I'm finally getting excited about Star Wars: The Force Awakens. I tend not to get hyped about movies until the week before I see it. But then a friend suggested we do Force Friday for all the midnight openings. It was fun. The shelves were ripped bare in about ten minutes in wonderful geeky glory. We went to ToysRUs and Target. I bought a couple items, but I was mostly there as a spectator. But then the next morning I started getting texts telling me that there were Disney Stores exclusives that I didn't know about. Best thing was that they had a 6" Captain Plasma. I was able to snag one in the first store I hit. (Then I traveled to my other two local stores to try to find Rey, but with no success). Not much is known about Captain Phasma so far. But we know she leads the First Order Stormtroopers, she's clad in unique metallic armor, and she is played by Gwendoline Christie from Game of Thrones fame. She's getting a Hasbro 6" figure in Black line, but this figure is an early treat. Let's check her out!
This figure is almost all die-cast metal. She weighs just under a pound.
My only complaint about this figure is that the leg joints seem loose. By plastic standards, they are fine, but the weight of the metal makes them a little unruly.
When in the packaging, it's hard to determine the amount of articulation. I went back to my old habits and made a quick graphic. She is very articulated, but her armor hinders much of her range of motion. The hips especially. You can see how her thigh armor would hit her belt pieces almost immediately. And since this is all made of metal, it doesn't give like plastic would.
It's a shame that her articulation lacks an elbow swivel. We've gotten spoiled in the last decade and now the limited articulation of a simple hinge elbow seems archaic.
Here are a couple images of Captain Phasma from the internet.
Captain Phasma also comes with a single-pegged figure stand. This is useful because she's a little topheavy and her leg joints are a little loose as mentioned above (at least on mine).
Like most die-cast action figures I've seen, Phasma has a bunch of pretty deep screwholes that can be seen from the rear. There is one on every limb, one on her butt, and one on her back. Luckily her cape obscures these well.
She has an interesting pocket-thing sculpted into the back of her cape. I'm curious to see if this plays some some of role in the movie.
One of the reasons I love this character is because she's breaking gender barriers. There is a lot of Phasma play-gear for kids. Helmets and costumes galore. And most of it is aimed towards boys.
Time for some Group and Comparison Pics!
Here she is with her 3.75" version (review coming soon!)
And with my other Gwendoline Christie figure, Brienne.
Cheers!
Is her cape removable? Does she have giant rivets in her back like the rest of the series?
ReplyDeleteInteresting question, I tried to pop her head off, but was unable to easily do it. The ball of the neck joint is large, about the size of a grape, and seems to be made of metal like the rest of her. The cape hangs loose on her shoulders, but is formed in a way that it doesn't swing to the side to see the screw holes. She does have a lot, but honestly I think all of my diecast action figures have noticeable screwholes. If they wanted to really please the collectors they could have included little plugs like some SHFiguarts toys have. I'm adding a pic of the back of her thighs, they're the only ones that are easy to photograph.
DeleteI can't get over that the Phasma costume is marketed at boys. Depressing.
ReplyDeleteI need a version of her - she's really the only new figure I want. I'll settle for the standard 3.75" figure when I find her, but this version does look very nice!
ReplyDeleteAlso, I can't help but wonder if marketing Phasma costumes towards boys has more to do with a lack of understanding of the character from the costume producer's point of view (or even our own - perhaps the movie will reveal something we don't yet know about Phasma - like a father to daughter transition type thing) and less to do with breaking down gender barriers? Might be worth getting one of the 'boys' costumes now as later releases might 'fix' the confusion.