Pros : Good Sculpt further enhanced with the face print technology. Good weathering wash on the jacket
Cons : Boots might have been better dirtying up. Blaster is prone to bending in pack.
Wave 16 of the Black Series arrived in April 2018 and was the debut of figures from the 2018 standalone Solo movie. The first wave brought us the key characters of Han and Lando, with a Range Trooper as the third release. Han is number #62 in the phase 3 packaging which shows no sign of abating
He arrives in the standard black box with a very moody looking Gregory Titus interpretation of Alden Ehrenreich illustrated bottom right. Following suit with Black Series to date, there is no movie specifics only the name Han Solo.
The side spine on the right is bright red with the bold black numbering and character name. The other spine which includes part of the window wrap around has a very small name text for Han Solo and faintly in the background a grey zoomed in version of the same text.
On the rverse we have a larger version of the Titus artwork ad a few lines about how Han reinvents himself after leaving his old life.
The figure is accessed via the top or bottom flap, both of which are taped and sealed closed. The figure sits into the inner tray with his blaster to the side of his head. There are no twisty ties. The whole thing then sits in the bold red cardboard inner tray which acts as the cardback.
2018 sees the start of Hasbro using the face print technology to the Black Series. Han uses this technology and the result is wonderful with subtle shading to the face sculpt and a set of very realistic and expressive eyes. While this may not be an absolutely nailed on likeness of Alden, it is in my eyes a young Han Solo.
Han is wearing the outfit he is dons following his escape from Mimban. The Nerf leather jacket is a rubberised pece with padded shoulders. It carries some neat sculptural detail with a good stretched leather texture and seams and pockets. The ID storage tag is painted with a tiny red dot.
There are the two black shoulder panels also painted and there is just a touch of paint bleed on the edges. The whole jacket is very slightly washed in a darker brown which weathers it nicely. Under the jacket is a plain black shirt, Where the shirt is split by the torso joint there is a touch of finish variation with the bottom half being a bit glossier than the top.
The trousers are plain dark blue with the red Corellian bloodstripe painted down the side. The boots are plain matt black and thanks to the ankle joint have the faintest overhang at the ankle which can look odd in some posings. The gunslingers belt is the same one he wore in the original trilogy but it is not a re-use from the Harrison Ford A New Hope figure.
Young Solo has 16 points of articulation starting with a ball jointed head. The best part of this particularly joint is the ability to pose Han with that cocky head to one side gesture we see him use in Solo and later in the Original Trilogy movies. Under the head is the torso ball joint. This rotates but can't move much in other directions, it almost seems like the top part blocks the bottom parts movements - I think a waist swivel would have worked better and not caused the variation in colouring I mentioned earlier.
The arms are ball joint shoulders and then single jointed rotating elbows. These elbows, while still as single joint, are rounded and engineered to bend past 90 degrees which gives a much better bend than normal, without the need to add a more intrusive double joint and a supporting bicep swivel.
The legs are ball jointed hips, which can be moved despite the belt which moves with them. There is a thigh cut swivel followed by double jointed knees and ankle rockers. All of the joints are tight and Han is a an absolute delight to pose both in a neutral stance, but also in a number of more dynamic posings.
Han has a single accessory, his DL-44 with its custom Zoltwen D3x Macroscope. The DL-44 is a new cast, smaller and sleeker than the original Han weapon. Being thinner it does suffer from mis-shaping and the barrel in particular is prone to being bent.
The DL-44 is cast in black plastic with a very slight gunmetal sheen to it. The grip is painted in a brown colour.
The weapon sits into the right hand of Solo most comfortably. Here there is a separate slightly flexible trigger finger which locks into the trigger. You can start to see on these images how the extra "bend" in the elbow joints allows some neat posing when Han is toting his blaster.
When not firing off at Crimson Dawn or Imperials, Han can holster his weapon in the working holster on his belt. The fit is very tight and because of the shaping around the leg having the blaster in the holster can make the warping on the barrel worse. Once in place there is a strap that comes down over the grip and slots into a socket to hold the whole thing in place - identical engineering to the A New Hope Han from 2014.
Han scales really well with the rest of the Black Series line, and looks great with Lando and the Range Trooper in the fledgling Solo range of Black Series figures. I can't wait to add Chewie when I can get him at a reasonable price, as well as Qi'Ra.
There is virtually no negatives on this Solo figure. The issues I mention are me really nit picking and not really detectable unless you are examining Solo up close or under a camera lense. The face print technology is a massive game changer for 2018 and I can see a lot of figures bagging very big scores in our reviews - especially as at the moment these are coming in with no increase in pricing from previous 2 years.
I score Han Solo a virtually perfect 5 out of 5.
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