Review: Star Wars Black Series Savage Opress, The Clone Wars, Galaxy Collection Deluxe
- Mephitsu
- Mar 27
- 5 min read
“Brother, I am an unworthy apprentice. I'm not like you. I never was.”
Savage Opress, one of the most asked-for characters when collectors were speculating over future Black Series releases, finally made his 6-inch scale debut in March 2025. He is a Deluxe release, reflective of his size, and available generally through all stockists. Savage comes in the wider Galaxy Collection Deluxe packaging, following the same design principles as the standard releases with a black colour scheme overlaid with the Star Wars Black Series logo and an applied accent colour specific to the source material.
For The Clone Wars, this is a deep yellow and these colours are used on the box text as well as the illustration that sits on the right-hand spine and around the back alongside the character bio. Savage is the 19th figure in the Galaxy Collection numbered sequence for Clone Wars, his artwork connects to the prior release of the Commando Droid from the Spring 2025 Fan Channel wave. The internal cardback, framing the figure in the box, also uses the accent colour and integrates in this some background details of a ship interior or hanger bay.
Savage Opress is an entirely new figure and has been designed, sculpted and built on a real-world basis as opposed to his animated look from The Clone Wars. This means his build is broadened, and overall proportions are more accurately scaled to what we might expect an oversized muscular Night Brother to look like in live action. He stands 7 inches tall, a good head or more taller than an average character. The costume is based around the armour Savage wears for much of his Clone Wars run, with a segmented dull grey metal chest armour and oversized shoulder sections. This features a degree of weathering to add a further layer of depth to the base colours.
The legs are a purple tone with a lighter soft goods purple skirt piece. This is combined with a soft plastic sculpted belt and front sash, the sash keeping the soft goods in check while the soft goods ensure that articulation is not overly restricted. The sash also features more applied decor, with the multi-pronged icon worn by Savage in the show recreated as a sculpted embossed section of the skirt and painted in grey. The outfit ends with metal armoured boots with silver painted toe-caps and fastenings, and a similarly armoured pair of bracers on each arm with black trim.
vs Darth Maul from 2022 (right)
There is no direct live-action likeness on which Savage can be based, but the head does a good job of converting an animated series Savage Opress into what we might expect him to look like in live action. Like the newer Maul figures, the facial markings are printed over the base colour and are a crisp but deep yellow tone with further facial printing evident in the eyes that peer out beneath that large fixed brow. The horns are, as seen in the show, longer than those we find on Maul and are painted in bone yellow. Similarly, the yellow skin tone hands finish in wicked finger nails, filed to a point and also painted individually in the bone yellow finish.
Savage comes with two weapon choices, starting with the spear he receives from Mother Talsin following his initial transformation on Dathomir. This is as tall as the figure itself and features a deep grey shaft with angular sections and a three-pronged metallic dull silver blade, which, in the right light, also shows a beaten metal texture which is impressive at this scale. The spear fits in either of Savage’s hands, which both feature a gripping position with flexibility in the plastic of the fingers to accept this or the second weapon.
This second piece is Savage’s lightsaber, a weapon he began using at some point after the Devaron Massacre and used until his untimely demise. This piece features a grey hilt with a black ridged central grip and black trim with extending prongues at each end of the emitter. One of these features a loop on the opposite side which can then hang onto a corresponding hook on Savage’s belt in a holstered position. The colouring of the hilt is not as impressive as the spear with the lighter grey plastic looking out of place quality-wise in contrast with the spear.
The hilt accepts one or two translucent red blades, which are similar, if not the same in terms of length and shape to the ones included with the newer Maul releases. They clip into place, but without the usual ‘click’ into the internal fixings. They still sit securely with no obvious issues with warping, bending plastic or out of line blades. Savage can wield the lightsaber with one or both hands with sufficient arm movement to satisfy the most dynamic of poses.
The articulation overall is 18 points of pinless joints with the legs now more streamlined in their joints to hip, knee and ankle joints only allowing a more aesthetic flow to the lower limbs without losing any movement. Savage, despite his size and bulk, is well supported on these legs and particularly the ankle rockers, but you will need to get the ratchets lined up to have the feet flat to the floor.
The torso comes with twin ball joints at the waist and further up under the ribcage area allowing Savage to lean into or away in poses with either of his weapons in particular. The arms are wide-ranging in movement thanks to the butterfly shoulders and the engineering of those large shoulder armoured panels which are attached to the upper shoulder not the tors,o and move and flex with the arm movement.
vs Darth Maul from 2024 (right)
Savage Opress is very much a deluxe release in both size and execution, with two large and brutal-looking weapons for him to wield on display - matching both his early and later appearances through his Clone Wars arc. While not having an actor on which to base the likeness as such, a great job has been done in converting the animated Nightbrother into a real-world setting where he looks at home posed with figures from A New Hope or Ahsoka as he does within the Clone Wars collection. He and Maul, particularly the Clone Wars release of Maul from 2022, make a menacing duo for display, and he becomes a centrepiece figure for a Clone Wars collection that to date, has been predominately been made up of relatively regular-sized Clones, Jedi’s and the odd supporting Sith or Bounty Hunter
Keep Track of all the Star Wars Black Series figures from Hasbro at our comprehensive
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About Me : As a child of the 70's and 80's I grew up in a golden age for action figures and in my youth bought and sold myself through collections of Star Wars, G.I. Joe (Action Force) and M.A.S.K. while also dabbling in He-Man, Transformers and Ghostbusters. Roll forward and I am now reliving that Youth with the action figures of today and am a collector and fan of the larger 6-8 inch figures from my favourite movie and TV licences - including the ones mentioned above, but also the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Doctor Who and the Aliens. I launched The Mephitsu Archives in 2015 with a view of creating a UK focused site or these figures where fans can pick up the latest action figure news, read reviews and get information on where to buy their figures and what is currently on store shelves. I hope I am delivering that to you guys...