Review : Darth Revan
Star Wars Black Series (Hasbro)
Wave/Series : Wave 9 (Phase 3)
Released : December 2016
Price : £22.99
Series 9 has arguably been the most desirable wave of Star Wars Black Series since launch. Not only did it bring us the classic 1977 Leia and Obi-Wan, but more contemporary characters like Sabine while also bolstering our Imperial forces with the AT-AT Driver and Snow Trooper. But it seems all of them pale into insignificance when compared to the #34 release - Darth Revan.
Now I have to admit I know very little about Darth Revan. I hadn't read much of the Old Republic stuff before Disney Reset, and certainly nothing since as I tried to stick to the new cannon. What I do know about Darth Revan is he looks stunning. The whole design is awesome - a mix of Jedi, Sith and Mandalorian - and when you have a great looking character then fans will always want that on their shelf.
Revan was the winner of the first Star Wars Black Series fan vote in 2015. As a winner he was a perfect pick, an iconic character but one that would never be made without the backing of fandom - especially as he technically only exists in the Star Wars Legends sphere and not a part of the accepted Disney canon. It has taken over 12-months to take Revan from the winning vote to reality. And he is hitting stores in such small numbers that at the time of writing this review, Revan is already up with Maul and R2-D2 in terms of secondary market value.
Revan arrives in the standard Black Series box, and out of all the figures we have had in the phase 3 red line packs Revan just looks "right" with the deep red card framing the figure so well. Revan is number #34 in this 3rd phase, and under this numbering system Hasbro have just used the Darth Revan name and resisted the need for some kind of sub-title to explain who he is on where he sits in the Star Wars Universe. The grey lined artwork of Revan's hooded face plate is obviously based on his illustrated look from the Knights of the Old Republic. But like Sabine, Kanan and Ahsoka the image is drawn so that it matches all the other illustrations to date of the live action characters.
Round the back the temptation to go to town on Revan' backstory has been resisted. Instead we get 4 lines and just 29 words to tell the collector about Revan. Whether this is to allow the room for Disney to play with Revan and introduce him into the new canon like they did with Thrawn or whether they simply don't want to acknowledge or direct people to the old canon?
Out of the box you are presented with Revan in the plastic insert, with two lightsabers positioned to the left hand side as you look.
Revan, as I mentioned earlier, is just an awesome design and Hasbro have done a really good job of replicating it into the 6" scale. We start with the hood, which is a sculpted rubber rather than a soft good hood and I am really thankful for that having seen how difficult it is to "pose" a soft goods hood on figures like Palpatine, Obi-Wan and Leia. Beneath this ruffled and rolled hood is the mask. The mask is sculpted with panels and that lined visor, and each panel s then painted. The helmet is a gun metal base, with dull red and silver painted over the top - all nice and neat.
The hood continues over the shoulders to become the top of the cloak, reminiscent of the way they tackled Kylo Ren. This top section remains cast in the black matt rubber and includes creases and folds and flows over the shoulder tops. From the rear of this cloak top the soft good cloak flows. This cloak is a very light weight and almost sheer black material and this hangs really nicely down the figure. Rather than a flat hem where the cloak ends, the bottom is ragged with holes. This looks nice, but I do worry about the potential of these rips starting to fray.
The torso of the figure is a bronze breastplate over which hangs a couple of black panels which seem to be part of the cloak. Like the mask, the sculpted detail on this plate and crisp and angular. However the paint feels a bit thick and some detail is lost. I would also have liked to have seen a final wash over the shiny bronze to weather Revan a little. As the chest plate ends, a waist band starts in the same bronze colouring. Over this flow some sash belts which tie into a circular gold ring which is part of a belt. The bottom two sashes are a rubberised material like the hood to aid in the leg movement which we will look at a bit later. The two arms are a black sculpted sleeve with a slight sheen that differentiates them from the black of the hood. These are then accentuated in bronze shiny bracers and gloves.
The skirt section is soft goods which is held in place by the rubber belt. It is a slightly different material to the cloak, a touch thicker and softer - but like the cloak it hangs well enough. It too carries a ragged hem and I have already had some threads come loose on this. The front of the skirt is covered with the red sash which hangs from the belt. This is again a rubberised plastic and holds a textured lined effect. It is painted rather than cast in the red colour, and sadly on my figure a splash of red has caught the black belt above.
While there was no need to put detail under the skirt, Hasbro has given us completely finished legs. These start with some trousers over the thighs in the slightly shiny colour to match the arms. There is then a gold knee pad and gold knee high boots.
Articulation is standard with Revan, but of course with a cloaked and skirted figure there is a risk of losing some of this. The head is the prime example of this. While you can feel the joint, the head will barely budge under that cloak. The shoulders are ball jointed and sit under the cloak top. You would expect this cloak section to restrict movement, but thankfully the cloak has a touch of flexibility allowing the arms to move upward to 90 degrees. While you cant get the arm side on above the head, you can raise the arm and then work with the elbow joint which bends to a right angle and rotates, this means you can get a hand to a point above the head ready to strike down his enemies. The arm articulation ends in a wrist joint which swivels and pivots - a big help for light saber poses.
There is a torso joint tucked away under the chest plate so while the head can't look to the side, the torso joint moves freely to allow the top section of Revan to be rotated to either side.
The leg articulation is of course all hidden under the skirt. The skirt being soft goods doesn't restrict any of this leg articulation. But the big red sash does stop you getting Revan to kneel or any similar low bending pose. The hips are ball joined with a thigh swivel sitting just underneath. The knees remain double jointed and the ankles are rockers. I have found Revan a little hard to stand with the ankle rockers on the figure I have a little loose.
Now of course this sounds like Revan isn't great to pose, but there is plenty of movement in these joints to get him into a number of action stances. Of course these poses mean nothing until you add his lightsaber accessories.
Revan comes with both sabers which are packed already assembled with the hilt and the blade. The blades are removable so you can choose to have the sabers lit or unlit. The red saber has a look of Luke's Return of the Jedi saber, but having compared them I can confirm it is not the same sculpt. The purple saber is a stunning hilt design, and carries a bunch of detail including a red ignition switch.
Once Revan has his sabers then the fun can begin and you can pose and play to your hearts content to find an action stance that suits you.
So here is a figure that everyone wants, and not everyone can find. When you have a situation like that it is easy to say he's brilliant, but I have to say that although Hasbro have done a sterling job - it is far from perfect.
The bronze areas, particularly the chest plate, screams out for a dark wash. The cloak and skirt are going to fray and split too easily with too much handling. The review figure I have did have some paint errors, although it has been quite a while since I have had to comment on that in a review. And then there is the loose ankles.
Revan deserves a high score, and I will award him a very very strong 4 out of 5 and I wonder if a couple of tweaks in any future re-release or re-run of the figure would get him over the line to that perfect 5 out of 5.
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