Chewbacca - TBSA - Six Inch Figures

Faithful First Mate and co-pilot Chewbacca has loyally stood by his captain's side through the twisting fortunes of a galaxy in turmoil.

Chewbacca feels like an odd choice for The Black Series Archive line, no? Chewbacca is one of the most often released characters in action figure form, and Hasbro has already released this figure in the Star Wars 40th Anniversary format. Coincidentally, on the back of The Black Series Archive Chewbacca figure packaging, Hasbro shows an image of 2015’s TBS [P3] Chewbacca (05) figure, the one from The Force Awakens, not 2014’s TBS [P2] Chewbacca (#04) which is the correct reference. We liken the 6-inch Chewbacca tooling to 2004’s VOTC Chewbacca figure. It’s a great-looking action figure, but it’s overused and needs to be updated before re-released. Tweaks need to be made to the articulation to make it more functional, and Hasbro could redesign some of the figure’s features to make it more lifelike and Wookiee-inspired. But it’s unlikely Hasbro will ever go back to the drawing board to redo Chewbacca, and we suppose that’s mostly fine. But it feels like all of the figures fall a bit short, and we’d like to see one of the main characters from the Star Wars saga get a definitive and nearly flawless update in the 6-inch figure line. We believe Hasbro messed things up with the 2015 reference image because The Force Awakens Han Solo is also in this wave.

Chewbacca is likely still the tallest figure in The Black Series 6-inch line. At worst, it ranks in the top three. Chewbacca looks perfectly scaled next to Han Solo and other figures in the line. Based on the character’s appearance from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, Chewbacca, the figure has a smooth haircut and tan fur and isn’t that much of a dead ringer for the onscreen character. And we anticipate that this might be the peg-warmer of the wave as collectors had multiple opportunities to secure this figure throughout the various lines Hasbro has produced year to date. Chewbacca has a decent sculpt, and the paint job is excellent too. The figure feels a little too light in some areas, but we believe Hasbro did that as a concerted effort to draw out more of the texture of the fur. There are plenty of instances of contrast that work hard to bring out this extra texture. And speaking of the fur, we will be shocked if anyone is displeased with how it turned out. But how Hasbro approached the fur leads to the figure’s detriment. Hasbro sculpted hanging fur to cover the joints. It’s beautiful, and big thanks go to Hasbro for this. But this limits the full articulation capability of the premium joints they added to give Chewbacca the most fantastic range of movement possible.

Chewbacca possesses a great range of motion regardless of the joints’ limitations. But not everything is perfect here. For example, don’t expect the head to turn as needed or desired. While a beautiful convention has a carved-out section for his bandolier to lay flatly on the shoulder and a space on the right side of the neck area to tuck it under, Chewbacca instantly looks awkward and silly when this accessory isn’t in place. So why make it removable, then? At the same time, what else could Hasbro have done to make this feature better? We don’t know if they had any other options, quite honestly. So again, should we be pointing this out as an issue? We are, however, thoroughly impressed with the bowcaster accessory. Just like the 3.75-inch range, Hasbro decided to cast this weapon in three separate pieces. To our surprise, Hasbro chose to omit the strap that goes along with the bowcaster, but we are nevertheless impressed with its design and how well it can be held in the hands (both can hold it). But as a whole, we think this Chewbacca figure looks pretty darn alright. We genuinely believe that many of the “issues” here are unavoidable, but we guess Hasbro could make improvements, so these figures are the best for collectors.