Cal Kestis (Imperial Officer Disguise) - TVC - Basic (VC320)

No longer a Padawan, Cal has grown into a powerful Jedi warrior. Carrying the memories and expectations of the Jedi Order with him, his crusade against the Empire has only become more perilous.

Cal Kestis is developing a solid following, and Hasbro is making fans of this character happy by introducing multiple versions of this Jedi into both The Black Series and The Vintage Collection lines. This time, Hasbro created the Cal Kestis (Imperial Officer Disguise) version of the character, and it turned out better than expected, especially since we know all the parts they used to cobble this action figure together.  A prime use of existing parts kit-bashing, Hasbro took essential parts from three previously released action figures and worked them together to create this version. If you didn’t know better, you’d likely believe there was some newness here. While we don’t have much interest in newer video game characters, there is something unique about Cal Kestis. And when a character is in disguise, it seems to make it all the more enjoyable. Utilizing most of the Imperial Security Bureau figure with the repainted torso of Admiral Motti, Hasbro then repainted the portrait from the Cal Kestis (VC265) action figure. Once again, everything here is seamless and smooth. All the parts here work together beautifully.

The first The Vintage Collection version, Cal Kestis (VC265), has weaker paint operations. That surprised us because, with all the advancements Hasbro made with Photo Real technology, we saw these inferior paint operations on the portrait. But that is rectified in this release. The head sculpt is excellent, and the rest of the painting operations turned out well here, especially with the facial hair and scars. And even though Hasbro put the portrait on a different buck, everything is excellently proportioned. The 3.75-inch action figures look like shrunken-down human beings as of late, and that’s wonderful. That said, we’re not sure if Cal Kestis has the staying power of many other Star Wars characters, but if Hasbro keeps making action figures look this good, we’ll keep taking them. We think this is another decent addition to The Vintage Collection, but we must question if it is a necessary release. Also interesting is that Cal Kestis (Imperial Officer Disguise) has the same accessories as Hasbro’s “deluxe” figures. So, what’s up with that?

They added a repainted version of the BD-1 droid that came with the original Cal Kestis figure, and for its size, they did a fantastic job on the tooling. The paint job looks even better. It will be interesting to see how Jedi Survivor fares over time, but we don’t see it having longevity right now. And with so many important characters to produce in super-articulated 3.75-inch status, we wish Hasbro wouldn’t focus on the new Star Wars Entertainment as much as they do. The Imperial Security Bureau costume interacts lovely with Cal Kestis. The blaster pistol is excellent here as it fits both in the holster and the hands of the figure. It’s good to see Hasbro branch out and produce a world of different characters in these uniforms and give us multiple versions of famous video game characters, but it will eventually run its course. And Hasbro will be forced to get back to basics. Collectors can enjoy the modern “Expanded Universe” characters flourishing in the current lineup until that happens. We want to see more love for the Original Trilogy, of course.