First Order General Hux - TFA - Build A Weapon (Space)

A young, ruthless officer in the First Order, General Hux has complete confidence in his troops, training methods, and weapons.

First Order General Hux? What does that even mean. Shouldn’t the “First Order” designation be saved for the generic troopers that are part of the new army for Episode VII. Do we really need a qualifier like “First Order” before the name of a specific character? Hasbro didn’t name Captain Phasma “First Order Captain Phasma” so we’re honestly a bit perplexed. And we don’t even know why we care about this. Despite a perplexing name, First Order General Hux may be one of the nicest action figures in the entire The Force Awakens line for 2015. Sure, he only comes with five points of articulation and maybe the cuts that interrupt his full length leather coat are a bit obtrusive, but between a fantastic likeness, sleek design, and an eerie nod to what resembles the outfit the Axis powers used in Germany, First Order General Hux is without a doubt a standout action figure. Plus, he comes with a little enhancement that most of the other The Force Awakens figures come without. We’ll get to that is just a second.

First Order General Hux comes with five points of articulation, but at first glance it looked as if he came with a ball-jointed neck. (That's not the case.) That would have made this action figure have six points of articulation. Clearly based on the same digital files as the upcoming The Black Series [Phase III] 6” figure, Hasbro carried forward the detailed design into the 3.75" version. That's the way most of our figures are created now. Hasbro decided it's silly to reinvent the wheel across scales. So they use the same cookie cutter format with them all. First order general Hux's head joint is a tough joint to articulate, and you really don’t get that much more movement out of it, but we appreciate the articulation nonetheless. It will be interesting to see if Hasbro begins adding “premium” types of articulation on these simply articulated action figures. That being said, the sculpt is quite beautiful. First Order General Hux has an athletic streamlined body with fitting duds. This has been replicated beautifully on the action figure. Had this been a super-articulated action figure, most of us would be drooling at the amount of effort that went into this action figure. But sadly, minimal articulation sort of clouds that clarity. But some wonderful tooling went into this action figure. And the designers did a really admirable job on him.

First Order General Hux comes with a single blaster pistol. It fits nicely into both of his hands, but we prefer it in his right hand. But other than that, the figure comes with nothing else. Hasbro really has to start including more character specific accessories with these action figures. First Order General Hux has some nice decal-like deco on his uniform. The First Order insignias are perfectly applied and nicely detailed. These little circular accents add a tremendous amount of depth to a rather bland uniform. The paint operations are excellent, although the painted face on First Order General Hux comes across a little too porcelain for us. But then again we find that all painted faces have a lack of authenticity when this approach is applied. Lastly, First Order General Hux comes with a hole in his back to accommodate the included Build A Weapon part. It looks like some sort of winged flying device and once again, we’re at a loss to defend, criticize, confuse, or even speak about these pack-in premiums. They make no sense whatsoever. Other than that, First Order General Hux is a great effort.