Release Date: July 2022
RRP: $24.99/£25.99
Outside of the long-awaited return of Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader, one of the great things about the Obi-Wan Kenobi series was how it finally brought the Inquisitors into the live-action portion of the Star Wars universe. Previously seen in Star Wars Rebels, Jedi: Fallen Order and the ongoing comics, the Inquisitors are an organisation of force-sensitive dark side agents that served the Galactic Empire in hunting down the remaining Jedi. While the Obi-Wan series introduced many new Inquisitors into the mix, it also brought back one familiar face from Rebels. The Black Series Fifth Brother (Inquisitor) is among the initial wave of figures released by Hasbro for Obi-Wan Kenobi, joining both Reva (Third Sister) and the Grand Inquisitor to bolster the Empire's forces.
The Black Series Fifth Brother is the fourth release in the Obi-Wan Kenobi range, following directly on from Reva. These releases are identified in the line by their blue highlighting across the packaging, similar to that of Obi-Wan's lightsaber. Much like we saw with previous releases, the characters from this series were either rushed out or Hasbro weren't privy to any information prior to the series release because they all lack a character bio. Instead they all share the same generic blurb about the Obi-Wan Kenobi series, which is a huge shame in this case since there was already plenty to know about the character from his Rebels appearance. The character artwork on the box is still great though, appearing both on the back of the box and on the connecting spine mural. Inside, the Fifth Brother is neatly stored on a moulded plastic tray alongside his Inquisitor-style lightsaber.
Though instantly recognisable as the same character the Fifth Brother sports quite a different look in his live-action debut to his animated appearance in Rebels, with a much fuller facial structure and an armoured body suit that feels more in line with the general Imperial uniforms. While it didn't come under quite as much scrutiny as the changes that were made to the Grand Inquisitor, some fans felt like the live-action look was something of a downgrade. Personally I was quite happy with his appearance in Obi-Wan Kenobi, and thought actor Sung Kang brought his own level of menace to the role. The figure itself looks superb, with all the body armour perfectly moulded and the matte black going nicely with the slightly glossy grey body suit. Though small the paint apps on the figure are great too, particularly the silver Imperial insignias on each arm. The best part is definitely the head sculpt though, which is a fantastic likeness of Sung Kang as he appeared in the series and captures the Fifth Brother's unique headwear wonderfully. The helmet even has its own degree of detailing - from the moulded grooves along the top to the red strip at the back. That said, the colour of the face perhaps isn't quite right - with the stone grey of the figure not quite matching up to the more sickly grey/yellow of the on-screen makeup (the lips should also be much darker).
The Fifth Brother uses the same basic build/articulation as the majority of modern Black Series figures, consisting of;
- Ball jointed head, neck, torso and hips
- Butterfly joint shoulders
- Swivel hinge shoulders, elbows, wrists, knees and ankles
- Thigh swivels
It never really sounds like much when listing it all like above, but it's more because these figures don't really use many different types of joints any more rather than them not having much in the way of articulation. In fact the Fifth Brother is actually pretty poseable, even if those fixed shoulder pads do get in the way of upper arm movement. Rebels fans need worry not though, because the figure can still pull off a semi-convincing mid-flight "lightsaber helicopter" pose - and ultimately that's all that matters. Swivel hinge elbows are certainly no substitute for good old fashioned double hinges though, and it's a shame because a better bend would have really amplified this guy's lightsaber poses. Sometimes the Black Series frustrates me because while it's arguably the most consistent of Hasbro's collector lines, it's also the one that's very much set in its own ways which it rarely deviates from. If the team behind the line looked at some of the things something like the G.I. Joe Classified Series was doing when it comes to articulation, then this line would be pretty hard to beat in any capacity.
The Fifth Brother's sole accessory is his double-bladed Inquisitor lightsaber, which despite the overall similarities does have a different hilt design to both the Second and Third Sisters (and the Grand Inquisitor for that matter). Both red saber blades are removable, however I did note on my copy that the blades were extremely stiff and a good blast of heat was required to loosen them. Having previously seen just how fragile the plug parts are on these translucent pieces, I wasn't prepared to try and force it out and have the plug completely snap off. When the blades are removed, the hilt can be plugged onto the back of the figure for storage, which is a nice change to the usual side-mounted lightsaber hilts. The downside to this however is that the hilt has a massive plug sticking out of the side of it, which does kind of spoil the overall look of it and make the figure holding it a little trickier. You can still get the figure to hold it perfectly fine, but you can't really rotate the hilt in his hands as you would any other hilt. Given that Reva came with both her double-bladed saber and the separated ones, Hasbro could have easily included a separate hilt here for better accuracy. One could perhaps argue the overall costs of the figure (Fifth Brother is a lot chunkier than Reva), but given Reva also has soft goods parts as well an alternate hilt doesn't really feel out of the question. It's not a major gripe by any means, but still a tiny detail that would have improved the overall quality of this release.
While I'm sure there are there are plenty of people out there who would rather the Rebels version of the character, the Obi-Wan Kenobi edition of Black Series Fifth Brother (Inquisitor) should be more than enough to satisfy fans in the meantime. This is another solid entry to the line that ticks all the right boxes - providing a great likeness to the character as he appeared in Obi-Wan Kenobi and adding to the steadily growing roster of Inquisitors available in the line. They're a unique sub-sect of characters that probably don't appeal to everyone, but if the rest of their fans are anything like me they must be overjoyed to see them finally getting some decent six-inch figure representation. Though the handling of the accessories is a little disappointing, the Fifth Brother is still a pretty exciting addition to the Black Series.
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