Wave 2 of the Force Awakens Black Series 6" figures kicks off with a bang with the impressive figure of Captain Phasma.
Phasma is #06 in the Force Awakens release schedule and comes in the black and red packaging that we saw in wave 1, packaging which I am now really fond of as a design and hope that Hasbro will stick with for a number of years now, if only for the sake of Mint In Box collectors.
The multi-lingual box comes with a grey lined image of Phasma's helmet on the front right panel and the same artwork on the rear along side an every so brief bio of the character, written in 4 different languages. The red panel on the right is broken only by the large #06 and the words "Captain Phasma" along with a short reference number that I assume relates to the assortment.
Once out of the box, the first thing is the size of Phasma, she truly does stand head and shoulders over the other figures in the range. At 6 3/4" high (170mm) this puts the figure at around 2m high once scaled up from 1/12, this is a tag larger than Gwendoline Christie who stands at 1.91m - but you with the armour and helmets its probably bang on.
The sculpt is very similar to the standard Force Awakens Trooper, albeit factored up for the increased height of the character. And unlike the Luke in Storm Trooper we reviewed from wave 8 that looked like he was wearing armour that was too big with him, Phasma looks perfectly proportioned.
The First Order armour is particularly smooth and doesn't have a lot of features, so there isn't a great deal of sculpting detail on the armour of the figure - but Hasbro has captured the clean lines and panels really well. The helmet is more angular than the regular release and flares out at the bottom rather than rounding under. The helmet on the figure I am reviewing sadly has a couple of mould faults that do stand out at close inspection. Under the armour is the usual black body suit, and at the joints of the armour this is ribbed. Working down to the belt, Phasma has a similar array of pouches and compartments to the regular trooper and also sports the thigh "clip" holster on her right thigh, although she does not come with the smaller hand gun to clip there. As you look at the shins and boots you can see a significant difference to the regular trooper with some ridged shin panels and some variant feet.
Many will complain that Phasma isn't chromed in some way. I don't know enough about the industry to know if this is possible or how much it costs, but if you look at how Bandai presented their C-3PO you can see it would have been an option. That aside I really like the paint finish they have gone with. It is a metallic shiny finish, but isn't overly reflective and does work on a figure of this size. It certainly isn't a match to what we will see in the film. My issue with the silver is that like most Storm & Clone troopers we have had from Hasbro, it is quite sloppy around the joints with some overrun of the silver out onto the black under suit. Either side of the knee joints the pegs are recessed into the armour panels, so Phasma looks like she has black circles either side of her knees.
The cloak is really well done and for a piece of rubber it has been cast in a good "shape" and flows naturally off Phasma's shoulders. There is also a good degree of detail built into the cloak including what look like stitched patches on the rear. The cloak has been trimmed in red, which is really neat in places and in others quite messy - but overall it does the job.
Articulation is limited, both by the cloak and the armour itself. The helmet does rotate a full 360 degrees but the cloak stops it looking up and down. The shoulders are on a ball joint but are then restricted slightly by the shoulder pads - in fact the left arm is practically locked in position by the cloak - the shoulders do have a clever twist where the shoulder pad slides back into the torso so the arm can get to a 45 degree angle out from the body and therefore also round and up above the head. There is single joint at the elbow, not a double joint that we have had on previous waves. The bicep swivel has also gone, but there is now a swivel in the elbow so although not perfect, Phasma can achieve a two handed weapon pose. The arm finishes with a swivel wrist that also pivots. The final articulation point on the torso is a torso joint, but this adds no value at all as it barely moves.
Down to the hips and the armour again restricts any movement, you can however position one leg forward and in slightly and therefore reflect the walking scene from the trailer where Phasma is walking through what looks like a First Order corridor. The knee joints remain double joints but with the cloak will only really be used to get Phasma into a walking pose or a wider action stance. The feet are, as usual, on rocker joints so there is no problem getting her to stand flat footed and stable.
Phasma's only accessory is her gold rifle which due to how the figure is packed is more than likely to arrive warped. This can be straightened using some hot water or steam. It fits neatly enough into either hand and looks "ok" although if you were nit picking the paint should be shinier and it is a little messy in places, particularly the barrell.
As a centre piece of a Force Awakens collection Phasma is impressive purely through her sheer height. The paint could be closer to the chromed look, but it still works and just needs to be a bit neater - which we may see on later waves as I think a lot of these early TFA figures may have been rushed through for Force Friday. Articulation was always going to be sacrificed on armoured figures, and the cloak makes this worse, but I do prefer the rubberised cloak than having seen them go for a soft goods option which I don't think would have ever sat right.
Phasma has too many niggles to be a 5 out of 5 figure, but she does enough for a 4 out of 5 score.
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