Star Wars Black Series Grand Admiral Thrawn figure review

If I’d had my way we would have gotten a Star Wars trilogy based on Heir to the Empire. It was one of my favorite Star Wars stories and just begged for a big screen interpretation. A big reason for that was Grand Admiral Thrawn, who was the rare villain to step up in Darth Vader and The Emperor’s absence.

With his role in Star Wars Rebels, Hasbro finally had an excuse to incorporate Thrawn into the Star Wars Black Series line. Thrawn is now hitting stores as part of the Force Friday II roll out of Last Jedi figures.  Thankfully I didn’t have to do an extended search for him and found him on the first day.

Packaging:  Typically, I don’t like the black and red color scheme for packaging, but it works for The Black Series line. The unique window setup allows for a nice view of the figure and accessories. Hasbro does a good job with the bios for this line and I like the subdued portrait on the side. For Black Series collectors, Thrawn is #47.

Likeness:  Hasbro has the luxury here of not having to match Thrawn up to a lot of source material besides Rebels and book covers. Thrawn’s Imperial outfit is striking and Hasbro didn’t shortchange any of the sculpted details like the insignias and rank plaque. Thrawn’s costume has had gold epaulets, but his Rebels attire featured simpler gold pads, which is reflected on the figure.

The head sculpt conveys the brilliant and shrewd tactician. There’s a certain haughtiness to it that captures his demeanor perfectly.

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Scale: I don’t have a good frame of reference for how tall Thrawn should be, so I’ll chalk him up to being average height. He’s a great height as he’s just a bit taller than the average Stormtrooper. All the better to look down on them.

Paint:  The white is striking making for a nice contrast to the light blue skin tone. There’s no slop on the Imperial plaque and belt. I was able to look over two Thrawn figures and if possible you’ll want to check the eyes carefully to make sure they’re painted forward and not looking up. Hasbro did a good job on the subtle pink on Thrawn’s lips as well.

Articulation:  Black Series articulation is the best Hasbro has to offer even if it pales to other six-inch Star Wars figures. Thrawn doesn’t need a ton of articulation however and really just needs to be able to fold his arms in front and behind his back and sit down. Now the hard part of finding the best throne for Thrawn.

Thrawn has:

• neck
• ball-jointed shoulders
• bicep
• elbow
• wrist
• wrist hinge
• waist
• hip
• thigh
• knee (double jointed)
• ankle

Accessories:  Thrawn was one of the Hasbro SDCC 2017 exclusives. That figure came with a slew of accessories. This version gets the standard one accessory treatment. Thrawn comes with a nicely sculpted blaster that fits into the holster?

Worth it?  Thrawn goes for the regular Star Wars Black Series price of $20. Compared to other lines with more articulation, accessories and Build a Figure pieces, that’s about $5 too much. I’ll pay that for Thrawn, but there’s a reason I don’t grab a lot of SWB figures.

Rating: 9.5 out
of 10

This is a tremendous figure of a character I wasn’t sure I’d ever be able to add to my collection. Hasbro delivered not just for Rebels fans, but extended universe fans that have long had him on their checklist in this scale.

Where to get it?  Target seems to do the best job of stocking the Black Series figures, but Wal-Mart or Toys R Us could also have him at any point in time. Or you could avoid the suspense and order from Hasbrotoyshop.com or Amazon.com.