IG-11 - TVC - Basic (VC206)

Hasbro was unprepared for The Mandalorian’s success, yet they’ve been fervent with getting out characters consistently and well-paced for The Vintage Collection line. Despite this, The Vintage Collection collectors were outraged when Hasbro announced that the first 3.75-inch scaled IG-11 action figure would be 5POA and part of the Retro Collection. Tempers flared more when The Mandalorian wave of Retro Collection hit retail, and IG-11 looked not much different than its class Kenner counterpart, the 1980’s ESB IG-88 figure. Months later, Hasbro officially announced IG-11 for part of The Vintage Collection, and collectors of the line cheered. They didn’t expect much. They knew Hasbro would like to reuse the IG-88 (Bounty Hunter) tooling from "Vintage" The Saga Collection, but that was alright. That’s an excellent action figure, and it doesn’t need all that much tweaking to make it IG-11 specific. But as time moved on, collectors did note how many differences exist between The Mandalorian’s IG-11 and The Empire Strikes Back’s IG-88. Then some mild panic set into the collector base. Wait! We will need an all-new figure for IG-11 to be screen-accurate. After all, everyone knows what a debacle The Black Series [Phase III] IG-11 Best Buy exclusive 6-inch figure is. And no one wanted that travesty repeated for The Vintage Collection.

But a dim light soon lit up the horizon. As Hasbro released prototype images, as they surfaced, collectors soon noticed that Hasbro pulled out all of the stops on IG-11 and decided to produce an all-new action figure, much to the delight of the 3.75-inc collecting community. How was something like this possible? TVC collectors get all-new tooling for a character where Hasbro phoned it in for TBS6 collectors? Now, there is no doubt that Hasbro based inspiration for IG-11’s approach on 2007’s VTSC IG-88 (Bounty Hunter) figure. Aside from enhanced articulation and new tooling, you can see where they copied the design step by step, albeit with a new set of blueprints. Collectors should praise their decision to head in this direction. Although IG-11 has its share of issues, Hasbro produced a premium action figure here, complete with 30 points of articulation. For the first time, ball-jointed hips and ball-socket biceps allow for a range of motion akin to The Clone Wars’ IG-86 Assassin Droid (No. 18) figure. We’d easily give IG-11 a perfect score if it were not for one major issue. Do you want to know why we’re unable to mark it as such? The figure is unstable, thanks to the rubbery plastic used. Hasbro used pliable plastic to prevent breakage, but it inhibits the figure’s much-needed rigidity, and IG-11 is disappointing in this regard. These are adult collectibles. And they need to use better materials.

Thankfully, IG-11 has other traits that make it an exciting action figure and a joy for the collection. IG-11’s standout feature is its fingers. The Mandalorian Disney+ series went into more significant details on familiar species and models of characters than the Original Trilogy films. So, for IG-11, they took their design a few steps forward. Although it took us some time to figure out how to situate the two included blasters into IG-11’s hands, we finally figured it out, and we decided we liked how they worked this detail into the figure. Once you get the inner “thumb” into the triggers of the blasters, they’ll stay in place well through many action poses and changes you make to the figure. You can recreate the classic battle between IG-11 and the Remnant Stormtroopers, or you can protect Grogu from Scout Troopers as needed. IG-11 also has an all-new removable crosswise bandolier. It fits the droid well. Disappointingly, these are the only accessories that come with IG-11. We would have loved to see a leather pouch included to store Grogu. Or perhaps a few extra weapons or any other accessories from the series to make it enjoyable. The bottom line here is that TVC collectors won the TVC versus TBS6 battle easily with IG-11. That’s a feat worth remembering. It’s rare when TVC collectors get all-new tooling for a character where TBS6 does not.