Han Solo (Exogorth Escape) - TBS [P3] - Six Inch Figures (Exclusive)

Han Solo, Captain of the Millennium Falcon, was one of the great leaders of the Rebel Alliance. In the wake of the Battle of Hoth, Solo fled with the rest of the Rebel forces and evaded the pursuit of Imperial TIE fighters as he expertly maneuvered the Falcon towards the perceived safety of a large crater in the Hoth asteroid belt. Infamous for his bold plans that seemed to always defy the odds, Solo soon discovered that the unstable crater upon which he had landed the Falcon – and its crew made up of co-pilot Chewbacca, Princess Leia Organa, and C-3PO – was in fact the cavernous mouth of a giant space slug known as an exogorth. In the belly of the beast, Solo and crew discovered an inhospitable environment of noxious fumes and parasitic, swooping mynocks – bat-like creatures who ate through power cables and drained the energy from even the most impressive ships. With the life of his comrades and beloved Millennium Falcon threatened, Solo was called again to emergency action and steered the Falcon to safety, barely escaping into space through the rapidly collapsing jaws of the ravenous exogorth.

Hasbro is consistent when it comes to San Diego Comic-Con exclusives. Ever since the Disney takeover of the Star Wars brand, they’ve released an exclusive version of a figure that is also a mainline release. This approach dated back to the First Order Stormtrooper exclusive in 2015. For 2018, Hasbro focused on the Han Solo (Bespin) (70) figure from The Black Series [Phase III] 6” line but made it scene-specific to the “space slug” scene in The Empire Strikes Back. Few collectors knew these creatures are called exogorths, but now we have Han Solo (Exogorth Escape) which includes special accessories available nowhere else in addition to beautiful exclusive packaging. (Are Princess Leia and Chewbacca with breathing masks next on Hasbro’s agenda?) We’ll focus on the accessories because the Han Solo figure itself doesn’t differ all that much from the basic release. Interestingly, we do see some deco differences, and most notably the faintest color of a five o’clock shadow is visible. It’s not a necessary addition to the paint job here, but it does make the figure stand out from the basic release. Generally speaking, it feels like we’ve waited much too long to get this version of Han Solo (in his Bespin duds to be clear) in the 6” line. Now collectors have two bites at the apple. We’re fonder of the SDCC exclusive release, but if superfluous accessories aren’t your thing, you may be fine with the mainstream release instead. Han Solo (Exogorth Escape) possesses familiarity of the character’s true likeness, but those hypercritical of the line will probably wish for finer results in the head sculpt. The “photorealistic” technology employed on this figure works well, but some may feel that Hasbro needs to finely tune their processes to produce satisfying results or finely tune things. Your opinions may vary here.

Like many other Han Solo before him, Han Solo (Exogorth Escape) is loaded with 28 points of premium articulation. The articulation system that Hasbro adds to the figures in The Black Series 6” line is a tad stale at this point, but no one can argue that the figure has a great range of movement regardless. Han Solo (Exogorth Escape) can achieve a ton of interesting positions thanks to great and mobile articulation. And his parts are tooled in a way that accurately accompanies the included accessories. In particular, Han Solo (Exogorth Escape)’s right-hand fits the included blaster pistol like a glove. The functioning holster works well holding the blaster, and the snap secures it in place when not in use. His jacket shell is removable, but like most shell accessories, the figure doesn’t look right once it in. It appears it’s the only way that Hasbro can add “jackets” to figures, so this is something we’re going to have to deal with for the foreseeable future. We don’t see Hasbro adding premium and fitted soft-good jackets to their 6” figures ever. But if they make it work, we’re open to seeing the results of it. Han Solo (Exogorth Escape) has a decent paint job. The facial features look pretty great, and Hasbro utilized color palettes that breathe life into the figure. Hasbro applied them very, very nicely as well. His boots are shiny. His jacket is flat. His eyes glisten, and his hair has texture and wave. Although this figure is essentially identical to Han Solo (Bespin) (70), there are some differences in the way Hasbro approached the deco. When we put our samples side by side, the faces look very different from one another, yet you know who this character is supposed to be in the photos. Perhaps Hasbro does need to tweak the “photorealistic” technology to perfect it.

For years we have complained that The Black Series 6” line doesn’t come with enough accessories. And if we want more than the average number of accessories, we have to pay a premium for them. Well, this is what makes the release of Han Solo (Exogorth Escape) bittersweet. We get some incredibly beautiful extra accessories here, but we have to pay a premium for them. Apologies to Hasbro, but even with the extra accessories included with Han Solo (Exogorth Escape), the most this release should cost is $24.99. Included is an interchangeable pointing finger hand attachment. Extra hand attachments are always great to have. We also get a hydrospanner and breathing mask. These all help to complete the scenes in and around their experience in the “cave.” Hasbro expertly tooled the breathing mask. It comes with a real elastic strap to hold tightly onto the figure’s head, and it also comes with a clip to secure itself to the figure’s jacket. The big accessory here is the mynock. Hasbro did a fantastic job tooling this creature. All of the detail represented here as well as the paint operations are flawless. We’d love to see a mynock that isn’t in the flying position tooled for this line one day, but for the time being, we’re happy with this release. The packaging is worth noting here as well. Hasbro designed a beautiful shadowbox for this figure. They also added the mist/gases on the window to help create the environment of the exogorth’s interior. Hasbro should be congratulated on this event, for they’ve done an incredible job with it. If they can give us the rest of the characters in this scene, collectors will be happy. How else can we utter “This is no cave!” without them?