Toybox REVIEW: Star Wars Black Series Omega (Kamino)

Release Date: April 2022

RRP: $24.99/£23.99

With all five specially-enhanced clone troopers that make up (or formerly made up) Clone Force 99 now available in the Star Wars Black Series, that just leaves one main character from The Bad Batch left. Hasbro certainly didn't leave fans waiting too long, with Black Series Omega (Kamino) releasing in the same wave as Echo to round things off. Unique among the clones for being the only one born female, the naturally-aging Omega escaped Kamino alongside the Bad Batch following their defection from the Empire. Though smaller and weaker than her clone brothers, Omega possesses a sharp tactical mind as well as a compassionate and empathetic personality that has caused trouble for the team on numerous occasions.

"Born and confined to the cloning facility on Kamino, young Omega serves as an assistant to Chief Medical Scientist Nala Se. Offered an opportunity to escape, Omega joins the Bad Batch on their adventures."

The 10th release in the Black Series' Bad Batch range, Echo comes in the (now retired) windowed packaging sporting the red colouring unique to Bad Batch releases. As usual the sloped side of the box sports some great artwork of Omega, which can be joined with the other releases in the range to create a larger character mural. This same artwork is repeated on the back of the box, where it is joined by a short bio of Omega and her role in the series. Inside, the figure and her numerous accessories are neatly laid out on a moulded plastic tray.

This version of Omega is based on her initial appearance in the series, prior to her leaving Kamino and joining the Bad Batch on their adventures. This is largely illustrated by the sculpted jewellery on the head, as well as the slicked back hair. Otherwise her overall appearance doesn't change that much over the course of season one, other than picking up a utility belt and communicator along the way. It's interesting that Hasbro opted for this version of Omega rather than one that's more representative of the entire series, but by the "(Kamino)" in the release name its fair to assume that there'll probably be some other variant down the line. More likely a season two version at this point, but this initial look was probably the main thing Hasbro had to work with when sculpting the figure. Naturally due to her age it's just over half the size of a normal Black Series figure, but retains the line's usually good quality. The head sculpt does a good job of capturing that element of realism they've opted for in the line's animated characters - recognisable as the character but also featuring a hint of Daniel Logan in the same way the rest of the Bad Batch have a hint of Temuera Morrison about them. The skin tone of the figure is really good too, although the finish has that same strange glossy look Wrecker had as well. Not awful, but makes it look a little more plasticky than it otherwise would.

She might be smaller but Omega still has a fair bit of articulation packed into her, so ultimately isn't really any less poseable than a larger Black Series figure. Altogether she features;

- Ball jointed head, neck, waist and hips

- Swivel hinge shoulder, elbows, wrists, knees and ankles

- Thigh swivels

Whether or not her size has anything to do with it I'm unsure of, but one thing I immediately noticed is that the joints were a lot tighter than your typical Black Series figure - particularly the elbows and knees. Since the parts are smaller it can sometimes feel like trying to move them is bending them in a way that feels like the figure is about to break, but in reality nothing adverse should happen. Omega's tunic is made from a soft plastic which means the hips are fairly unrestricted, but it's still a bit tricky to get her into convincing action poses. The swivel hinge knees are also pretty weird on this release, lacking the kneepads most clones have to hide how unsightly they can look if not posed properly. That all said, the ball jointed sections on the figure offer a pretty decent range of movement, so there's plenty of personality to Omega even with the obvious restrictions.

To make up for her small size Hasbro have packed this release with plenty of accessories, which feels like a rare treat for a standard release (and even then, deluxe releases don't really seem to come with that much more any more). Altogether Omega comes with her energy bow, gas mask and Ruby - a lizard-like creature that appeared in episodes seven and 13 of the series. The bow is very nicely detailed with plenty of gold paint and translucent plastic string and arrow parts, but as unique as it may feel for a Star Wars weapon it isn't perfect. For a start it's moulded into drawn position, which is a shame because making a collapsible version (or even a wholly separate version) would have been nice given how unwieldy it is. Omega is able to be posed in a halfway decent firing pose, but the 90 degree max bend her elbow joints provide don't make it the easiest thing to do. The gas mask, while small, is nicely detailed and surprisingly fits over Omega's face nicely without needing to clip on or anything like that. Finally with have Ruby, which is a bit of a curious addition given that there were far better options to figure could have come with (the aforementioned undrawn bow, or even droid AZI-3 - much better fit given the Kamino theming). Nevertheless Ruby is a nice little addition to the Black Series' steadily growing menagerie of creatures, so much so that I wouldn't be surprised if we saw this mould in a future Galaxy's Edge set. The figurine is able to stand on its own, or clip onto Omega's arm for a variety of carrying poses.

Though small Black Series Omega (Kamino) certainly makes up for it by being a much fuller packaging, with some great accessory pieces to make up for her short stature. While there's an argument to made whether some of these accessories are the best fit for the figure, the quality is all there and the figure has plenty of personality too despite some of its shortcomings. There'll be Star Wars fans out there who probably think they don't need Omega to complete their Bad Batch lineup (even though she's arguably the main character), but when you see her alongside her brothers you can plainly see that she's the perfect compliment to them.