Rey (Dark Side Vision) - TBS [P4] - Six Inch Figures (TROS01)

While searching for the Sith wayfinder, Rey envisions her turn to the dark side. Wielding a double-bladed lightsaber, her rage and immense power is frightening.

Rey (Dark Side Vision) might be the symbol for everything wrong with the Disney Trilogy. It’s not because the idea for the character isn’t a good one. It’s a good concept. But the flipping and flopping of plot lines, to incredulous shifts in character development, or lack thereof, made the Disney Trilogy one confusing mess. Look, if you’re honest, Rey is perhaps the worst character to come out of Star Wars in decades. The fact that the Sequel Trilogy adamantly focused on her nonstory was a waste of everyone’s time. And they sacrificed what could have been one of the most significant characters had they treated her appropriately. Rey (Dark Side Vision) may have been a productive way to develop her character, the diametric opposite of how the Original Trilogy’s central character, Luke Skywalker, was handled. Imagine is Rey “Nobody” head down a dark road of evil, ultimately becoming the Sith Lord like the ascendant of her bloodline, Darth Sidious. Perhaps then and only then, Rey could be revered as a strong female character in the Star Wars saga. A tale with this type of twist might have best served the character in reality, instead of vision. Despite this, many Star Wars moviegoers rejected The Rise Of Skywalker, namely the people who loved the previous disaster, The Last Jedi. But for us, the film was a breath of fresh air, and we were able to forget the travesties of Episode VII and Episode VIII and start afresh with Episode IX, faults included.

So, looking as freshly as we can at Rey (Dark Side Vision), we have to admit that this The Black Series [Phase IV] figure is a curiously exciting action figure for the line. And it’s also the first character based on Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise Of Skywalker for the fourth line look of the 6” lineup. At first glance, you might think that this figure was a dark-sided version of Barriss Offee. We wouldn’t be surprised if Hasbro takes an opportunity to produce a Barriss Offee action figure based on parts of this figure soon. It would be wise if they did because Barriss Offee has greater notoriety than Rey (Dark Side Vision). We’ve previously mentioned that Rey (Dark Side Vision) is the first figure for The Rise Of Skywalker, but it’s also the first action figure based on a character that doesn’t exist as a character on-screen. It’s a realistic interpretation of “nothing.” If you think of the Darth Vader apparition on Dagobah or the many Jedi Spirits throughout the Original Trilogy, the same is valid here. You get our point. And Hasbro did an excellent job on it. Rey (Dark Side Vision) is well-designed and comes with superior articulation. Where the figure falls short is with the molded robes. They interfere terribly with the lower body movement. But maybe this isn’t the end of the world since this figure looks best posed rather statically with the included double-bladed lightsaber. The figure's likeness is decent. But we would have liked to see a different "gnashing" expression on the face.

We’re disappointed to realize that the hood and cape aren’t removable from this figure. The head sculpt is not attached to the hood, as you can move the figure’s head with some encumberment. But the hood doesn’t budge, and you’re left with only one look here for Rey. The costume is very dark, which makes sense. But you’ll notice an incredible amount of detail etched into the tooling of the figure. Hasbro didn’t hold back anything giving this figure detail that none of us could see the film. Rey (Dark Side Vision) comes with a single accessory: a double-bladed lightsaber. It breaks down into a hinge-jointed hilt and two red blades. But it’s quite different than the one they gave Darth Maul. The two lightsabers connect by way of a hinge-joint, and you can achieve an infinite amount of configurations because of this. The lightsaber blades are in the hilt tightly. So at first, we thought they weren't removable. At best, Hasbro approached this interpretation of Rey as a novel at best. Hence, the need to go the extra mile with additional accessories or removable parts weren’t crucial for this release. Thankfully, Rey (Dark Side Vision) comes with a decent amount of upper-body movement so that the figure can hold the lightsaber with one or both hands. And whether you position it fully extended, or at an angle, or closed up, all configurations look excellent. We hope that Hasbro considers more characters from The Rise Of Skywalker in the future. Love or hate the film; the characters are interesting.