Kylo Ren (The Force Awakens) - S.H. Figuarts

S.H. Figuarts is a new standard figure series that incorporates the Bandai action figure "Art" under the theme "Pursuing Character Expression through Humanoid Action."

Like so many other licensees before them, S.H. Figuarts utilizes existing sculpts to bring either new characters or updates to older characters to the line for collectors. One of their very first figures was Kylo Ren. This 2015 version of him came with a helmeted portrait and a hood. But because his face is revealed for a large portion of the film, collectors were hoping to get this version of him as well. They made us wait a year and half, but they eventually released an exclusive online version of him in February 2017. They called him Kylo Ren (The Force Awakens) (to differentiate him from the general 2015 “Kylo Ren” figure) with a human portrait and some of the coolest accessories we have seen in a long time. The figure utilizes the body of 2015’s SHF Kylo Ren figure. There may have been a couple of tweaks made here and there, but it is the same base body. The paint operations look to be a tad updated as well, but nothing is too jarring where it looks that different from the original version. We think this version, Kylo Ren (The Force Awakens), beats the standard release by a mile and we’ll go through the reasons why we feel this is true.

Kylo Ren (The Force Awakens) has one of the nicest portraits we have seen in the S.H. Figuarts line to date. Whether just luck or skill, it is evident that they have captured the anger and attitude of this character from Episode VII perfectly. The verdict is still out on how his role will get played out in the Sequel Trilogy. We know he murdered his father and had wreaked havoc throughout the universe in a short time. You can see this in his face.The “photorealistic” technology applied to his face deco is perfect, and they chose an expression that warns that this guy is a villain, yet you also see the hopelessness in his face that he seems to know what he is doing is wrong in the universe. He comes with a hood and scarf that are removable (and are also two separate accessories). Kylo Ren (The Force Awakens) also comes with an array of various hand attachments which are all necessary to create a certain body language that makes sense for the accessory you choose to use. Our favorite by far is the hand attachment holding his helmet. They have crafted this hand attachment beautifully, and it does wonders to the figure when a part of the figure. You cannot use the helmet as an accessory for his head, but that isn’t the intent of this accessory.

We’re also impressed with the melted and burned Darth Vader helmet. To date, the only way you can secure this unique accessory is with this exclusive S.H. Figuarts figure. (We’re speaking from an S.H. Figuarts perspective only.) It is beautifully tooled and painted and looks EXACTLY like the prop in the film. Kylo Ren (The Force Awakens) comes with his other obligatory accessories as well. He comes with a lightsaber in addition to a lightsaber hilt which you can place on his side thanks to a plug. His arms are too skinny and short,, and his hands are also too small, but other than that we think this is the greatest interpretation of this particular version of this character in this scale. Because of his online exclusivity, the figure sold through quickly and began commanding insane aftermarket values right away. As a result, if you’re looking for this figure now you might have to drop close to $200 which is out of the rage for most collectors’ wallets. But if you decide to buy one, we feel pretty strongly that you’ll be quite pleased with this figure offers. You can see the difference between S.H. Figuarts and Hasbro’s 6” line. This is a hard line to beat. And we’re impressed with the results.