Toybox REVIEW: Star Wars Black Series Mandalorian Super Commando

Release Date: October 2020

RRP: $24.99/£24.99

2020 has been an especially good year for Star Wars fans even without a movie instalment, thanks to the release of both Star Wars: The Clone Wars season seven and The Mandalorian season two. Both shows have shown particular love to Mandalore and Mandalorian culture, with the final arc of The Clone Wars depicting the Siege of Mandalore, Ahsoka Tano's dual against Darth Maul and finally their eventual escape from the effects of Order 66. The year has also seen Hasbro launch a new phase of the Black Series toy line, with a four-figure wave celebrating this final arc of The Clone Wars among the releases. These figures were exclusive to Walmart in the US, and via the usual "Fan Channel" in other parts of the world. The Black Series Mandalorian Super Commando is based on the Mandalorian Death Watch soldiers who became loyal to Darth Maul following his victory of Pre Visla and eventual takeover of Mandalore - adopting newly coloured armour sporting the Dathomirian features of the former Sith Lord.

The Mandalorian Super Commando is among the earliest Black Series releases to adopt the new style of packaging, taking the plain old black boxes away and replacing them with a new thinner variety that features an angled spine with full character artwork. This artwork can be combined with all the other figures from that particular piece of the Star Wars timeline, creating a larger mural that's sure to entice some fans into picking up more figures than they originally intended. Each series/film/game/whatever also has a designated colour to separate it from the others, with The Clone Wars' being a bright and vibrant yellow. The front of the box is fairly basic in design, mainly consisting of a large window to view the figure trapped inside. At the top is the Star Wars Black Series logo, with the name of the figure at the bottom in a yellow border. The flat spine continues that window with another logo, whilst the angled spine sports the aforementioned character artwork. The back is mostly designed the same as it previously was, featuring a short character bio and a close-up version of the character artwork. Opening the new style boxes (it's the easiest to do from the top), you'll find the entire transparent plastic piece slides out, as the window piece is a lid piece for the tray underneath. 

The figure is a reworking of the Black Series Jango Fett figure released all the way back in 2016, which was of course re-released this year (with some colour changes and additional tweaks) as part of the "Gaming Greats" sub-line. Don't let the mould's age put you off though - the Mandalorian figures are among the more solid releases in the Black Series line and stacks up fairly well even today. Changes to the base mould include a brand new head, which like the Black Series Boba Fett figure does not have a head sculpted underneath. This is a newly sculpted Mandalorian helmet lacking the range finder like Din Djarin's, but also has an array of horns on the top fashioned like Maul's. They're slightly longer and more stylised than Maul's, but perfect for that Clone Wars aesthetic. The shoulder pads have a more angular design that also have additional spikes, and the belt around the waist has generically sculpted panels as opposed to more identifiable pouches. Finally the upper legs have been reworked, lacking Jango's armour and sporting more basic blaster holsters that lack the fastenings around the legs. Of course the biggest change of all though is the colour scheme, with the Super Commando's sporting a beige-grey undersuit and black and red armour in the style of Darth Maul's iconic face tattoos. Hasbro have done an excellent job on this striking and more intricate armour design, and the small additions of silver paint here and there give a good impression of battle damage/wear and tear. The wrist gauntlets are moulded in gunmetal grey plastic, with an additional bit of silver for the missile on the left gauntlet. Overall its a very striking and intimidating looking figure, and visually arguably one of the best Mandalorians Hasbro have released in the line thus far.

As a four year old figure the articulation here isn't quite up to par with Hasbro's current efforts, but as previously stated this is a mould that's proved to have a lot of longevity and certainly shouldn't be counted out. Altogether the Mandalorian Super Commando features;

- Ball-jointed head and hips

- Swivel hinge neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists and ankles

- Double hinge knees

- Bicep, gauntlet and thigh swivels

Elements like the swivel hinge elbows are more uncommon on male body figures these days (especially paired up with a bicep swivel), but overall it isn't too different to what we see on Hasbro figures today. The new shoulder pads have been designed slightly better in that they withdraw into the torso a little bit when the arms are raised, but even then they're still a reminder of the restrictive variant Hasbro used on so many different figures in this line. The elbow design was pretty terrible though and remains unimproved, sporting a pretty lacklustre bend that barely even manages 90 degrees. Similarly the ankle joint isn't all that great either, having very little bend from the hinge or much rocker motion because of how long that shin armour is. Overall I also find the joints to be particularly tight on the figure right out of the box, and until repeated bending and posing for these photos it struggled to stand and would repeatedly topple over (it doesn't help that the jetpack makes the figure rather back-heavy). As usual it's not something that'll necessarily affect every Mandalorian Super Commando out there, but perhaps something to be aware of. You'll still be able to get some fairly cool poses out of the figure (especially if you have a display stand on hand as well), but for the more action type ones that require balancing expect a fair bit of trial and error.

The Mandalorian Super Commando comes packed with a jetpack and twin WESTAR-35 blaster pistols, both of which have been repurposed from pre-existing figures. The jetpack is once again from Jango Fett, whilst the blaster pistols were originally included with Sabine Wren. Both accessories have been moulded in gunmetal grey plastic, with the jetpack also sporting some red and silver highlights around the cylinders on either side. As the jetpack was also intended for use with this mould, its a perfect fit and the two additional tabs at the top of the piece give far better support than the main tab would have been able to on its own. Meanwhile the blasters fit perfectly into the figure's hands, but are an extremely tight fit into the holsters on its thighs. Since these seem to be newly done holsters its a little strange that Hasbro didn't get the fit perfect, but even with the tight fit there shouldn't be any worry of damaging the figure or accessories. The guns are unpainted plastic so there's no chance of paint rub, and all the detail has been directly moulded on. Overall its a fairly basic selection of accessories, but for an unnamed Mandalorian commando you're pretty much getting everything you need here.

Prior to the release of The Mandalorian most of the current Star Wars canon's insight into Mandalorians stemmed from The Clone Wars, so the release of a Black Series Mandalorian Super Commando (as well as the standard Death Watch variant) was long overdue. It was a very striking and popular armour design when it was introduced back in 2013, and now that the show's final season has brought it back into the spotlight it's great to see it finally get a figure. Whilst the Jango Fett mould is beginning to show its age and certainly not without its flaws, the Super Commando is an impressive figure that manages to do a lot with so few new parts. It's a shame that the exclusivity of the figure makes army building it much harder than most collectors would have hoped, but it's good just to have one at all. A worthy addition to any Star Wars, or more specifically Mandalorian, collection.