Release Date: April 2020
RRP: $9.99/£10.99
The Mandalorian has done many things for the Star Wars universe and fandom, but in terms of its impact it doesn't get much bigger than The Child. The best kept secret in the run up to the series premiering on Disney+, from the very first episode "Baby Yoda" fever swept the globe - and with no merchandise planned until the middle of 2020 Hasbro had to scramble to get their product ready to meet demand. It's been a bit of a wait, but finally the Black Series The Child figure has arrived. One of the more unique entries in the 6" collector figure line, The Child's small stature means it comes at a smaller price point than usual - and overall presentation is rather different as well.
If you didn't have any idea of just how small the Black Series Child figure is before ordering one, you're going to get a shock when you see the packaging. The Child comes in the standard design (but soon to be defunct) "red label" Black Series packaging, shrunk down to fit in the palm of your hand. To get the design down to this size several of the packaging's key elements have been omitted entirely, so there's no artwork or bio here. Instead the box just has The Mandalorian series logo with "The Child" written in matching font. The spines are decked out the same way as the full size boxes, but like the exclusive releases the Child doesn't have a designated number. Inside you'll find Child and accessories packed onto a teeny tiny moulded tray.
By god this thing is small. Credit where its due to Hasbro they absolutely nailed the scale and the sculpting on the figure is pretty great for its size, but it really is tiny. If you can't see the various comparison photos posted above, we're talking about a figure that's smaller than a LEGO mini-figure and comes up to about the shin of a standard Black Series figure. It's so small that you really have to wonder just why this is half the price of a standard Black Series figure, because it certainly isn't half the figure. The Child's sack-like clothing is made of solid plastic, but the folds have all been properly moulded into the design so it looks great both up close and from a distance. A photo-real head sculpt feels like it would be largely wasted on a figure this small but nevertheless Hasbro have nailed that stoic yet undeniably cute expression.
For a figure this size it isn't surprising to see that articulation is fairly minimal as well. The Child features a ball jointed head and arms, so the most it can really do is turn its head and lift/outstretch the arms (however the arms can't outstretch too far as the ball joints do have a tendency to pop out of place). The feet are also connected to the body via ball joints, but you can't really get enough purchase on them to move them about, not to mention that they can't really be seen anyway. Finally the hands can also rotate, so they're not just stuck in one default position. All this might sound like a knock against the figure but it's pretty much what should be expected for something of this size - throw any more joints in there and you're at serious risk of ruining the overall sculpt. It's enough to get some very basic cute poses out of him, and he can still be picked up by other figures so it's not like he's completely devoid of posing potential.
In order to make up that questionable price tag, Hasbro have also thrown in a few accessories to go along with the Child. Included are a bone broth bowl, the shift knob the Mandalorian gives him from the Razorcrest's control panel and of course his favourite snack - a desert toad. All of these accessories are so small (especially the shift knob) that they could be very easily lost, so Hasbro have also thrown in a small plastic case to keep them safe in. It's a fairly predictable set of accessories for The Child and that's by no means a bad thing, the bigger problem here is how poorly they interact with the figure itself. There's no way to properly fix the accessories to the hands, so instead you just have to precariously balance them on and hope they don't fall off and get lost forever. The figure can't even hold the bowl with both hands since the arms don't stretch inward that far, so it can't even hold the bowl in the now-iconic pose! Lastly you have the frog, which can't be held by the figure whatsoever so just has to settle for looking good alongside it. The selection of accessories might not be bad, but the execution certainly isn't great.
To put it as lightly as possible, the Black Series The Child is a really underwhelming release. In a different world where the character's identity hadn't been such a closely guarded secret prior to The Mandalorian's release this is probably a very different figure. But in this one, where the demand for "Baby Yoda" merch was at a high and product needed to manufactured as quickly as possible, Hasbro didn't put out a figure - they put out an accessory at best. The sculpting and scale might be top notch, but for half the price of an average Black Series figure one expects something akin to half a figure. A tiny, barely articulated figure with some accessories it can barely hold doesn't really cut it. Compare this to what the Japanese collectors lines are doing with their versions. Bandai might have also gone for a separate (and admittedly more expensive) figure too with the S.H. Figuarts version, but at least that one has the crib, an alternate head sculpt, cloth goods AND can hold its broth bowl properly. Meanwhile Medicom were the only ones to see sense with the MAFEX version, packing it in as an accessory with their Full Beskar Mandalorian. If Hasbro had thrown in the crib too it would definitely be a more acceptable release, but instead they took the easiest route possible because they knew buyers would lap it up. The Child is the perfect accessory to your Black Series Mandalorian, but it's very much a case of "is that it?".
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