Kylo Ren - Elite Series

A dark warrior strong with the Force, Kylo Ren commands First Order missions with a temper as fiery as his unconventional lightsaber.

With all of the competing lines created to celebrate The Force Awakens, it really starts to become murky on which products will suit you best. Some collectibles are advertised as action figures, and we imagine the converse is true as well. When it comes to the Elite Series line, it probably isn’t wrong or right to bill these items as action figures or collectibles, because they’re a little bit of both. Larger in scale that Hasbro’s competing The Black Series [Phase III] 6” line, the Disney Elite Series figures are about seven to seven and a half inches to every six inches in Hasbro’s line. As a result, the figures just aren’t anywhere near comparable to each other in scale. They instantly look like two different lines no matter how you slice it. Thankfully, it appears Disney’s interest in this line and its relative success will mean that characters selection and frequent releases are a safe bet for the future. But keep in mind these figures have significant limitations and aesthetics issues. But if you can overlook them, you’re truly left with some very nice Star Wars collectibles, because it’s evident that Disney put in some tremendous time and effort to make these figures look really, really good.

Kylo Ren may be the greatest highlight of the Elite Series line at the moment. He comes with an impressive, but nonetheless limiting, 18 points of articulation. The shoulders and hips provide a wide range of movement, but the rest of figure is mostly hinge-jointed articulation and this type of articulation doesn’t provide full range of motion. As you know, this offers very little benefit to the figure at hand. Still, Kylo Ren does look amazing no matter how you pose him. He has been outfitted with a black rubber/plastic robe that covers most of his body, but pliable enough where you can see his body underneath it. It has also been fashioned in a way that allows you to utilize the ball-socket hips and other leg articulation which give this figure its life so to speak. Both the sculpt and deco on Kylo Ren is remarkable. It is quite amazing how much texture and detail has been added to this figure thanks to impressive deco. A layering effect is evident throughout Kylo Ren and while there has been an astounding amount of texture physically sculpted into the figure, the paint job is what really makes this figure look as spectacular as it does. We have almost no complaints at all as far as how this figure looks. It’s quite impressive.

We haven’t attempted to remove the rubber/plastic robe, but it appears it's removable with some patience. We’re still leery about removing the portraits of these figures out of fear of breaking them, so reluctant to force anything. Die Cast metal is durable, but we don’t believe it is invincible, and too much pressure or force may ultimately cause it to bend or at the very least alter the integrity of the sculpt in some negative fashion. Kylo Ren comes with a fully lit lightsaber which looks just as good as the figure, but perhaps it is a bit too thin. Only his right hand is able to hold the lightsaber, and even that hand has been cupped too widely and the lightsaber will easily fall out of you don’t balance it carefully enough. Also included is a Star Wars display stand, but it isn’t necessary as Kylo Ren may have the best center of gravity of all the Elite Series figures we have come into contact with to date. Lastly, as you know form the other figures in this line, the figure’s back is affected by holes for the screws that bind the metal halves together. We don’t like it. Period. So we won’t harp on it. There has got to be another way to diminish this quite impertinent and distressing necessary evil.We don’t want to leave on a negative note, so please just know this is a gorgeous figure despite its limitations.