Star Wars The Black Series Force Unleashed set review

Star Wars: The Force Unleashed is one of the greatest games in the franchise, not only being a badass way to showcase Vader's secret apprentice without contradicting any recent lore (cough TCW cough Ahsoka), but it also depicts the POV of a villain without trying to make the heroes of the Star Wars universe look bad. Galan Marek became Starkiller after he was found by Darth Vader during an attack on Kashyyyk, where the former youngling's father was killed by the Dark Lord himself. Years later, Starkiller was assigned to secretly hunt down any remaining Jedi; he was also involved with the build-up to the Rebel Alliance, which changed his morality before he was backstabbed by the Empire. Let's review this set!

Here we have Starkiller in-hand, which is a reuse of the single version. The sculpt captures the clothing he wore in the game, including the more exposed left arm as well as the straps worn on the biceps and gloves. The blood paint apps are good to have given Hasbro inconsistently excluding that detail in prior figures. His loin cloth piece is PVC, unlike the cloth one on Hawkeye from 2023, and there is some green dry-brushing applied to it. Proportions generally look good, and the chest armor, though a separate piece, does at least bulk up the armor. It is loose on there, so it makes me wonder how much easier it would be to sculpt a new torso entirely or glue it in.

His head sculpt looks very close to the character...or at least the PS2/Wii model. I'm not throwing shade at the hardware on those games, but the face scan could be more comparable to the quality Hasbro uses nowadays. It sucks since this is the best-looking head of the set, which we will get to. With his lightsaber in-hand, the articulation consists of a limited double ball neck joint, shoulder rotation, outward arm movement, washers used for the arms a la McFarlane figures, rotation at the elbows as well as a past-90 degree bends, and wrists that rotate as well as hinge either in and out or up and down, a ball joint for the torso, ball joints for the hips, thigh rotation, single jointed knees with rotation above them, and ankles that hinge and pivot.

He comes with two alternate heads, with one yelling and another grimacing. Neither looks too great, even with the paint apps. The grimacing one is worse, though; almost like he ripped a fat one.

You can give him a blue lightsaber to showcase his change in character, with an alternate blade for when he's swinging it in motion (a red one is included but I forgot to showcase it). He also an extra 2 seta of alternate hands for him to be displayed with for various Force gestures.

He also has Force lightning hands that were badass as hell to use in the game, and the transition from the blue of the lightning to the flesh paint of his hands is kind of neat (if a bit of a concern for paint chipping).

A force push accessory is molded onto another one of his hands, which is surprising given how these normally require a stand or some sort of peg to go in place. I just hope it doesn't weigh the arm down too much.

The centerpiece effect part comes in a base and three shock wave parts that simulate the ultimate Force push comparable to the aura parts on Dragon Ball Figuarts or the Lightning Collection Remastered figures.

And for the money shot, I managed to use the base piece and have the Stormtroopers balance without stands somehow. I should use lightning effect parts but it isn't easy to get the lightsaber in the hole for one of the lightning hands that easily without having it stay there.

Oh and he comes with two Stormtroopers. Big whoop. Anyways, here we have him with Darth Vader for a more important comparison. The scale appears to be accurate since Galen is 5'9" while Vader is 6'8". With all the accessories in hand as well as the additional Storm Troopers, this set is good...at a discounted price. Sure, we get plenty of alternate heads, hands, and effect parts, but with these three figures being reused, on top of the box not even having any proper bubble for the figures to be placed in after leaving them out, what's the point of paying nearly $115 for something comparable to the Maximum line of Marvel Legends??? I got this set for around $80, and it was on the aftermarket. This is the kind of set you could have easily waited to go on clearance, and it sucks too since the game itself was a huge fan favorite, especially now with how shite Disney canon is.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐