I’m looking forward to the Skeleton Crew show, and I’m hoping for a bit of light-hearted fun in the Star Wars galaxy, so when I saw Amazon had the whole wave at a slight discount, I pre-ordered the bunch. The kids all have a similar feel as figures, so I decided to do them in all one go. Let’s take a look at Neel, Wim, Fern, and KB from Skeleton Crew!
The novelty of the slightly changed box package has worn off for me. I do like the interlinked side artwork and nothing there really disagrees with the figures inside, so I’m pretty neutral on it.
All four kids come with a backpack and a flashlight while Neel and Wim also get walkie talkies and one extra accessory each. The packs all have unique sculpts and paint details and fit securely on the figures via straps and have slots for the flashlights. The flashlights all have unique sculpts and paint jobs as well. It is kind of ironic that the packs for these four kids work better functionally than most G.I. Joe backpacks. Fern’s pack straps do make her arms stand out from her body a bit more than the others because the straps weren’t designed to go flat at the figure’s sides like the others are.
Wim has an extra spot for his space-wrench (hydro-spanner?) in his pack, though there doesn’t appear to be a storage option for the Walkie-talkie. The Walkie also has a couple paint hits, which seems really good for the way this line has been going lately. There is a weird looking orange thing in Wim’s pack that is a separate piece, but not removeable. It kind of looks like a shovel and trowel combined and also gets a lot of paint for this line.
Neel has storage for all his stuff. I’m not quite sure what the silver thing is supposed to be, it kind of looks like binoculars and that is something a kid with a walkie-talkie might carry, so I’m going with that for now. Whatever it is, it’s silver and looks techy and fits on his belt. The walkie attaches to a strap on his belt, and the flashlight fits in the pack.
Sculpting looks pretty great on this crew. I especially like all the different cloth textures applied to the different textiles the kids wear. Neel has these crazy osh-kosh-bygosh looking overalls with an almost corduroy texture. All of the techno-gubbins on his belt and the fact that he’s a cute little elephant-person keep it firmly in the Star Wars design aesthetic.
Fern has a jacket that recalls Han Solo’s Hoth gear and there is a ton of tiny detail in all the patches on the thing. I think they also conveyed a bit of sass in that portrait and I like that she and KB continue the fingerless gloves design cue from Rebels’ Ezra and Kanan.
KB looks pretty stoic and probably the most Star Wars-y after Neel with her jumpsuit and Lobot-like head gear. She does have one of the more abnormal sculpting issues as the overhang of her thigh on the knees is really unnatural looking when the legs are bent.
Wim’s probably the most earth-like outfit with cargo pants, velcro shoes, and a sweater, but that jacket is cut in a very Star Wars style. I feel like his likeness is a bit off, with his hair seeming shorter and his features a little more cherubic than I recall from trailers.
Articulation is pretty much Black Series standard, though I notice Wim and Fern’s waist ball joint is pretty limited and KB’s neck is pretty stiff. Wim has exceptionally nice looking up range. At first I thought the sculpt of the crotch piece on Neel and KB’s jumpsuits didn’t allow for as much leg movement, but they do seem to be of a softer plastic, so they can move almost 90, though Neel’s knees don’t quite hit a 90 degree bend either due to the baggy pants. I do wish all the kids’ swivel/hinge elbows got better than 90 degree bend to better grab their pack straps or bring the walkies closer to their mouths, but it’s all basically just 90 degree motion there as well. I also found myself wishing the up/down hinge in the wrists moved a little more so they posed with the flashlights pointing forward a bit better. They have:
- Swivel/hinge shoulders, elbows, hips, knees, and ankles
- Ball and socket head and waist
- Swivel thighs (except Neel)
- Swivel under the pants leg (except KB)
Paint is pretty solid on these as well. There is a lot more little paint detail hits on these characters and their accessories than you might think at first glance and it’s all fairly clean. For once, I don’t feel like the lack of washes or weathering is a negative here since these are kids from the space suburbs. Mostly I’m glad for the brightness of some of the design choice colors. There’s still a lot of brown and grey, but Neel’s blue skin and orange and red outfit really pop as do the yellow accents on KB’s outfit.
Overall, these are four very nice figures, outside of whether I end up liking the show or not. I have a lot of hope for the show, but I’m also going in expecting just a fun adventure that doesn’t need to move the entire (almost) 50 year-old saga forward. For a franchise designed for kids, the adult fans do tend to react poorly to actual kids in the story, so I’m crossing my fingers that these characters land well and the show is the fun romp the previews make it out to be. Skeleton Crew premiers 12/2/2024 at 9PM EST and these figures are still available at places like BBTS and Amazon.
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