Mandalorian Loyalist - TBS [P4] - Six Inch Figures (TCW04)

When Darth Maul betrayed and defeated Pre Vizsla, Death Watch splintered into two groups. Those who wanted to embrace Mandalore's warrior heritage remained loyal to Maul.

Retooling and repainting existing sculpts to make new characters was one of Hasbro’s 3.75” line highlights. This “kit-bashing” technique is done to help amortize all-new tooling costs. Hasbro produced new characters through the use of existing parts with a few new surprises in the past. Collectors loved getting these action figures because a little bit of new tooling made the existing sculpts relatively unrecognizable. It feels as if The Black Series 6” current collectors haven’t grabbed onto this necessity with the same level of enthusiasm or excitement. This process is essential to any action figure’s bottom line because new sculpting is expensive. If Hasbro can use parts over and over, they can continue to bring us all-new figures in the future. Check out what Hasbro accomplished with The Black Series [Phase IV] The Clone Wars Walmart exclusives. Four figures, utilizing mostly existing tooling, feel like all-new figures thanks to a smart plan of refreshing old parts to make them new again. And we believe the Mandalorian Loyalist might be one of our most favorites so far in the line.

The Mandalorian Loyalist utilizes most of 2016’s TBS6 [P3] Jango Fett (15) figure, but the base figure comes with an all-new portrait (helmet), a new cod section with an all-new belt, new thighs, and an all-new jetpack. These few parts added to the existing Jango Fett figure make the figure unrecognizable. Plus, the new paint operations camouflage any remaining signs of Jango Fett altogether. The figure has also been completely repainted, which helps to disguise the figure further. If you collected The Clone Wars line in 2010, you probably remember a great deal of focus on Mandalorian action figures. The Mandalorian Loyalist strongly reminds us of the generic Mandalorian Warriors from the second season of The Clone Wars television show. The Mandalorian Loyalist turned out better than we expected. It’s exceeded our expectations for sure. Hasbro was careful to focus on the figure’s paint operations. They didn’t have to spend a boat-load of money on the figure’s tooling, so it appears that they’ve sacrificed a few additional pennies for the paint operations instead. The new jetpack looks excellent too. And they tooled it to fit into the existing slots designed for Jango Fett perfectly.

We see several of the Mandalorian Loyalists in The Clone Wars seventh season. Bo-Katan is the most prominent of the bunch, and we have to ask where she is. How can Hasbro ignore her this long? And in case you didn’t know, another well-known Mandalorian Loyalist is Ursa Wren, the mother of Sabine from Star Wars Rebels. All wear similarly-looking armor, but The Black Series 6” figure is only the generic version of a Mandalorian Loyalist. The more prominent characters all have individual helmet markings, but this figure doesn’t have any of those at all. The Mandalorian Loyalists wanted to free Mandalore from Darth Maul’s clutches and oust the puppet regime that Maul controlled from the shadows. Bo-Katan asked the Jedi for help, but they all were called away to Coruscant because word reached them that General Grievous captured Senator Palpatine. In their place, the Jedi sent Ahsoka Tano with a contingent of clone troopers under the command of Clone Captain Rex to Mandalore to help and assist Bo-Katan and her Mandalorian Loyalists. We hope Hasbro plans to produce more of the Mandalorian Loyalists because we love what they’re doing with these figures. But they still aren't worth $24.99 each!