Review of Han Solo, Chewbacca sixth scale action figure
Star Wars

Introduction

If you're a Star Wars fan AND a sixth scale collector, one of your grails has always been a Chewbacca.  While various companies have taken a crack at it, none have turned out better than a weird looking stuff animal. All that hair is tricky, and managing to create a realistic look that doesn't cost a thousand dollars has been too daunting of a task.

Until Hot Toys got the license, that is.  They announced early on that they would be producing a Chewbacca, as well as a Han Solo to go with him.  You could order these individually for around $255 (Chewbacca) or $225 (Han Solo), or the pair in a special boxed set for $480. While the pricing is about the same either way, the two pack included not two but THREE additional accessories, making it the better bargain.  That two pack is what I'll be checking out tonight.

And don't forget that Hot Toys showed this pair off inside a Falcon cockpit at SDCC this year, creating the potential for an outstanding display once that baby goes up for order and finally ships.

Packaging - ***
Pretty standard shoebox style stuff, with a double plastic tray inside to hold both figures and their accessories. There's some basic instructions as well, although there's nothing here too difficult to figure out. It's all collector friendly of course, and there's not quite as much extra plastic wrap on the figures this time around.

Sculpting - ***
This is one of those instances where the in hand experience and photos rarely match up, and that's true for both figures. Even when I saw them in person at SDCC, I was not particularly impressed with either likeness. In hand, my opinion improved on both.

These are sixth scale, and Han comes in just over 12" tall.  Chewbacca is a big boy, topping out at 14 1/2" inches tall fully upright.

Let's start with Han.  You can assume the realism is there - this is Hot Toys after all, and they've set the bar when it comes to realistic portraits in sixth scale. There isn't a ton of skin texture or aging here, and the hair isn't quite as finely detailed as we've seen with some of their work. But it's still a solid representation when it comes to this primary aspect.

Of course, creating a highly realistic sculpt goes a long way toward creating a life-like appearance. They've avoided any mannequin or zombie effect, and given him a tight but intermediate expression - not too serious, not too silly.

But what about accuracy?  I'm not sold that it's Han, although in hand it looks much better than I expected.  It's still more cosplayer Han than Ford Han, and aspects like the too large lips and the too deeply set eyes are throwing it off just enough for me.  Still, I can't say we've ever gotten a better Han Solo in this scale...but unlike the recent ANH Obi-Wan, this won't be the last Han Solo we see Hot Toys produce.

His hand sculpts look good and are all useful, although they are over sized. That's no surprise for the regular Hot Toys collector of course, since over sized hands is almost a trademark for them.

While I expect more Hans, I'm not quite as positive with Chewbacca. Like Obi-wan, Chewie was never a fashionista. He pretty much had one look, and that was the look you get here.  He might get enough of an update in The Force Awakens to make a second version possible, but only time will tell.

Until such a thing occurs, I will happily say this is the best sixth scale Chewbacca we've ever gotten. I'll admit the bar isn't particularly high on that one, but that shouldn't take away from the exceptional job Hot Toys has done here, considering what they've undertaken.

In the Sculpting category, I'll only be discussing the head.  The fur body will be part of the Outfit section.

And it's a very, very well done head - with a few nits that hold me back from going too far with the score. They've done a terrific job with the application of the fur, although out of the box things are a little rough.  He has quite the muzzle, because they've added a lot of product around the face and chin, matting the fur down on the face quite tightly.  I loosened it up a bit with a small brush, particularly on the chin and jawline, where I wanted the hair to look a little more like a beard. This is a figure that will require futzing to get it where you want it, and where you want it might not be where everyone else likes it. Chewie's fur had a lot of looks, from wild and wooly to more contained and reserved. The big plus here is that there's enough - and it's soft enough - that you can work with it to get the look you want.

The nose, lips, teeth and tongue look great as well.  I do wish you could see the upper teeth just a little better when looking straight on, but at the right angle you can see everything perfectly.

Which brings me to one of my major nits with the figure that does pull it down in this category. The eyes are VERY deeply set, due in large part to the thick fur. Unless you get the light just right, like in the photo below, you'll never even see his eyes, and that takes away some of the accuracy, no matter how much you futz.

My other major nit here is with the size of the forehead.  While he did have a big one, this one is too much considering the size of his other features. It's not terrible, but it does through off the accuracy of the sculpt for me.

Paint - ***1/2
The paint work is solid on both figures, especially when it comes to the various tiny accessories and accoutrements.

The work on Han's head sculpt is good, although it's not particularly inspiring.  They've got their bases covered, but this wasn't one of those situations where I was wowed by how lifelike the skin is, or piercing the eyes are. Its above average for the market, but not the best we've seen from Hot Toys.

Chewie takes a slight hit because of the fur color.  This will be greatly debated I'm sure, but I think he's too dark. By that I mean there's a bit too much dark fur, not enough light, particularly in the face.  I do think the light and dark colors are a good match to what we saw on screen, but the proportion between the two, especially on the face, seems slightly out of whack.

Articulation - ***1/2
Underneath all that fur is a TrueType body, and it has almost all the articulation you expect.

Chewbacca's ball jointed neck works particularly well, better than average.  There's lots of tilt and lean action, which is critical for posing this character.  He also has great upper body articulation, and his arms can come in very snug to his body and chest.

The leg articulation is a bit more restricted than usual, at least for me.  While the ball hips and double pin knees worked great, the ball ankles didn't have much rocker, or side-to-side movement, as I would like.

That was in stark contrast to Han, who had fantastic ankle movement and none of it was hampered by the soft leather boots. No matter how deep the stance, he could keep his feet flat on the ground.

The rest of his articulation was just as you'd expect, although the joints were much tighter than usual.  I'm not sure if this is a new concept, or simply a manufacturing one off, but the elbows, shoulders and hips were very tight, and even had a ratchet joint feel to them.  This made some posing difficult, because it can be very tough to do minor, small adjustments.

Those were the only two issues with this pair however, and you should have no real trouble getting and keeping just about any classic pose.

Accessories - Chewie ***1/2; Han ****
Both figures come with a nice assortment of useful extras. Remember, I'm grading here on the two pack, where you get three extra goodies.

Chewie doesn't do quite as well, but he still has what he needs.  There's one extra set of hands, better designed to hold the blasters. He also has his bandolier with leather man purse, and I love the feel and quality of the materials.  The little packs are all just plastic rectangles, and you should note that they DO come out, so be careful when you're handling him. I almost lost one myself, and it's very easy to do.

He also has his crossbow blaster, beating Daryl to it by more than 30 years. The weapon is properly scaled, looks great in his hands, and even has a leather strap to wear it on his back.

This two pack version has a second blaster - the large rifle taken from a Stormtrooper.  Another great sculpt and paint job, it includes the folding V leg stand.

Because Hot Toys intends to produce the Falcon cockpit, they've included a headset for Chewie and Han.  They are different, with the microphone on opposite sides.  I didn't try using them yet, but as I plan on selling my soul to afford the ship, I'm glad they included them.

Han has an extra hair piece to allow him to properly wear the headset.  Both of his hair sculpts are held in place tightly with magnets, and both look good.

Han comes with a nice assortment of hands, including the un-gloved pair of relaxed sculpts he comes wearing. There's another set of un-gloved hands in gripping poses, and three sets of gloved hands - two sets of gripping, one set relaxed.  These work well with the accessories, and they even included one left hand that works perfectly to cup the bottom of the blaster grip, a classic Han pose.

Both Han and Chewie have a couple extra wrists posts as well, but the hands swapped cleanly for me, with no real fear of breakage.

Of course he has that blaster, and it fits nicely in the leather holster on his gun belt. This belt looks fantastic, thanks in part to the addition of various small extras.  Note that these can pop off, and are not all permanently attached!  I had one pop off during handling, and it could have easily been lost. The belt buckles in back, and you can swap this belt for his stolen Stormtrooper belt, which also closes in back thanks to some Velcro.  To swap belts you remove the right boot, unbuckle the gun belt in back (carefully!), slip the belt down off his leg (do NOT try to unbuckle the tie-down), and then put the Trooper belt in place and put his boot back on. Swapping the boots was surprisingly easy thanks to the very long ankle posts.

The Trooper belt looks good too, and the holster can hold his second additional two pack accessory, the Stormtrooper blaster. We'll be seeing this blaster plenty I'm sure, but getting it with Han was a nice add. It's worth noting that both holsters use a small magnet to keep the strap in place over the gun, and this works quite well.

Another extra that fits on the belt is the droid caller. It pops into a metal clamp on the left side of the gun belt, and remains tightly in place.

Finally, both figures come with a adjustable crotch support display base, designed to look like a grated floor. There's a name plate as well, and this matches what we got with Obi-wan, so I'm assuming it will be the standard for the OT line.

Outfit - ***1/2
Both of these 'costumes' are excellent - and it really is a costume for Chewbacca, although not one that will come off quite so easily.

Han has his white shirt with half length sleeves, vest, pants, belt and boots. All of the clothes are nicely tailored, with a good fit...although that fit can make him look a little more lean than he really was.

The shirt includes a wire in the collar, or so the instructions say.  You can adjust it inward or outward, depending on how much chest and neck you want to expose. I moved it around a bit in different poses, but it didn't stay very well, so it's clearly not the thickest wire.

The leather boots are an interesting feature.  On the one hand, I love how they allow such great posability with the ankles and feet. On the other, the soft leather tends to bend and buckle in odd ways, sometimes interfering with the look of a particular stance. I ended up docking him a half star because of it, but it's definitely a YMMV situation.

Chewie's furry body has mostly pluses with a couple minuses as well.  Like the face, the fur on the body can be futzed to your preferred look.  Out of the box, the hair tends to be a little kinky, particularly on the arms. The hair also tends to run the length of the arm - see the first photo for an idea of an un-brushed Wookie. Brush him out a bit, and you'll get a straighter look, and you can also drape the hair on the arms downward.  For an example of a more coiffed Wookie, see below.

Whether the fur should be more kinky or more straight is going to be a very personal choice, once again.  It did vary a bit in the movie, so there really won't be too many right or wrong answers when it comes to the body hair style. The nice thing is that it was very easy to work with, so you should have no trouble getting a style you like.

One of the negatives was around the wrists. While the hands swap easily enough, the fur suit tends to ride up a bit on the forearms and not cover the wrists as fully as I'd like. You can get the fur over them, but it wasn't quite as thick as the rest of the arm or the hand, making it look a little odd. This is more of an issue if you drape the hair downward.  If you allow the hair to flow the length of the arm, it will do a much better job covering and filling in the wrist area.

The one other spot that bugged me a bit in hand with Chewbacca's costume was the thighs.  The hair is pretty straight and tight to the leg here, and it tends to make them look all the more like a pair of fur pants. It's not a massive issue, but it does look better in photos than it does in hand.

Fun Factor - ***1/2
Because of the articulation and accessories, you'll be able to pose and re-pose this pair over and over, looking for your favorite result.  Add in the futzing with Chewbacca's hair - which I found to be far less frustrating than with some rooted hair figures - and the average Star Wars fan has plenty of fun times in front of him.

Value - **1/2
I'm grading here based on the two pack at around $470 - $480. That's $235 - $240 a figure, pretty average pricing for Hot Toys right now (although higher than much of the competition). They've upped the ante here on costuming and accessories, so I'm willing to consider this price point an average value.

You can buy them separately for about the same price, maybe $5 or so more. However, you'll end up with three less accessories, making that a worse deal overall. If you want them both, go for this two pack.

Things to Watch Out For -
As I mentioned earlier, some of the small extras, like the packs on Chewbacca's bandolier or Han's gun belt, are removable and can fall off during handling and get lost.  Be sure to keep checking them to avoid an upset.

Overall - ***1/2
I have to be honest - I didn't think I'd like this pair in hand as much as I do.  I was not thrilled with the look of Han from the start, and the SDCC Chewbacca had far too much snout. But once I had a chance to futz around a bit with Chewie, and look closely at Han in hand, I ended up scoring these a good half star higher than I had expected.

Of course, a big part of that is the excellent costume and accessories.  And if you buy the two pack, you're getting a reasonable value as well, something that's not all that common these days. Had I bought them individually and gotten fewer accessories, particularly with the Chewbacca at $255, I probably would have been a half star lower overall.

But you can't really have one of these guys without the other - they are the original BFF's after all.  With the promise of a cockpit for them to ride in, the Force will certainly be strong with your display. Ugh, I can't believe I just said that...

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

Where to Buy 
Online options include these site sponsors:

- Sideshow has the regular Chewie for $255, the regular Han for $225, or you can get on the wait list for this two pack set for $480.

- or you can search ebay for a deal.

Related Links -
Just last week I looked at Hot Toys release of Obi-Wan Kenobi, and they have also done Stormtroopers and Blackhole Troopers. Sideshow has a ton of product in sixth scale for the Star Wars license, and their most recent was Speeder Bike and Scout Trooper.

This is the only decent Chewbacca ever produced, but Han Solo has been tried a few times with varying results, including the Sideshow Hoth Han Solo, and their 'smuggler' version. I have a guest review of the Medicom attempt at Han, and Sideshow also did a Bespin version.

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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