taken the articulation incredibly further. Hasbro tooled two slits, one in each forearm, where the hydraulic pins can move up and down the arm which allows elbow movement. Hasbro also graciously gave 4-LOM ball-jointed shoulders, elbows and wrists and although you don’t get unlimited movement, you do get an inordinate amount more than what C-3PO offered. The all-new torso and head sculpt tooling is stunning and captures the spirit and attitude of this alarming character from The Empire Strikes Back. It’s like the 4-LOM we never got but always wanted, except it’s here. And what makes 4-LOM controversial is that he is only going to appeal to about half of the collectors out there. We were serious in our opening to this review. Please Hasbro, make this same 4-LOM sculpt in 3.75” scale. It’s perfection! The only not perfection is the figure's case assortment. Hasbro screwed it up terribly.

As if the exquisite sculpting isn’t enough, 4-LOM is graced with simple yet beautifully applied paint operations. We’ll go out on a limb and claim that the dark gray paint used to color the base of this figure is a tad too dark. But in bright light it lightens up quite a bit. Still, we think it might have been safer if Hasbro went with a color that was not as dark. Despite any potential issue with the figure’s color, 4-LOM’s body has accents of the rust-colored detail that has made it on past action figure versions. Except this time it doesn’t overtake the figure and serves it as an enhancement as it should. You almost have to inspect the figure carefully and closely to see it which is more than fine by us. The red color flash on 4-LOM’s left breastplate is about one of the brightest we’ve ever seen applied to this character in any action figure form, but it’s colorful and looks great. It does however look differently shaped than the character in the film. His head is also cast in a more silver color which is quite different from his body. Again, this is perfectly screen-accurate. 4-LOM comes with a DLT-19 heavy blaster rifle as seen in Episode V on the Executor’s bridge. It’s a nicely detailed gun and befits the action figure wonderfully. 4-LOM can hold it with one or two hands or hold it upright at his side. You’re options are limitless. You did a great job on this figure, Hasbro!