Review of Cobb Vanth - Star Wars
Sixth Scale Action Figure

Introduction

While I didn't hate the Book of Boba Fett, it's not a top ten Star Wars outing for me. Still, it featured a character I loved - Cobb Vanth, played by Timothy Olyphant. While I've cut back on my Hot Toys purchases in the last couple years (I have but 10 figures on preorder for the next 16 months), it was a no brainer for me to jump on this one when it first went up.

The price point caused a slight hesitation though, even for a character I liked this much. At over three hundred dollars - $305 to be exact, plus shipping - he's certainly part of the new, top line price point releases from the company. But that hesitation didn't last long. Hey, I'm weak.

He's just started shipping in the States from Sideshow, and you can pick up him from a variety of online retailers.

Packaging - ***
Nothing too unique here. Hot Toys developed the basic shoe box package years ago, and haven't done much to change it since. We get the cigar band name plate around the cover, and of course, it's all collector friendly, with no damage to the package required to remove the figure and accessories, but a bit of creativity is long over due.

Sculpting - **1/2
Technically there are two 'heads', but one is a portrait, and one is the helmet. The figure comes with the helmet head on, and it's a nice Fett look, slightly distinct from the others on your shelf. The helmet and neck piece are all removed to swap in the sculpted portrait, which is a one piece head and neck.

This head is suppose to be Olyphant as Vanth of course. As you expect from any Hot Toys sculpt, it's extremely realistic and life-like. The detail work on the hair is amazing - you don't need rooted hair on short hair sculpts if you can do work like this. The skin texture, the texture of the beard and mustache, the realsim of the wrinkles and aging...it's all fantastic.

But you'll remember that there are two other aspects to any sculpt I consider critical - accuracy and emotion. And unfortunately, this one fails on both.

Let's talk accuracy. This doesn't look like Olyphant to me, either in this role or in general. Oh, the hair isn't bad, and the style looks screen accurate. But the face is off, with a nose that doesn't match, and a jawline and size that seems weirdly off. The face has to much of a triangular shape, with the head being too wide at the top...or the jaw too narrow. It's a great cosplayer, but it's not Olyphant.

Add in the weird expression, and it loses again. They have the mouth open slightly, showing the bottom teeth. This is always a mistake. Either go with a closed mouth, or go with an expressive open mouth, but don't go with this slightly open, mouth breathing look. I'm definitely not a fan.

At this price point, we definitely should get a better representation.

Paint - ****
As you've come to expect, the paint is immaculate. It's realistic, with life-like eyes and an amazing skin tone. The eyes are sharp, even, and glossy, and they've added in some gray to the facial hair that looks decent, considering the limitations of paint when trying to create this older look.

They've also done some great weathering on the armor bits with the paint. While this weathering doesn't really translate to the cloth pieces, the armor looks great thanks to the careful application. It does extend to the accessories, particularly the rifle and boots.

Articulation - ***
The usual TrueType with the usual articulation, but the armor restricts it a bit, especially in the torso. I found that the arms didn't quite raise as high at the shoulders as I'd like, but overall you can create natural poses in shallow to deep stances.

While the torso is a bit restricted, and the neck lacks some mobility thanks to the single piece neck and head, there's a couple areas that make up for it. First, the helmet does not have this neck limitation, and has a fantastic range of movement. You can add all kinds of personality and attitude to any pose in the helmet thanks to the terrific neck joint.

The other area of positivity is the ankles. where you can keep the feet flat on the ground even in deep stances. This is because of the well designed two piece boots.

It's also worth nothing here that the range finder on the helmet can move up and down, as you'd expect.

Accessories - ***1/2
I already mentioned that you get both the helmet and the head, which always goes a long way to improving the score in this category.

There's also two more sets of hands to go with the relaxed pair he comes wearing - fists and grips. They swap easily enough, and remained in place as I was posing the figure.

He also has two weapons, his handgun and rifle. The handgun fits neatly in the holster, and he can grip the rifle using the supplied hands. Sculpts and paint work on both are excellent.

He has the classic rocket pack, and this time it attaches entirely thanks to a strong magnet. There are two fire effects included that can be attached for flying poses, and there's a blast effect that can be attached between the pack and the rocket to simulate firing.

He lives on a pretty dry planet, so he also has a bottle with netting over it for his favorite drink.

Of course he has a display stand and crotch support, but the stand is actually made up of two pieces, creating a mini-diorama. You can simply go with the base piece, or you can add the second step.

Outfit - ***1/2
Overall, the costume is well done. It's nicely tailored, with a great fit, and the various cloth pieces are high quality and well made. Stitching is even and clean, and where there is some wear and tear - like on the pants - it looks good.

There's plenty of plastic bits added as well, both on the main belt and around the legs. The armor is well sculpted, and has a very good paint job, creating a worn and weathered look. As I mentioned earlier, the clean, bright look of the cloth underneath the torso armor is a bit disconcerting, but it's still a high quality job.

The boots are a great sculpt, and are a well designed two piece style, allowing for good ankle articulation. The strong magnet will hold the jet pack in place, and the holster comes already attached, threaded through one of the loops on the main belt to keep it in place.

It's that holster that draws most of my ire. It's simply die cut from thin pleather, and it looks as cheap as it sounds. At over $300, they have to do a better looking holster than this.

You can remove the torso armor, the gauntlets, and the light colored vest, and have him in the basic dark brown shirt as well, if you're looking for an alternate appearance.

Fun Factor - ***
The articulation is decent, and the accessories allow for plenty of options. He's the most fun when combined with Cad Bane on the shelf of course, but he looks good lined up with the other Fett versions as well.

Value - *
Regular readers know how this category works - an average score here is **1/2, which means you're getting what you paid for, nothing more, nothing less. Anything over a **1/2 can improve the Overall, while anything under can reduce it.

And yea, at $305, this figure is ridiculously over priced. I'm not sure how Hot Toys has come to the conclusion that they can still sell enough volume at these prices, but time will tell. At these price points, collectors will seriously consider every purchase, and pre-ordering becomes less and less likely. It also opens the door for InArt to further erode the Hot Toys market, especially when there's a conflict like with The Batman figure.

Things to Watch Out For -
Not much. I did find that inserting the rocket into the pack itself requires a bit of care, and it seems like you need to line it up just right to get it to slide in easily. Otherwise, you should be good to go.

Overall - ***
At over $300, there's an awful high bar they need to reach. Overall, they didn't make it.

The costume and accessories are great, and the paint job is exactly as good as you expect from them. But the likeness is off. While it's very lifelike, it's not very accurate, and this is easily my main complaint with the release. They need to do better if they plan on charging prices that are well beyond premium.

The only other disappointment is the holster, and they need to consider sculpting them rather than using cheap pleather. I've complained about this with other recent releases, like Doc and Marty from BTTF3, and it's something they need to correct moving forward.

Score Recap (out of ****):
Packaging - ***
Sculpting - **1/2
Paint - ****
Articulation - ***1/2
Accessories - ***1/2
Outfit - ***
Fun Factor - ***
Value - *
Overall - ***

Where to Buy 
Online options include these site sponsors:

- or you can search ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
I looked at Cad Bane not too long ago, and the recent Bad Batch Hunter.

You should also hit the Search Reviews page, in case any other applicable reviews were done after this one was published.

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