May the 4th be with you….ugh, I felt pretty dirty saying that. I swear it felt like May 4th, 2016, was just last month, but we once again come up to “Star Wars” day. And this is a special year – Star Wars first came to theaters in 1977, so we’re celebrating 40 years of Star Wars. And at least 37 years since it was revealed that Black people do exist in the Star Wars universe.
It was May 21, 1980, in “Empire Strikes Back” when we were first introduced to Han Solo’s “friend,” fellow smuggler and scoundrel, and apparently the only Black person in the Star Wars universe (up to that point), Lando Calrissian played by Billy Dee Williams. Williams went on to play Lando again 3 years later in “Return of the Jedi,” but this time redeemed himself as a high-ranking officer in the Rebel Alliance.
Lando is probably the number one character that I would like in the 6″ Black Series and apparently he’s coming soon (in his Cloud City outfit), but until then, we have the 3.75″ Lando action figure, from the Walmart Exclusive Star Wars Black Series line. Does this figure make up for the lack of a 6″ figure? Let’s check out the review…
As far as packaging, this figure comes in a scaled-down version of the 6″ Black Series packaging. We get a “collector’s” box with the figure prominently displayed in the picture window against a red background.
On the back, we get bio-blurb in various languages and some other stuff. That’s it. Kind of lackluster.
I’ve said this before about packaging…once the figure is out, unless you’re going to display it in the packaging, it is most likely doomed to live out the rest of its days in the trash. No sense in keeping the clutter.
If you keep it in the package, it’s a nice box, but I’ve had my figure for a while and the box was a little beat up by the time I got to it. So either way, I was getting rid of the box.
Packaging Score: 7 out of 10 
This figure comes with basically one accessory, which is its laser pistol. If you also count the oversize cape, then it would be two accessories.
Nothing bad or good to say about the laser pistol. At the scale, it’s hard to figure out the detail in it anyway.
I do have an issue with the soft goods cape though. Thank you for making it soft goods, but it fails on a couple of levels. At certain angles, it looks more like a hoodie than a cape and I’m pretty sure that’s not the effect we want. And the clasp that is holding the cape onto the figure is WAY too big when comparing it to the reference source. It would almost definitely look better on a bigger figure (say 6″ maybe?).
Accessories Score: 7 out of 10
It’s been a while since I’ve reviewed a 3.75″ figure, but I was impressed with this one. For the size, it is not a bad likeness at all to the General Lando Calrissian character.
The outfit and the paint are all well done. There are no noticeable errors anywhere.
I’m still amazed at how small this figure’s head is but somehow it seemed to capture the basic details of the character. It achieves a level of detail that even some 6″ toymakers fail to do sometimes.
One thing I want to mention here is that I had the feeling that I already owned this figure…a quick search through my collection and I found out that I did. The figure that was produced in the Vintage Star Wars line was the exact same figure. The only difference that I could tell was some silver on the belt buckle of the newer figure. Otherwise I just re-bought the same figure. Thanks for duping me Hasbro.
Sculpt/Likeness Score: 8 out of10
Again, it’s been a while since I’ve handled a 3.75″ figure, but this little figure has an impressive 24+ points of articulation. Impressive for it’s size. This is the amount of articulation that I wished Hasbro would produce for all of their figures, but unfortunately they went from 24+ P.O.A. to 5 P.O.S.
Case in point, check out the pose of the Stormtrooper. It looks very unnatural and stiff. But this is what Hasbro swears that kids and collectors want. I honestly think it was an excuse for them to offer another line of collectible toys and then jack the price up on them.
I like how for the knees and elbows, the swivel to those joints are carefully placed next to the hinge. It ultimately hides some of the joints and produces a more natural figure.
Articulation Score: 8.5 out of10 
I’m such a huge Lando Calrissian fan. Before I came up with this website, I had an idea that I could take a Lando figure and have him “host” his own talk show, interviewing/reviewing the action figures that joined him. It was a goofy idea and would have never worked the way I wanted it to, but it was a good idea at the time (around 20 years ago…)
It’s funny…Walmart doubled down on the 3.75″ Star Wars Black Series line, and came up with a whole bunch of extra figures. I believe at most Walmarts nationwide, they are clearancing out these figures for about $6/a figure, so now is a great time to pick up a few if you’re so inclined in doing so.
By the way, did I tell you the name of the website from 20 years back? “The Return of the Space-Pimp”…or something around that nature. We all knew that Billy Dee Williams was a pimp, I just wanted to give him his platform…
