Star Wars The Black Series Kuiil figure review

This unofficial Mando Week continues with a look at one of the breakout stars from the first season — Kuiil.

Kuiil was responsible for the other iconic catchphrase of The Mandalorian “I have spoken,” which isn’t a bad legacy at all. Hasbro isn’t shy about diving deep into Star Wars lore and I was thrilled Kuiil made the cut early on for The Star Wars The Black Series line. Let’s see how this philosophical repairman turned out.

Packaging: Sorry every other figure line. The package winner for 2020 has already sealed the top spot. I love the new packaging with the artwork and mural image. On Kuiil’s, in the distance we can see he and Mando riding along the plains.

The Mandalorian orange/grey accent colors are a great blend and add an element of class to the presentation. His bio is written in the same style as the others, with a summary of his back story before the events of the show. It’s a smart way to handle bios and establishes what’s come before.

Likeness:  We’re at a point now with figure sculpts where the best one show the detail that’s hard to appreciate when watching a show. Kuiil has a cool little outfit with his aviator goggles and cap, the pattern heavy scarf, textured tunic and ornate belt buckle, carpenter pants and thick gloves for manual labor.

I love the headsculpt. The ugnaughts were nuisances that pestered Chewbacca, threw around C-3P0’s head and prepped Han for the carbonite chamber so it’s nice to have a stoic heroic one in my collection.

He looks appropriately focused and wise beyond his years. The engineering on the figure is very smart as his backpack connects his scarf. This way you don’t have to worry about it falling off with a harsh glance and it’s not in the way.

The cap is removable so you can see a bald Kuiil if you’d like…

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Paint:  Kuiil’s paintjob isn’t very demand intensive since most of it is just molded in the appropriate colors. His head sculpt features the most work with great shading with a brown wash for his facial hair and graying around his eyes to hint at his age.

Scale:  Kuiil came up a bit lower than Mando’s chest and that’s just about right with the figure though he seems a little wider than I remember from the show.

Articulation: Kuiil doesn’t have any problems moving as he can even hit some solid stances and even kneel. He would benefit from actual double-jointed elbows.

That hasn’t been much of an issue with the more recent SWB figures, but his elbow does have some restrictions with its basic range. Double-jointed elbows definitely would help a mechanic.

Kuiil has:

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

Accessories:  Kuiil is a skilled mechanic, but that doesn’t mean he’s incapable of handling his own in a firefight with Stormtroopers.

He’s got what looks more like a blunderbuss, which is a fitting weapon choice for a shorter creature. The detail work is impeccable as usual and the stock looks like it was made with more of a rustic, wood-like material. I’ve really been impressed by the work of the SWB sculptors on the weapons this year.

I figure at some point we’ll get a deluxe Kuiil with the Blurrgs he used for transportation to help get him along the frontier. And yes, I will very likely be double dipping in that case.

Worth it?  Due to his size, Kuiil might not seem like the best value for $20 compared to some of the other figures. Maybe a few more accessories would have helped. It’s still a great figure, but a mid-sized figure that isn’t overflowing with extras doesn’t feel as satisfactory as some of the others in this wave.

Rating: 9 out of 10

Double-jointed elbows really would be handy here and a few random tools for fixing also would have provided some excellent value. This is still a really strong figure and well worth it to get one of the Season 1 standouts.

Where to get it?  I grabbed The Mandalorian related figures from this wave from Target. They’re slated for a late January-February release online, but I’ve gotta think they’ll be out much sooner. If you want to lock up the figures, you can pre-order at Amazon and Entertainment Earth.