Ten years ago, Hasbro announced something akin to a disturbance in the Force — and Star Wars toy fans’ wallets: The Black Series, a brand new line that would bump the iconic heroes and villains of the galaxy far, far away up to 6″ scale for the first time (and away from the 3.75″ scale Star Wars changed the game with).
Since then, countless characters from movies, games, comics, streaming shows, and more have made their way onto our desks and shelves — classic heroes like Han, Luke, and Leia; all-new ones still unknown when the Black Series began like Rey, Finn, and Poe; cult faves like Thrawn; and more Mandalorians of all sorts and stripes than you can shake a camtono of beskar at. To celebrate a decade since we first saw a glimpse of the Star Wars action figure future, here’s a look down memory lane of some of our personal favourites from the line.
Island Journey Rey
One of the best things to happen to the Black Series was what Hasbro dubbed “Photoreal,” a printing technology that replaced traditionally painted face sculpts with a high quality print. The process turned action figures from what looked ok for a likeness that cost you $US20 ($28) to, more often than not, pretty amazing miniaturized renditions of your Star Wars faves. Although it’s now a standard for the line — and across Hasbro’s other action figure output — this version of Rey, in one of her best looks in the Sequel Trilogy, was one of the first figures to adopt Photoreal, and it’s still amazing to look at today.
Princess Leia (Hoth)
The Black Series has certainly had an up-and-down history with Leia Organa — from the early days of her Return of the Jedi bikini figure vanishing into the ether, to the infamous A New Hope 40th anniversary sculpt. For a while Carrie Fisher’s Alderaanian icon seemed to never catch a break in the line. But once Photoreal came along everything changed for the better, and one after another we got figures of Leia worthy of her reputation. Her Hoth look is still the best though.
Now, just let us have some Leias from the Sequel Trilogy, Hasbro. Please?
Cobb Vanth
The Black Series has become kind of infamous lately for the sheer amount of Mandalorian-armour clad characters in its roster, thanks mostly to the runaway success of The Mandalorian — and you’ll see some of those figures on this list later. But arguably the best of the bunch is the least traditional one of them all, with Cobb Vanth donning the battered and scraped armour of Boba Fett. It’s a great figure to pose and a great Timothy Olyphant sculpt, and there’s enough going on with the design that breaks up the Mando silhouette to make him stand out.
Clone Commander Obi-Wan Kenobi
Obi-Wan was one of the first figures in the Black Series all those years ago, in his Revenge of the Sith look, and… well. It wasn’t great. Many moons later, on the precipice of his own streaming show being announced, we finally got one that took a version of that look and gave us something brilliant. The likeness on this figure is downright fantastic, but the real joy is its translation of Obi-Wan’s look from the classic Tartakovsky Clone Wars animated series. We love his CG Clone Wars look, but this Obi-Wan in flowing over-robes and Clone armour? Perfection.
Jar Jar Binks
Given Jar Jar’s controversial, long-re-litigated history in Star Wars, it’s perhaps not too surprising that Hasbro took its sweet time bringing the Gungan to the Black Series line. But The Phantom Menace’s anniversary gave it the perfect excuse to deliver a Jar Jar that was both perfect for his fans and simply too fun a toy for his haters to be mad at. Whether it’s the initial “deluxe” release with extra weapons like the Gungan energy shield, or the later standalone release on retro-inspired packaging (sorry, folks like me who were kids when the TPM figures were coming out, that counts as retro now), Jar Jar is just a well-articulated, fun toy to muck about with.
Stormtrooper (The Mandalorian)
The footsoldiers of the Empire have been a staple of the Black Series since the very first wave gave us a Sandtrooper — countless re-releases and repaints of the same sculpt lasted for the best part of the last decade. So when Hasbro finally re-imagined its Stormtrooper sculpts from the ground up to include them in its Mandalorian-inspired figures, we got a great update to one of the line’s most enduring figures. With more articulation and a better body and helmet sculpt, it’s a fantastic base for Hasbro to build on — and, like the version before it, be released in a bajillion variations for the next few years.
Count Dooku
Cool Christopher Lee likeness? Check. A material cloak that’s nowhere near as annoying as the all-body robes of the Jedi? Check. A swooshy lightsaber blade effect, something Hasbro barely ever does in its threadbare accessory options for Black Series? Check. As the Count himself would say, we’d been looking forward to this, and the long wait was worth it.
Jaina Solo
Although it’s expanded more into it in recent years, there was a time when the old Expanded Universe wasn’t kosher for Hasbro’s figure choices. So it was a huge surprise in 2018 to see Leia and Han’s daughter Jaina — winner of Hasbro’s Fan Choice poll — get added to the line. And she’s a really great figure to boot, with unique accessories and fun gear like a removeable set of X-Wing flight harnesses. We get more EU figures here and there now, but Jaina remains a highlight.
Admiral Ackbar
I’m going to admit a little personal bias here — Admiral Ackbar is one of my favourite Star Wars characters. There is a shrine on my desk of various Ackbar figures from over the years, from the original Kenner toy all the way to, yes, Hasbro’s now-multiple Ackbar figures in the Black Series. But aside from being an incredibly strong sculpt (and a somewhat rare alien figure in the line), what makes the Black Series figure an all timer is a simple thing indeed: his jaw is on a hinge, so you can open Ackbar’s mouth like a gaping maw yelling IT’S A TRAP!
Perfection.
Zeb
It was a long time coming to get the last member of the Ghost Crew in the Black Series — long enough the rest of the squad managed to get re-releases upgrading them to Photoreal status before the big purple guy showed up — but it was worth the wait. A fantastic realistic take on Zeb’s Rebels aesthetic, he cuts an imposing size more than worthy of the Deluxe release treatment, and his transforming staff/rifle is translated fantastically to toy accessory form.
Ahsoka Tano (The Clone Wars)
The first Ahsoka figure in the line was a realistic rendition of her Rebels appearance, and while appreciated, what people were really waiting for was a Black Series Ahsoka from Clone Wars. It took the seventh and final season of the show to get her one, but it was worth it. Featuring arguably her best outfit from the show, this great figure also bucked the Rebels figure trend and pushed the headsculpt more into the realm of the original animated style, giving us something that felt closer to the Ahsoka in our hearts and minds.
Battle Droid
The Black Series Battle Droid is a perfect example of a simple design executed incredibly well. The thin, spindly footdroids of the Trade Federation make for a potentially dangerous figure, from the weak limbs to the tiny articulation points fighting against the figure’s will to stand up after a while. But not only is the Black Series version as solid as such a wiry design can be, it’s also just got a ton of personality to it — marrying the aesthetic of the movie battle droids with the charm and humour of the Clone Wars ones.
Captain Phasma
The Sequel Trilogy brought with it new takes on classic designs, and none stood out more at first than Captain Phasma’s chromatic Stormtrooper gear. Her figure might not have been as shiny, but it was a great translation of the design. Special shout out to the Last Jedi variant, which swapped out the plastic shell of a cloak for a fabric version — and gave us a battle-damaged helmet that actually had a photoreal-printed Gwendoline Christie eye under its burned out surface.
Hondo Ohnaka
Hondo, like Jar Jar before him, has a bit of a love-him-or-hate-him relationship in Star Wars fandom, although nowhere near on the scale of the poor Gungan. But also like Jar Jar, this did not stop the Clone Wars and Rebels stalwart from getting a killer action figure. Based on his appearance in the Disney parks’ Galaxy’s Edge ride Smuggler’s Run, this is another example of the line doing a realistic take on an animated character really well.
Deathwatch Mandalorian
There are so many Mandalorians in the Black Series right now. Honestly, too many. But those zillions of bucket-helmeted anti-heroes were all worth it for The Mandalorian’s Deathwatch Mando. A simple figure, executed brilliantly, it poses up like a storm and is just fun enough to make you want to pick up at least a couple. The Black Series shines brightest in its troop builders, and the Deathwatch Mandalorian is one of its best.
Gaming Greats’ Republic Commandos
The Gaming Greats sub-line of the Black Series has brought some Star Wars gaming legends to life — like Knights of the Old Republic faves Revan and Nihilus and Jedi: Fallen Order’s hero Cal Kestis. But the Republic Commandos — from, of course, Republic Commando — are a highlight beyond being plastic renditions of a beloved game’s protagonists. The Clone Commando body sculpt is a great one, and even if all these figures are basically the same give or take a few tweaks and accessories, they’re all a delight to pose, and can pull of some great stands and blaster grips that, well, actually makes them feel like a spec ops squad.
Rebel Trooper (Hoth)
Another great troop builder, this one actually encouraged you to buy multiple beyond being a really fun toy to play with and pose: alternate faces (a rarity in Black Series) and myriad detachable and swappable accessory parts let you combo a whole bunch of different looking troopers. And if you only got one? You could store all the extra accessories, face included, in the trooper’s backpack. Distressing to think about? Yes. Very convenient? Also yes!
Boba Fett (Droids)
Remember when I said there were a ton of Mandalorians in the Black Series at the moment? Of course, this fella is the driving force behind more than a few of them. There are plenty of great Bobas in the Black Series, but if we have to pick one, we’re going to go for the fun option: his animation-inspired colour palette in the Droids take on the iconic bounty hunter. He’s even got his pulse rifle!
Darth Vader (Empire Strikes Back)
Like Boba, there’s tons and tons of Darths Vader in the Black Series. Which means over the years he’s gotten better and better figures — but none have matched the balance between movie accuracy and a great-posing toy like the Empire version of Vader. The sculpt is great, the cloth elements work instead of getting in the way… he is the definitive version of a Star Wars icon. What more could you ask for? A few more Vaders, Hasbro hopes, probably.
Jaxxon
“Infamously divisive Star Wars characters getting really good action figures” is a running theme on our list, and perhaps none exemplify that more that Jaxxon. Sure, some people might think a blaster-twirling alien green rabbit is too silly for a franchise about space wizards and their weaponised glow sticks, but here’s the thing: that’s not true, and also, a blaster-twirling alien green rabbit makes for an excellent action figure. Jaxxon is just too fun not to love, even if you don’t particularly like the character — and hey, Black Series could always use more alien figures.