While there was no sign of the new Micro Machines packs, I was able to nab all of the Rogue One 3 3/4" figures on my wishlist on Force Friday last week. While there will always be residual grumbles about continuing reduction in articulation, this first wave features some phenomenally good figures.
Let's start with the two-packs. Each contains a highly desirable new class of trooper from the film (the Imperial Death Trooper and the Scarif Stormtrooper Squad Leader) coupled with a currently unfamiliar alien denizen of the Star Wars universe (Moroff and Rebel Commando Pao respectively). Both troopers feature great sculpts that work well in a natural pose, and the Scarif Stormtrooper is adorned with a particularly intricate paint deco and weathering. Surprisingly, however, it's the pack-in aliens that are the real stars of these packs. Moroff is simply fantastic - a hefty chunk of plastic that resembles some kind of bizarre hybrid between a wampa and a sloth. Pao, on the other hand, is more diminutive, but comes with some superb detailing and an articulated opening mouth. All four figures in the two-packs come with their blaster of choice, and Pao also features a removable backpack.
The single-carded figures are no less impressive. The Imperial Ground Crew wasn't initially on my wishlist - but after seeing him in the flesh, I decided he was a must-have to accompany my developing 'Imperial Hangar' set-up. Likewise, I had no intention of adding another Imperial Stormtrooper to my collection, but it was hard to resist with Farmers' 2-for-$25 deal. I'm certainly glad I made that call, because this is hands-down the finest stormtrooper sculpt ever released by Hasbro. I'm not sure what kind of improvements have been made to the molding process in recent years, but the tooling on this figure - particularly on the helmet - is a giant leap forward from the trooper molds we saw even as recently as The Black Series. Both the Imperial Ground Crew and Imperial Stormtrooper come with their respective blasters.
The Sergeant Jyn Erso (Eadu) figure isn't quite up to this same high standard, however. While it's a decent enough representation of the character, a couple of minor gripes detract from its overall appearance. Chief among these is the fact that the positioning of the oxygen canister on her left side doesn't allow her arm to lower fully, causing her to strike a highly unnatural pose. This can be somewhat remedied by pulling her arm outwards, and placing her pistol in her offhand (as seen in the image above) - but it seems like the sort of oversight that should have been remedied at the sculpting stage. Jyn does come with some nice additions that make up for this problem, however, including a working holster for her blaster pistol and a wearable oxygen mask.
The real stand-out in this line is K-2SO however. And rightly so. What BB-8 was to The Force Awakens, K-2SO will be to Rogue One - so it makes sense that extra time and care would be taken in getting this figure right. His sculpt and paint job are flawless, right down to the gold etching and worn-away Imperial emblems on his shoulders. Surprisingly, he features a double-jointed ball-and-socket neck that gives him a wide range of 'expressions'. His hips are ball-and-socket jointed as well. In fact, additional articulation seems to be something that's slowly creeping its way back into these figures. The Force Awakens line saw a move back to five points of articulation on all figures. But, as just mentioned, K-2SO features six points-of-articulation, four of which are of the much-preferred ball-and-socket variety. Further, Jyn features rotating forearms, granting her seven points of articulation. We're still a far-cry from the fifteen points-of-articulation of recent years, but it's nice to see the return of some extra poseability.
Both the two-packs and single-carded figures come with a variety of over-sized accessories to increase playability for kids - but the less said about those, the better. These pack-ins are far preferable to the "build-a-weapon" parts from the Force Awakens line, however, and some (like the Imperial Ground Crew's flight pack) might even pass as an authentic screen-used accessory.
