Topics tagged under "cobbvanth" on OneSixthFigures

For Part II see HERE.

Introduction
I haven't watched the Mandalorian, but this figure drew my attention both by its cool appearance and by the good resemblance to actor Timothy Olyphant. I looked up some YouTube excerpts from the show featuring the character and his story, and liked them well enough, even if overt nods to Westerns don't always work for me in futuristic settings (though they did not bother me in Firefly). So I eventually decided to get it, found it sold out at the original price range everywhere, until I stumbled upon an eBay listing that was relatively reasonably priced. I also have the feeling it hasn't really entered wide distribution in the US, and don't know exactly how the seller already had one. So I did a quick photoshoot for a review the very night I had received it, but real life kept me from writing up the review for some three days. I'm keeping it more succinct, hopefully it will still be helpful.

Topics tagged under cobbvanth on OneSixthFigures Htcv0210

Topics tagged under cobbvanth on OneSixthFigures Htcv0210

Packaging
It is what we expect from Hot Toys for figures based on Star Wars and post-Original Trilogy characters. A basic cardboard container, with a removable lid adorned with a cigarbox band with labeling and additional images; a colorful product image card cover, and a plastic tray with a transparent plastic lid to hold the figure and its accessories; some accessories and all the additional hand sculpts are held in an additional, smaller and shallower transparent plastic tray attached to the lid of the main one. Everything is reasonably collector friendly and safe. The figure comes with the helmet on, and the unhelmeted/unmasked head is stored separately.

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Topics tagged under cobbvanth on OneSixthFigures Htcv0310

Accessories
From what I have seen of the character's appearances on the show, the accessories selected for the set appear to be reasonable and possibly exhaustive.
There are two hand-held weapons, a blaster rifle and a blaster pistol (which fits within the holster on the figure's belt).
There is the jet pack, which attaches to the back armor via a magnet (which works reasonably well), has articulated parts, and a removable missile; additional semi-transparent pieces are provided to provide a missile effect between the missile head and the rest of the jet pack and two propulsion blast effects. The effect pieces take some effort to fit into the appropriate apertures, but heating helps.
The last accessory proper is a drink bottle with netting around its body (apparently called Spotchka). Then there are the alternate hand sculpts, making a total of six hands: 2 relaxed hands, 2 knife grip hands, 1 right gun grip hand, 1 left fist.
There are also a couple of spare wrist pegs, as well as some spare button caps to replace any that might come lose and be lost.
In a sense, the helmet can be treated as an accessory. It is hollow but not enough to fit over a head or to display it from below, and it is designed to sit on a removable neck assembly, intended to be swapped for the unmasked head.
Finally, there is the stand. This time it has two parts, the basic rectangular base with very Western-looking floorboards and a longer and narrower flooring piece that can overlap it in two different ways. When the two pieces are aligned, the stand can be plugged in through both of them. So far so good, but given that the character has a jet pack, the absence of a longer goose-neck bendable stand is both puzzling and disappointing.

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Topics tagged under cobbvanth on OneSixthFigures Htcv0410

Sculpting
As an armor-wearing figure, there is more to the sculpting here than just the head sculpt, although that is perhaps the most impressive piece. The likeness is very good, although I wonder if the relatively stern or tense expression was an ideal choice. But the head is not alone in its fine sculpting. The helmet is also given a very fine sculpted surface to make it worn and damaged, and the same goes for the armor pieces. The vambraces and their mechanical elements (themselves additional weapons) are also beautifully sculpted, as are the other greeblies on the costume and the weapons and jet pack. I have the feeling the hair stranding could have been a little finer, and the hair looks less disheveled than it was onscreen.

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Topics tagged under cobbvanth on OneSixthFigures Htcv0510

Paint
The paint is also up to its usual Hot Toys excellence. This is evident both in the realistically nuanced treatment of the head and in the worn metal aspect of the armor pieces and weaponry. The pieces supposed to be metal look metal; the couple of pouches supposed to be leather, look like leather. The eyes are very glossy. But there seem to be some surprising misses, like the relatively dull lens parts on the weapons. Another minor disappointment is that the helmet's visor is not actually transparent.

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Topics tagged under cobbvanth on OneSixthFigures Htcv0610

Articulation
The body stands about 32 cm (12.6 in) tall with the helmet on (measuring to the top of the helmet's dome) or 31.25 cm (12.3 in) with the unmasked head (measuring to the top of the somewhat puffy molded hair). At the risk of sounding like a broken record, the underlying Hot Toys body probably has excellent articulation, but this is limited, as usual, by the clothing and equipment (understandably) and by the underlying padding (which is largely unnecessary). As usual, molded vambraces (and they are supposed to be metal) tend to push down on the hands, making them detach from the wrist pegs a little too easily, and partly limit the wrist articulation due to the specific design. The two-part boots, on the other hand, work very well, and look very convincing, too, allowing good ankle articulation. The legs can bend pretty far at the knees, but are rather impeded at the hips/thighs. The arms bend well at the elbows but cannot really reach very high up at the shoulders due to the clothing and armor. There is reasonable waist and abdominal movement. The unmasked head has an integral neck, which means it is only articulated at the base point.
Unusual for Hot Toys, judging by past practice, the weapons are completely unarticulated; admittedly, that makes them less fragile.

Topics tagged under cobbvanth on OneSixthFigures Htcv0710

Topics tagged under cobbvanth on OneSixthFigures Htcv0710

Outfit
Below the armor pieces, the figure wears clothing made of real cloth. The figure is meant to allow different looks, and Hot Toys designed the set so that you can remove the armor and vambraces easily. After all, Cobb Vanth apparently surrendered his Mandalorian armor because... Disney decided to virtue signal its take on arguable cultural appropriation? Whatever.
The back-and-shoulder plate is attached to the underlying arming vest with several velcro areas; the rest of the armor plates remain affixed, but the vest itself closes and opens using velcro on the back.
The visible clothing consists of the pants and shirt, which is complete with a traditional Star Wars neck flap, usually obscured by the red scarf. This last piece seems to be oversized and it seems impossible to keep it from bunching up and obscuring the neck. In terms of the size, perhaps it was meant to be partly folded under, but I was unable to make that work well.
Even without the armored layer on, the figure looks a little stouter than the character's lankier onscreen appearance, but otherwise the outfit seems to be recreated very accurately.

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Topics tagged under cobbvanth on OneSixthFigures Htcv0810

Fun Factor
With several other characters or types that Cobb Vanth interacted with already produced (the Mandalorian, Tuskens, Cad Bane, Baby Yoda), it is possible to recreate or rewrite aspects of the show. But even besides such opportunities, the set allows for a cool character with a variety of potential looks and weapons and accessories. Often enough, Hot Toys has skipped out on unmasked likenesses, so getting both a helmeted head and an unmasked look are not something we could have taken for granted. Whether show-based or in some way customized, the character seems to have plenty of fun potential, and so would this nice rendition of him.

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Topics tagged under cobbvanth on OneSixthFigures Htcv0910

Value
This is a hard one. At $300 (USD) or more, even before the secondary market, this is not a low-priced collectible, although given the trend in Hot Toys prices overall, it is not as highly priced as it might have been. We do get both a helmeted and an unmasked head, and the options for two different viable screen-accurate looks or more. While the hands are not particularly numerous, with two weapon and the various bits and pieces that go with the jet pack, and the signature bottle, the accessories are not as minimal as they might have been. The two-part base is cool, although the degree to which it is useful is as dubious as almost always in such cases; the absence of a bendable goose-neck stand, however, is a real miss.

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Topics tagged under cobbvanth on OneSixthFigures Htcv1210

Things to watch out for
Not much at all. Since there are no movable parts to the weapons, they are not fragile. The magnet holding the jet pack is not super strong, though it does its job, and the jet pack might become accidentally detached while handling; but it is not a big issue. As always, make sure you balance the figure on its feet and/or the stand, as the helmet and jet pack can make it a bit top heavy. The most fragile part might be the articulated rangefinder on the helmet.

Topics tagged under cobbvanth on OneSixthFigures Htcv1010

Topics tagged under cobbvanth on OneSixthFigures Htcv1010

Overall
I think overall this is a very nice set, fulfilling almost all of Hot Toys' current potential (the most they could have plausibly added would have been movable eyeballs). And although I have not watched the show as a whole, it seems to me that Hot Toys equipped their Cobb Vanth with pretty much all the clothing, armor, and accessories that are needed to recreate his onscreen appearances. Apart from a couple of the usual minor limitations (e.g., the ones caused by the padding), the only real miss is the absence of a bendable stand that would have been perfect for taking off/flying poses.

Topics tagged under cobbvanth on OneSixthFigures Htcv1110

Topics tagged under cobbvanth on OneSixthFigures Htcv1110

Where to buy
At this point, none of the usual places I check have this in stock, even as a preorder; at best, they provide a waitlist option.
There are a few listed, with various price increases, on eBay.

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