'Star Wars' Collectibles & Toys Review: Hasbro Star Wars: The Black Series Wedge Antilles
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| Hasbro's #102 Star Wars: The Black Series 6-inch-scale action figure features Wedge Antilles, veteran of the Battles of Yavin, Hoth, and Endor during the Galactic Civil War. Photo Credit: Hasbro, Inc.© 2019 Hasbro and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) |
Some, like the Star Wars Vintage Collection's Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker Poe Dameron's X-Wing Fighter, were aimed at adult collectors (such as me!) with their retro late-970s/early 1980s-styled packaging and use of the old "Kenner" brand's logo.
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| I received this beauty as part of my birthday gift during a two-day visit to Disney Hollywood Studios' Star Wars: Galaxy's Edge attraction. Photo Credit: Hasbro, Inc. © 2019 Hasbro and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) |
Hasbro also released a variety of Star Wars-based toys and collectibles in other product lines, including more nostalgia-evoking items such as exact replica releases of figures based on the original Kenner Toys mini-action figures from 1978.
Included in all of these waves of Star Wars tie-in products is the 102nd figure in Hasbro's Star Wars: The Black Series based on characters from the space-fantasy franchise set "a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. This figure is Star Wars: The Black Series Wedge Antilles, and it's based on a Rebel pilot who saw action in the Battle of Yavin (Star Wars: A New Hope), the Battle of Hoth (Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back), and the Battle of Endor (Star Wars: Return of the Jedi).
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| Hasbro promotional photograph of Star Wars: The Black Series Wedge Antilles. © 2019 Hasbro and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) |
A talented young rebel pilot from Corellia, Wedge Antilles survived the attack on the first Death Star to become a respected veteran of Rogue Squadron. ﹘ Product description blurb, Star Wars: The Black Series Wedge Antilles action figure
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| Wedge Antilles (Denis Lawson) as seen in Star Wars: A New Hope. © 20th Century Fox Film Corporation (a Walt Disney Company subsidiary) |
Collectors can imagine the biggest battles and missions in the Star Wars saga with figures from Star Wars The Black Series! With exquisite features and decoration, this series embodies the quality and realism that Star Wars devotees love. Star Wars The Black Series includes figures, vehicles, and roleplay items from the 40-plus-year legacy of the Star Wars Galaxy, including comics, movies, and animated series. ﹘ Product blurb, Hasbro Pulse Star Wars: The Black Series Wedge Antilles page
My Take
When Kenner Toys, the Cincinnati (Ohio) company that held the original Lucasfilm licensing rights to make action figures, vehicles, playsets, and other Star Wars-inspired products back in the 1970s and 1980s, originally released action figures, many of the movie's supporting characters were not represented in the 100+ Kenner collections produced between late 1977 and 1985.
The list included planned-but-not released characters such as Grand Moff Tarkin (his first figure was released in the mid-1990s after Kenner was acquired by Hasbro in the 1990s) and Rebel pilot Wedge Antilles, one of the few Alliance pilots to survive the Battle of Yavin and perhaps the only Rebel pilot that helped destroy two Death Star battle stations. He, too, got his first figure made in Hasbro/Kenner's The Power of the Force collection of the late 1990s. (I have a 3.75-inch Wedge Antilles figure; it's one of the three characters depicted in Hasbro's Rebel Pilots Cinema Scene three-pack.)
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| Hasbro promotional photograph of Star Wars: The Black Series Wedge Antilles. © 2019 Hasbro and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) |
Oddly enough, I had a chance to choose this figure as one of four that my friend offered as part of her early birthday present a little over a month ago. I even picked up the black-and-red package, but I chose to get other figures, including Wedge's Red Squadron teammate, Luke Skywalker (Yavin Ceremony), instead.
Maybe it's because this year marks the 40th (!) anniversary of Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, but after we returned from Disney Hollywood Studios (where I was gifted with more figures and a Star Wars Vintage collection Poe Dameron's X-Wing Fighter vehicle), I visited shopDisney.com and ordered Star Wars: The Black Series Wedge Antilles.
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| Hasbro promotional photograph of Star Wars: The Black Series Wedge Antilles showing the character with two accessories and height measurement. © 2019 Hasbro and Lucasfilm Ltd. (LFL) |
The 6-inch scale Black Series Wedge Antilles action figure is detailed to look like the character from Star Wars: The Empire Strikes Back, featuring premium detail and multiple points of articulation.
Includes: figure and 2 accessories. ﹘ Product blurb, Hasbro Pulse Star Wars: The Black Series Wedge Antilles page
Since the 1990s, Hasbro's designers, sculptors, and manufacturers (the latter based in East Asia) have benefitted from advanced technologies, including computer-aided design (CAD) and computer-aided manufacture (CAM). These allow Hasbro to make action figures that are less generic-looking and more life-like, especially when it concerns figures based on the likenesses of human actors such as Denis Lawson.
As with the rest of Hasbro's Star Wars: The Black Series six-inch-scale action figure collection, Wedge Antilles is rendered to look like the stalwart Rebel Alliance pilot who helped Luke Skywalker during the attack on the first dreaded Death Star.
The figure comes in a Star Wars: The Black Series red-and-black box and includes two accessories; Wedge Antilles customized Rebel-issue flight helmet, and a DH-17 blaster pistol similar to the one used by Rebel Trooper in A New Hope. The figure also is depicted as wearing a Rebel-issue orange-white flight suit and a life-support chest pack, accessorized with black combat boots and matching black gauntlets.
And because the figure has multiple points of articulation, Wedge Antilles can be posed in many life-like and action-packed ways.
The sculpt and paint job on this Star Wars: The Black Series figure is excellent. The detailing is so good that the figure bears a resemblance to the then-29-year-old (when he worked on A New Hope) Denis Lawson as Wedge. (Interestingly, Lawson's sister is Ewan McGregor's mother. McGregor is the actor who portrayed young Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy.)
All in all, Hasbro once again shows why its Star Wars action figures, especially the ones in its Star Wars: The Black Series collection, are sought after by avid fans and collectors alike.
I hope you've enjoyed this review of Hasbro's Star Wars: The Black Series' 102nd figure as much as I've enjoyed writing it. As a Star Wars fan and collector, I give this figure a strong "Must Get This" rating, especially for Original Trilogy fans. And until next time, Dear Reader, May the Force be with you.
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