Star Wars The Black Series Moff Gideon figure review

Every good property needs a strong villain to make the heroes’ struggles more challenging. Harry Potter had it with Voldemort; the Fellowship of the Ring had it with Sauron, the Avengers had a massive challenge with Thanos and in The Mandalorian, that driving force is Moff Gideon. One of the holdout leaders of the Empire, Moff Gideon is a shrewd strategist that keeps his pockets of the Empire thriving until order can be restored to the galaxy putting him on a collision course with Mando for possession of Grogu. And it doesn’t hurt that Giancarlo Esposito plays him either.

I was on a Mandalorian high after the season finale and was thrilled to see the latest series of Star Wars The Black Series on a peg featuring some principal characters from the show’s first season including Moff Gideon. Let’s see how he turns out.

Packaging: The new package scheme is excellent and I’m thrilled the Star Wars team decided it was time for a makeover. That allowed for wave grouping by way of the accent colors.

The Mandalorian features an orange accent color and the sensational mural of the respective character. This is a big help when the figures are at a higher peg than eye level.

Gideon’s bio doesn’t tease much of his mission likely so as not to spoil anything for people who like to binge these shows.

Likeness:  Esposito is an immensely talented actor and his age lines throughout his face help to make him one of the more interesting characters for the Black Series to tackle.

For this scale, the headsculpt does a remarkable job of capturing Espoito from the bags under his eyes, the sunken cheeks and that arrogance air he gives Gideon.

Moff Gideon’s outfit gives him the look of a sophisticated moff that’s also not afraid to get into a combat situation. The chest plate is reminiscent of General Veers when he made his surface attack on Hoth.

There’s some nice additional detail here like the uneven nature of his belt and the clip-on shoulder pads and cape. Underneath the armor is the flared texture material. I love how Hasbro conveys the different elements in armor and clothing even if it’s with the same color.

The smaller details like the paneling of the gauntlets you won’t see unless right up on the TV is intact as well. His cape is plastic yet after the work done on the ESB Darth Vader, I would have been fine with a soft goods cape that could fall and drape along his shoulders.

I suspect the shell like way his cape flows over his shoulders made the plastic route the best option for Hasbro.

Paint:  Most of the paint work is excellent. Hasbro made sure to get this one right so the minor details like the reds on the shoulder pads and the paneling on the chest armor is dead on right down to the lining of the belt.

It seems like there should be some grey in Gideon’s hair along the temples.

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Scale:  Moff Gideon seems to be right around the same height as Cara Dune, making him shorter than The Mandalorian and Darth Vader.

Articulation:  Gideon isn’t going to be doing a whole lot besides standing menacingly, but in case he needs to get into a duel, his SWB has you covered. The torso joint allows for great range and his shoulders are pretty good despite the shoulder pads and limitations from the cape. This is why a cloth cape would have been just a bit better. He’s got single-jointed elbows, but they have about the same range as a double-jointed one so that’s not an issue at all.

His cape will prevent deep stances although it will help with some dynamic posing. The cape stayed in pretty well without popping off and can move a bit to allow for some extra movement.

Moff Gideon has:

• neck
• ball-jointed shoulders
• elbow
• wrist
• wrist hinge
• torso
• hips
• thighs
• knees (double jointed)
• ankles

Accessories:  Moff Gideon comes with his smaller blaster. I’ve really come to appreciate that Star Wars doesn’t go for the bigger gun is better mentality and most people use small pistol size blasters.

That makes sense when you’re essentially aiming laser blasts and need better aim. And as usual, even at this smaller scale, the detail on the blaster is stellar right down to the exhaust ports in the barrel.

Naturally he also comes with the dark saber. Hasbro actually went the extra effort to get the look down as accurate as possible by adding a white halo effect around the blade to show that it’s lit and not just a black blade. That’s a really nice touch.

 

Worth it?  I grabbed Gideon for $20. I’ve got no issues with that although I would love for some extra background accessories for him. Maybe a Death Trooper base next release?

Rating: 9.5 out of 10

I won’t knock the lack of a cloth cape too much since everything about this figure is so well done. I really like the work with the darksaber and the killer head sculpt. This is another terrific 2020 figure from Hasbro’s SWB line.

Where to get it?  I found this line at Target so that should be your first choice although I doubt it will be lone before they show up at GameStop. You can also go the online route and get him from Amazon or Entertainment Earth.