“I have a really bad feeling about this.” – The Figure

Han Solo volunteered to lead the mission to destroy the new Death Star’s shield generator on the forest moon of Endor, where he and his strike team encountered Scout Troopers and Ewoks. – Character description blurb, Han Solo (Endor)

On April 20, 2020, Rhode Island-based Hasbro released Star Wars The Black Series Han Solo (Endor), a six-inch scale action figure based on the iconic Corellian smuggler-turned-Rebel Hero played by Harrison Ford in five of the nine Skywalker Saga Star Wars films. Packaged in a forest green and black box and equipped with two authentic-looking accessories: Han’s trusty DL-44 blaster pistol and the trench coat he wears in the Endor moon sequence of Star Wars Episode VI: Return of the Jedi.

The 6-inch-scale Black Series figure is detailed to look like the Han Solo (Endor) character from Star Wars: Return of the Jedi, featuring premium detail and multiple points of articulation. – Hasbro product description blurb on its Hasbro Pulse online store

Han Solo (Endor) is six inches tall – bigger than its 1984 Kenner forerunner, the 3.75-inch Han Solo (in Trench Coat) figure from the Star Wars: Return of the Jedi collection (and two later reissues before Kenner closed its original Star Wars toys and games line in 1985) – and wears a variant of his “spacer’s outfit” (white shirt, black vest with four pockets, gun belt and holster, brown pilot’s uniform pants with yellow piping, and knee-high spacer’s boots) and a removable “camo trench coat.”

The trench coat is made out of fabric and has a subtle mottled camouflage pattern that allows the still recklessly-brave Solo to blend in to the forest environment of the Forest Moon of Endor, site of the Imperial shield generator that protects the still-under-construction Death Star II.

Han also comes with a black-and-silver BlasTech DL-44 blaster pistol, presumably the same one he was given by his late mentor in the smuggling business, Tobias Beckett, shortly before Solo’s first misadventure as a space pirate and hotshot smuggler-for-hire on Vandor-1 14 years before the Battle of Endor.[1]

Fans and collectors can imagine scenes from the Star Wars Galaxy with this premium Han Solo (Endor) toy, inspired by the Star Wars: Return of the Jedi movie.

This Star Wars The Black Series action figure comes with a Han Solo (Endor)-inspired blaster accessory that makes a great addition to any Star Wars collection. – Hasbro product description blurb on its Hasbro Pulse online store

 Like all of Hasbro’s Star Wars The Black Series action figures in this scale, Han Solo (Endor) is a well-made replica of one of the most popular characters in the Star Wars franchise. Benefitting from modern techniques – such as computer aided design/computer aided-manufacturing, precise scans of images from the films, and improved sculpt-and-paint jobs – Han Solo (Endor) bears a striking resemblance to the then 40-year-old Harrison Ford.[2]

Star Wars fans and collectors can display this highly poseable (4 fully articulated limbs) figure, featuring premium deco[3], in their action figure and vehicle collection. – Hasbro product description blurb on its Hasbro Pulse online store

Han Solo (Endor) also has more points of articulation (POAs) than its 1984 forerunner from Kenner. This is another reason why many adult collectors – such as this reviewer – like Star Wars The Black Series action figures, especially the larger six-inch scale ones. POAs are analogous to the human body’s ball-and-socket and swivel joints and allow fans – young and old – to pose their figures in more life-like stances than you could ever do with their Kenner counterparts from the early days of the Star Wars saga. (You can see this in the promo photos from the official Hasbro Pulse page in this review.)

My Take

Back in the long-gone 1980s, I was an avid collector of the Kenner “micro-action figures” released between 1978 and 1985. I can’t be sure since most of my vintage collection is stored where I can’t get to it easily, but if memory serves, Kenner’s Han Solo (in Trench Coat) was one of the last figures I bought (along with an expensive Imperial Shuttle vehicle) before I focused on getting admitted into college and and pursuing a career as a journalist and writer.

That figure was cool for its time, and it, too, came with a blaster (which was solid black with no silver detailing) and a cloth – not vinyl – trench coat. The costume details were somewhat off (although at the time I wasn’t aware of it): Han Solo (in Trench Coat) wears gray pants rather than brown, his molded-and-painted-into the-figure gun belt is also gray and blends into the monochromatic lower body of the 1984 figure.

As I mentioned earlier, older figures only bear a superficial resemblance to the movie characters they are plastic avatars of; Han Solo (in Trench Coat) does not look anything like Harrison Ford; the figure’s head and face are crudely sculpted and painted (by 21^st Century standards) and – to me, anyway – are barely a step above the bland, perpetually smiling look of Play-Skool toy figures. (Characters such as Darth Vader, the Imperial Royal Guards, and most of the humanoid aliens and droids fared better than strictly human characters. Of course, I still would not part with any of my vintage figures; I’m just pointing out the vast differences between “old-school” and “modern” Star Wars toys.)

Star Wars The Black Series – Han Solo (Endor) is the flip side of the coin as far as “cinematic authenticity” is concerned. I’ve already described the figure in the previous section so I will avoid redundancy; I’ll just say that when I saw this figure while browsing in the ShopDisney online store (not a good thing to do when your birthday is a minor footnote in your new “family’s” calendar of events), I couldn’t resist getting it.

I’m still getting used to the new oddly-shaped boxes that Hasbro ships its figures in now. The one for Han Solo (Endor) comes in a black-and-forest green box with a transparent “window” on the obverse side so you can see the figure without opening the packaging. It bears the white-on-black Star Wars The Black Series logo on the upper panel above the “window,” then below it has the forest green strip with Star Wars: Return of the Jedi printed below the plastic front panel and the figure’s name in green letters on a black background.

On the back, there’s a lifelike illustration of Harrison Ford as Han Solo that’s so well-done that I’d love to get the art – on its own – as a framed poster – that covers two thirds of the right-hand side. To the left of the illustration, we see the Star Wars The Black Series logo – again in white-against-black – at the top, followed by the figure’s name and a short description of the character (Han Solo volunteered to lead the mission to destroy the new Death Star’s shield generator on the forest moon of Endor, where he and his strike team encountered Scout Troopers and Ewoks.) in English, French, German, Spanish, and Portuguese.  

Below that, there’s a strip of forest green, the figure’s number in the 2020 “wave” (O5) and the film or TV show that its character is from (Star Wars: Return of the Jedi). That’s followed by the usual legalese and copyright text that is printed in toy packaging, including safety cautions such as ⚠️ WARNING: CHOKING HAZARD – Small parts. Not for children under 3 years.

The only complaint I have is that the ShopDisney employee who was in charge of shipping the figure to me slapped a label on the front panel “window” with a handwritten scribble (“Han Solo ROTJ) or something along those lines that marred the look of the packaging and forced me to remove it. I succeeded, but it was an unnecessary annoyance, and the pressed paperboard or whatever material Hasbro uses looks bit less than perfect now.

Other than that, Han Solo (Endor) is a welcome addition to my modest collection of Star Wars The Black Series collectibles.

Well, that about wraps it up for this review of a new Star Wars The Black Series collectible. I had fun writing it, and I hope you will find it both enjoyable and informative.

Until next time, Dear Reader, stay safe, stay healthy, and find joy in even the small things in life. And remember, the Force will be with you…always. 

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[1] See Solo: A Star Wars Story (2018), a vastly entertaining – if badly underappreciated – film written by Lawrence and Jonathan Kasdan and directed by Ron Howard.

[2] Even older, smaller figures in Hasbro’s pre-Star Wars The Black Series collection tend to look more like the characters in the films than the Kenner mini-figures from 1978-85. I love my vintage figures and would not willingly part with them, but if truth be told, they don’t have the same movie-accurate “look” that post-1997 figures by Hasbro do.

[3] Shorthand for “decoration.”