“Who I am is not important. My message is.” He is the ultimate story of hero-turned-villain, and he was able to redeem himself after his fall from valiant Jedi to Sith conqueror. Revan is finally immortalized in six-inch Black Series format – so how does the new figure measure up to this legend? 
It’s been a rough couple weeks here at the apartment studio – some family health issues and work-related stress – so it felt right to get back into talking toys with a character whose story is built on rise, fall, and redemption. Darth Revan, once hero to the ancient Old Republic, found himself twisted into becoming a Sith Lord after losing himself on a hunt to stop the Mandalorians and ancient Sith Lords. What makes him so compelling is that he became the very evil he swore to protect the galaxy against – not unlike Anakin Skywalker – but his journey through light and darkness was a repeated cycle. His life was burdened with wars, multiple existential conflicts and crises of faith, and eventually accepting his inner darkness to finally rest in peace – not as light or dark, but complete as a being, accepting the light and the dark as part of the greater whole.
For any unaware, Darth Revan is a focal character of the Old Republic era of (now Legends) Star Wars material. Set 3,956 years before the events of A New Hope, Knights of the Old Republic was released in 2003 and primarily centered on the player choices of a Republic soldier set to the backdrop of a war between Jedi and Sith forces. The game is almost unanimously recommended even to this day. Not only did the story feature Revan’s rise and fall (or fall again, depending on how you played it), it also branched out into comics and other Star Wars lore – Revan eventually gained his own novel as a tie-in to 2011s The Old Republic online game, as well as being referenced in the game’s story and eventually becoming the center of one of the game’s expansions. He’s an immensely popular, though sometimes hotly-debated, character. So it makes sense that many fans voted him in as a figure to be made by Hasbro for the Black Series six-inch line.
The Look:
Revan is forged by conflict, and the overall look of his figure shows battle scars and wear. His capes and waist cape/robes, both made from soft goods, are textured and torn. They feature numerous tears, holes, and would-be burns. Overall there’s a good mix of soft goods and normal plastic here – the red sash, which needs to stay centered for the most part, is plastic and holds its place, while the robes at his waist and his cape flow behind him and are poseable. Revan’s chest and gauntlets feature a copper tinge to them, while his boots and greaves have a silver, steel-plated look to them.
The hardest part to get right on this figure would be the mask. Hasbro’s Black Series line is known for face issues at times when it comes to paint, but masked/helmeted figures always seem to look much nicer. I’m happy to say that the Revan I purchased directly from Hasbro’s online store has no paint defects whatsoever. And I was worried too, buying online without scoping out the figure in my hands at the store first. But in all honesty, good luck finding this figure at a store (more on that later.) But the Mandalorian mask looks great, a mix of dark gunmetal and blood red with the pencil-thin black visor that somehow people see through.
The Build:
This build, like many other sources, uses a male body style despite the fact that in the original game, Revan could be a woman if the player so chose. So Revan is scaled to just about every other male figure. Here’s a tip I learned from messing up my Ahsoka figure ever so slightly – for difficult poses, move the robes/soft goods around first, then pose the limbs. These small pieces of fabric can be rather fragile and can tear if not handled gently, and believe be, you want to take care of a figure that’s relatively rare and priced high on the aftermarket on name alone.
Revan’s articulation is standard for six-inch Black Series figures. The only hindrance to his posability is the plastic/rubbery hood, which doesn’t leave a lot of wiggle room for his masked face. But since most of what Revan does is look serious just by the way he stands, this won’t hinder display by much. However, one comment I read on Reddit has me slightly miffed about the arm articulation on this figure – he can’t cross his arms and look hardcore like in the image below.
The Gear:
Revan’s robes are layered with his signature style – a center ring with several smaller rings hanging around in place of a traditional belt. A black sash (non-soft goods) hangs at his back and a narrow red one in front. I give the artists extra credit for making each ring an individual piece rather than just painting them on.
Depending on play style within the original game, or which version you’re reading about, Revan was known to wield a variety of lightsabers. As a Jedi early in his life, he favored a single blue blade. As a Sith, he was most-known for a red and purple saber in each hand, or just as often only the red blade. Choices within the game were nearly endless – single-blade, saber staff, and non-aligned color choices. Hasbro was smart to stick with single sabers, one red and one purple, as that seems to be what is both faithful to the character and faithful to the gameplay. Each of his two sabers is unique. The purple saber features a wider, heavier-looking hilt with three wedge-shaped protrusions on the blunt end and three sharper points at the blade end. His more streamlined red saber hilt is long and silver with a gold ring at the bladed end and a narrower black ring around the blunt end. Neither saber features the hilt loops and his costumer does not feature hooks to store lightsabers in a deactivated state, however both sabers can have their blades removed.
The Verdict:
Revan is another great addition to the Black Series line, and it ticks that box for me specifically that he isn’t in a film but he got an awesome action figure. Absolutely pick this one up if you can, and sooner rather than later. As I’m writing this, I see that earlier this month, he was reported to have been removed from Hasbro’s site. (Link to Jedi Temple Archives here) I made my purchase in late May and got him for retail, so keep an eye out on Amazon or other sellers and pop on it when the right price calls to you. This figure is a must-have for any Old Republic fan or fan of Legends lore. He may be a bit more of a shelf piece than one you take down to play with just based on a couple of posability issues, but otherwise six-inch Revan is a great figure.
Thanks for reading! You can catch me talking toys here and sometimes on Reddit at u/SupremeLeaderDavid. And as always you can contact me through the contact page or leave a comment if you saw something you liked. Should Hasbro make other Old Republic-era figures? I’d love a Canderous Ordo and HK-47 to go with my Revan!
Until next time, meatbags!
-Supreme Leader David
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