Cobb Vanth Hot Toys Star Wars TMS084 Review (updated with Part II, 2 January 2024)

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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



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.



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. 



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.



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.



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.



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.



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.







As always, what do you think?

For Part II see HERE.

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#starwars #hottoys #mandalorian #cobbvanth #fiction #fantasy #male

Thank you for the review! Even if he's not for me, he is a very nice figure for sure with lots of details and cool stuff! Very nice head, too. That could be used for all sorts of settings!

Exceptionally thorough yet straightforward and easy to follow review. I like the "template style" that has evolved over time that provides standardization, to a point, to your reviews while allowing sufficient flexibility to cover different types of figures and products.

And then there is the occasional, and subtle, "incidental editorializing," which cracks me up!

The photos are clear and crisp and detailed, as always. What kind of lighting set-up do you use for your product review photos?

Also... where'd you get that amazing miniature woven wicker chair?

Diana wrote:Thank you for the review! Even if he's not for me, he is a very nice figure for sure with lots of details and cool stuff! Very nice head, too. That could be used for all sorts of settings!

Thank you very much, Diana, glad you liked it. Yes, not the most exciting figure, but still a cool design, and excellent head (though it occurs to me that it is perhaps not the most iconic of expressions for this actor), and from what I've seen, a likable character (unlike so many others we're supposed to like). It was not a must have set, which is why I was not tempted to preorder. Only seeing the skyrocketing secondary market prices and general unavailability made me look, and finally bite the bullet. It seems like the eBay seller was not scalping (I know, what an unusual experience!), and with my offer he accepted, I ended up paying a total (including shipping and taxes) that was probably slightly lower than those who did preorder. But that's a fluke.

davidd wrote:Exceptionally thorough yet straightforward and easy to follow review. I like the "template style" that has evolved over time that provides standardization, to a point, to your reviews while allowing sufficient flexibility to cover different types of figures and products.

And then there is the occasional, and subtle, "incidental editorializing," which cracks me up!

The photos are clear and crisp and detailed, as always. What kind of lighting set-up do you use for your product review photos?

Also... where'd you get that amazing miniature woven wicker chair?

Thank you very much, Dave, glad you liked it. The template helps keep things organized and not miss something major. Mine is (was) largely borrowed from Michael Crawford, from when I used to write guest reviews for his site (these are not listed above). I have given up on assigning stars, for the most part, because it is quite subjective. I've also recently moved the accessories in the lineup to the position right after the packaging, probably under the influence of unpacking video reviews.

Glad you like the comments. They are much less subtle (or concise) when it comes to source material that I have watched in full...

Thank you for the kind words on the photos, although, lets be honest, they are not my best. It was a difficult shoot: my desk was cluttered, and my Tattooine desert backdrop (which is probably getting boring by now) has suffered some bleaching from sunlight at the ends, which meant I had less of it to use, so the figures in front of it couldn't venture too far in one direction or the other. I was focused on avoiding the figure casting a shadow onto the backdrop, so had to light it primarily from the side (in addition to more general light coming from the ceiling) and again had to limit its placement in front of the backdrop. For frontal and side lighting I usually use some bendy goose-neck lamps that I picked up a few years ago -- the first were from my local Meijer's (one died, the other two still work), the more recent from Walmart (VicTsing Dimmable Table Lamp Eye-Care LED Desk Lamp 4W Gooseneck Touch-Sensitive 3 Brightness Levels, Rading/Studying Light No Ghosting (Black) $18.99 -- I looked up my email receipt and copy-pasted the listing, though the link no longer worked or it is no longer in stock). As you can see, a low-cost fairly viable solution, and easy to use. My overhead lights and the VicTsing dimmable lamp use supposedly natural daylight. I would have used some additional, fainter lighting from the other side, but it seemed too much to attempt with the limitations of the setup and the shadows.

The "woven wicker" chair and the table were both from a DAM Toys Godfather set (not in stock at the moment at Monkey Depot, but you can still see the chair, HERE; they do have the table in stock, HERE). I also used them HERE. By the way, I don't think it's real wicker, but I'm not sure what exactly it is, because it feels pretty accurate and is surprisingly light.

Cool review, Ian. Looking forward to getting mine once I scrape together enough funds to pay off my PO.

Stryker2012 wrote:Cool review, Ian. Looking forward to getting mine once I scrape together enough funds to pay off my PO.

Thank you very much, Mark, I'm glad you liked it, and hope you like your own when you get it. Also, hopefully the delay in them entering full distribution here would help. I know he's not meant for there, but he won't look out of place in your awesome Jabba's Palace diorama, even if Boba Fett might be annoyed that they wore much of the same outfit.

GubernatorFan wrote:

Stryker2012 wrote:Cool review, Ian. Looking forward to getting mine once I scrape together enough funds to pay off my PO.

Thank you very much, Mark, I'm glad you liked it, and hope you like your own when you get it. Also, hopefully the delay in them entering full distribution here would help. I know he's not meant for there, but he won't look out of place in your awesome Jabba's Palace diorama, even if Boba Fett might be annoyed that they wore much of the same outfit.

Hehe. He would. I have no intention of using the armor on him. I prefer him without it.

Stryker2012 wrote:

GubernatorFan wrote:

Stryker2012 wrote:Cool review, Ian. Looking forward to getting mine once I scrape together enough funds to pay off my PO.

Thank you very much, Mark, I'm glad you liked it, and hope you like your own when you get it. Also, hopefully the delay in them entering full distribution here would help. I know he's not meant for there, but he won't look out of place in your awesome Jabba's Palace diorama, even if Boba Fett might be annoyed that they wore much of the same outfit.

Hehe. He would. I have no intention of using the armor on him. I prefer him without it.

Actually, that would work even within the Star Wars context of Jabba's palace. I look forward to seeing what you do with him, eventually.

Thanks so much for putting so much effort in another review.
Sadly my personal investment in Star Wars has greatly diminished. Disney simply overdid it.

I watched the Mandalorian but got increasingly annoyed and am in no mood for another season (or any other seasons from any Star Wars series other than probably Andor).

The Sherif was cool but I don't care for his Mando gear looks. I do care for the head though. That is a really fine head - and I really do enjoy your pic with the relaxing pose in the chair.

Illusion wrote:Thanks so much for putting so much effort in another review.
Sadly my personal investment in Star Wars has greatly diminished. Disney simply overdid it.

I watched the Mandalorian but got increasingly annoyed and am in no mood for another season (or any other seasons from any Star Wars series other than probably Andor).

The Sherif was cool but I don't care for his Mando gear looks. I do care for the head though. That is a really fine head - and I really do enjoy your pic with the relaxing pose in the chair.

Thank you for the kind words, and I'm glad you like him. I feel as you do about Disney Star Wars, to the point where I haven't watched anything past the movies (and the last one only on cable TV), and by now second-guess even Rogue One.

This is indeed a great head sculpt, and I don't think we've seen one of the actor before, except possibly as the bald assassin (and I'm not sure how accurate that likeness was). Perhaps he's going to undergo some neck surgery and end up as a custom!?

Stryker2012 wrote:

From Hot Toys:

The Marshal of Mos Pelgo himself! The legendary Timothy Olyphant checks out the Cobb Vanth 1/6 scale figure by Hot Toys.

I love this. And look at his expression, which is sorta what I miss in the otherwise excellent sculpt! A lot more appropriate than Harrison Ford's treatment of his action figure on some show. I hope he got to keep it.

Yeah. He looks like a kid in a candy store. I hope he got his own figure— if not this one.

I don't keep up with modern actors much anymore, but I love this pic! The guy wears a fedora and a dive watch... and digs his own action figure! Three levels of cool right there!

Those shots are precious! Thanks for sharing!

Stryker2012 wrote:Yeah. He looks like a kid in a candy store. I hope he got his own figure— if not this one.

Indeed, I hope he got it as a present. They should also give him a Cad Bane figure to shoot down in good time.

davidd wrote:I don't keep up with modern actors much anymore, but I love this pic! The guy wears a fedora and a dive watch... and digs his own action figure! Three levels of cool right there!

Illusion wrote:Those shots are precious! Thanks for sharing!

I agree. He loves it and it shows. And the way he's handling it, it's almost like his mini-him is his baby. Very touching. That was almost a pun...

Awww, I'll join the choir: those shots are so precious! Makes me want to get that figure myself! The marketing worked. Almost, as I still manage to resist the impulse.

Diana wrote:Awww, I'll join the choir: those shots are so precious! Makes me want to get that figure myself! The marketing worked. Almost, as I still manage to resist the impulse.

Do it!



So says Sheriff Santa!

I want some of those bottles with the mesh around them! What is that interesting prop from?

(EDIT: never mind - found it on Monkey Depot - it's a Hot Toys item)

davidd wrote:I want some of those bottles with the mesh around them! What is that interesting prop from?

(EDIT: never mind - found it on Monkey Depot - it's a Hot Toys item)

I see you found this:
https://www.monkeydepot.com/Canteen_Hot_Toys_Drink_Bottle_w_Woven_Bag_p/ht5423.htm

I didn't realize it was part of some earlier set, but I guess there is continuity (or recycling) in Disney Star Wars series. Apparently it is used for an alien drink called Spotchka. Mine was just part of the Cobb Vanth set. I imagined it as precious water on a desert planet, but the Russian-ish name and other details suggest it is closer to Vodka (which, incidentally, means "little water").

It came with the Fennec Shand figure.

Stryker2012 wrote:It came with the Fennec Shand figure.

Ah, thanks for confirming my suspicions and identifying the specific source. And it makes sense.

I guess my reaction to a figure of myself would be similar to Timothy Olyphant's, especially if it was of that quality. His joy is contagious.

Great review, as always.

Visisonor wrote:I guess my reaction to a figure of myself would be similar to Timothy Olyphant's, especially if it was of that quality. His joy is contagious.

Great review, as always.

Thank you very much, I'm glad you liked it. And your analysis makes excellent sense; I think my reaction would be the same.

Great review! I prefer this "Boba Fett" look over the other Disney Boba Fett figures Hot Toys has released.