Biggs Darklighter - TBS [P1] - Basic (#04)

Rebel hero and X-wing pilot Biggs Darklighter battles Imperial TIE fighters during the assault on the first Death Star.

When 2007’s TAC Biggs Darklighter (Rebel Pilot) (30 14) was released, many collectors didn’t understand why Hasbro had taken so many shortcuts with it. As a character with an important role in Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, and Luke’s best friend, it seemed that we should have already received a super-articulated version of him at that point. Surely Biggs Darklighter deserved some love in the basic figure line. And if it was time to release him again, why not bring something truly special forth to collectors? Thankfully, our time is now. The Black Series version of Biggs Darklighter is worlds away from his 2007 30 (77-07) counterpart. That much is so. But we believe that there are some details that collectors may not find entirely favorable that may necessitate a revisit in the distant future. Hasbro likely won’t attack this character again for a while, so we wish they cleaned up one or two items before this version got released. That being said, Biggs Darklighter is a refreshing addition to The Black Series line and it instantly makes the 2007 action figure completely obsolete. But what could have been done differently that would have made this action figure a total shining star?

Hasbro has unfortunately changed the color of the X-wing pilot uniform. While we don’t mind Hasbro making figures more and more authentic, we feel that they may have gone in the opposite direction. For lack of a much better way of expressing this, the orange is now muted and flat, not bright and shiny. We don’t claim that the X-wing pilots in A New Hope were sparkling, but the orange color of the fabric on these uniforms was eye catching and almost effulgent. They’ve added a smidgen too much “red” in the mixture to cast Biggs Darklighter’s uniform and it’s noticeable enough where he isn’t going to match the rest of his X-wing pilot comrades. It almost has a pinkish hue to it. The good news is that he borrows the body of the Wedge Antilles figure from 2009’s LC Wedge Antilles’ X-wing Starfighter TARGET exclusive, so you can easily make him blend in with the rest of the X-wing squadron. You may ask then what you really paid for here. Did you plunk down $9.99 for a portrait when you have to use another action figure’s body? Clearly this will create frustration amongst collectors who have been seeking to complete their collections of super-articulated X-wing pilots from A New Hope. We don’t understand why the change in approach to the uniform. It makes no sense at all to us.

The all-new head sculpt of Biggs Darklighter is familiar at best and not nearly as stunning as we hoped it would be. But that doesn’t mean it’s bad either. The character of Biggs Darklighter had a very chiseled face, but the new portrait looks much too rounded. We should note however that it does resemble the actor. We are not total experts on the various nuances of detail and patterns that the X-wing pilot helmets have, but we have already heard from some that Hasbro didn’t replicate Biggs’ helmet perfectly. We think the helmet appears fine as is, but if someone would like to point out what makes this look wrong, please feel free in our comments. We wouldn’t go so far as to say that Biggs Darklighter is a disappointment. But we are slightly disappointed that they took the approach they did with this action figure. Without seeming ungrateful, we’re happy that Biggs Darklighter has finally received a much too delayed update, but it goes without saying that a few details need to be in place before it went into production. We should qualify that this version of Biggs Darklighter is indeed “definitive for now”. It’s good and it’s well-articulated. But we feel that Hasbro at this point should catch the finer aesthetic issues so that changes can be made in time for when these figures go into mass production.