IG-11 - TBS [P3] - Six Inch Figures (Exclusive)

One of a series of dangerous assassin droids largely outlawed in the galaxy, IG-11 is a hired gun programmed to follow Bounter Hunters Guild protocols to the letter.

As much as Disney Star Wars wants to pretend the old Expanded Universe doesn’t exist (and has since shoved it all under the “Legends” banner), they sure like to borrow from it, tweak it and reuse it without any acknowledgement to the original material. Take for instance, the latest Disney Star Wars Entertainment: The Mandalorian. Looking like it’s taken a page or two from the Shadows Of The Empire multimedia event, The Mandalorian streaming series looks like one of the most promising storylines since Disney took over the franchise. But it also looks familiar when you compare its notes to the old Expanded Universe. The Mandalorian and IG-11 are the modern replacements for (Expanded Universe takes on) Boba Fett and IG-88, and these two characters have a bevy of interactions between Episode V and Episode VI in the Expanded Universe. Yes, they're not EU characters, but they're only props in Episode V> We see them do stuff in the EU. In a way, both have come to fruition via new characters in The Mandalorian. And it appears that longtime Star Wars fans are embracing it. Strong ties to the Original Trilogy are what is going to save Star Wars from the current state it’s in at the moment. And characters like The Mandalorian and IG-11 are the next best things if we can’t have the original characters we enjoyed in our youth. Although a fancy repaint with some new parts, IG-11 enters The Black Series [Phase III] 6” line and it’s looking good.

Keeping in mind that many collectors were not happy with how The Black Series [Phase II] IG-88 (#15) figure turned out, Hasbro reused the sculpt to bring us IG-11. For quite a few, although IG-88 came with a greater amount of articulation than suspected, this sculpt work well. It worked well enough for Hasbro, who reused it to bring us IG-11. IG-11 looks good, but Hasbro still utilized the same soft plastic to cast the figure, and it works against standing it up in your collection. The new paint operations are beautifully applied, but it also looks rushed in spots, and it appears they missed a few spots on our sample. The new gold enhancements are what make IG-11 look so different than IG-88. But as you know, the two droids are cast from the same tooling, so they have identical silhouettes. Thankfully, Hasbro paid close attention to the IG-11 character and made an all-new cross-strapped bandolier. We tried to finagle it to remove it but found it impossible to do. Hasbro may have added it when the figure didn’t have limbs or head, or perhaps we don’t know the trick to remove it. But it is a separately hanging accessory. Like IG-88, IG-11 comes with the same two guns. Also, the weapons still have the holes drilled into them so that they stay on the plugs Hasbro installed on IG-11’s “hands” to keep them in place.

As mentioned earlier, IG-11 comes with a decent amount of articulation. With an impressive 25 points, IG-11 comes with enough articulation to satisfy the biggest articulation snobs. Although IG-11 is loaded with articulation, it’s the quality of articulation that will limit what this figure can achieve. We quickly discovered that the biggest omission to IG-11 is the lack of ball-socket (or ball-jointed) hips. The droid’s legs are SO CLOSE together that it makes posing the figure in any action poses extremely difficult. But it is possible. As long as you achieve a good center of gravity, with a little patience, you can get the action figure to stay in some pretty cool action poses. Overall, IG-11 doesn’t bring that much new to the table. If you have IG-88, you have this one, plus or minus a couple of things. The new paint operations are what keeps the figure from looking like a carbon copy of IG-88. IG-11 looks incredible posed next to The Mandalorian. We hope the droid has a prominent role in the television show. We need to see an IG Assassin Droid in action in Star Wars Entertainment. The last time we saw them wage war was in Genndy Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars micro-series. And that was a long time ago. In the meantime, we hope that Hasbro keeps introducing new characters from The Mandalorian into this line because they’re looking wonderful.