Poe Dameron - TVC - Basic (VC160)

Celebrate the legacy of Star Wars, the action-and-adventure-packed space saga from a galaxy far, far away, with this collection of premium, highly-detailed 3.75-inch scale figures and vehicles. (Each sold separately. Subject to availability.)

We were quite fond of The Black Series [Phase III] Poe Dameron action figure when it was released late 2015,despite some deco issues, and now we’re more fond of the update in The Vintage Collection. An increase in the quality of the figure’s paint operations makes Poe Dameron look better than ever. As a character who is one of the few redeeming qualities in the Sequel Trilogy, he gets a lot of attention in collectible forms. So it makes sense why he is finally part of The Vintage Collection. Too bad he was made to look incompetent in The Last Jedi, but hopefully, things will be looking up for this character in the final installment of the Skywalker saga. Oscar Isaac portrays the Resistance X-wing pilot well. But poor use of his character in the film is something we’re not prepared to let affect our admiration of him. We find it odd that Hasbro placed The Force Awakens version of Poe Dameron on a The Rise Of Skywalker card back. We imagine that he may don his X-wing pilot uniform at some point in the film, but this sculpt of him was created as he appeared in The Force Awakens. We hope that not too much has changed between Episode VII and Episode IX so that this works as a version of Poe Dameron from The Rise Of Skywalker. The only difference between this version of Poe Dameron and the one released back in 2015 is the paint operations. But the paint operations make or break this figure when you compare them side by side. In short, we’re thrilled to see Poe Dameron again, but only because of the tremendous upgrade he received.

Photo Real has changed The Vintage Collection line for the better. Yes, it’s not an entirely flawless process for Hasbro yet. There are still misalignment issues, for example, but we’ll take the flaws over archaic paint operation methods that prevent Star Wars figures from looking like their on-screen counterparts. Photo Real has imperfections, but the figures look fantastic because of the process. We’re thankful for that. Likewise, Poe Dameron hasn’t looked better in the 3.75” range. It’s nice to see a faithful representation of him in the classic scale, and we hope the trend continues or betters over time. Let’s take a closer look at this sculpt that you forgot what the figure offers. Hasbro gave us a super-articulated work of art with Poe Dameron. With premium articulation in places that were rare in Hasbro’s long line of Star Wars action figures, they’re now becoming commonplace. Wrists and hips now come with premium ball-jointed articulation, and it’s fantastic that these are standards for The Vintage Collection now. Even though these places on the figure can look a tad odd with ball-jointed articulation, things can be tweaked and improved over time so that they meet the demanding standards of the more finicky Star Wars collector. Poe Dameron comes with an astounding 27 points of articulation. He can obtain any pose you want to achieve, and he looks fantastic doing so. Critics have pointed out the childbearing hips on him, but they have to accept that sometimes aesthetics of the figure’s proportions sometimes get compromised when premium articulation is worked into an action figure this small.

Sadly, Poe Dameron doesn’t come with interchangeable gloved and non-gloved hands like 2015’s TBS [P3] Poe Dameron (07) 6” figure did, but Hasbro graciously worked in ball-jointed wrists into the gloves, which puts the 3.75” version a step ahead of its 6” predecessor. Hasbro STILL left off important details on the revised The Vintage Collection version. For example, the Aurebesh below the Rebel Alliance insignia is STILL completely missing. But they fixed other details like the mismatched collar on his flight suit. It now blends in with the rest of his uniform. Overall, the costume, the head sculpt (now with Photo Real) are beautiful and while we know this figure is based on the digital sculpting of the 6” figure, we think it translated a little bit better in the 3.75” scale. Part of the “opening” wave of The Vintage Collection available on or after Triple Force Friday, Poe Dameron doesn’t feel like a solid character to reintroduce at this point, but there must be a reason for it. After all, they developed his X-wing fighter for the line as well. Poe Dameron comes with a removable helmet (with clear visor), and a blaster pistol that fits like a glove in the holster on his belt. The deco on the helmet is beautiful and nearly perfect. The factories in China are producing some fine figures for us now. One thing we’re not too crazy about with most of the figures in this wave is the card back art. The characters looked like they posed for the camera, and have received heavy digital “airbrushing,” which makes their features and skin tone look artificial. But at least they fixed the font on the “name pill.”