Brutus stood out to me right away in the first trailer for Skeleton crew and I was delighted to see all the pics of the Brutus costume at D23. I have a great love for the wolf-man in the Star Wars Cantina, so I was excited to see them bring back that species for a new show. I was hoping he would get a figure, which is not the sure thing it used to be back in the day, so I was very pleased that he made the cut. Let’s take a look at Pirate Captain Brutus!
The box has some nice art of Brutus on the side and back, but no biographical information for him, just the PR blurb for the series. I guess I’ll wait another couple of weeks for more info. I’m still getting used to the new boxes for the line, but it’s less of a drastic change for Black Series than G.I. Joe and Marvel Legends. I think the left side of the box is a little plain and when looking on the pegs, I’d like some more identifying information on that side.
The accessories are five different blasters that go into five holsters on Brutus’ person. The nice thing about these blasters is they all have a little bit of paint to bring out the details, which is kind of rare for this line.
Brutus wears three blasters across his chest that calls to mind another pirate captain, the infamous Edward Teach AKA Blackbeard. The main still from Skeleton Crew shows off how Brutus wears on the guns on his chest and these guns match those and fit in those spots on the figure. I wasn’t sure about the last two guns, but the larger pistol fit perfectly in the right holster and the tiniest gun fit perfectly in the right holster.
The gun design does that Star Wars thing where they take a real-world gun and greeblie it up a bit to make it different. I’ve seen some discussion that the guns are a little too real-world, but I think they are just as changed from their real-world counterparts as say Han’s DL-44 is from a broomhandle Mauser, but we’re just way more familiar with pirate guns than we were with WWII weapons when we were kids.
I’m really impressed with the sculpting on Brutus, especially the textures in all the different materials of the costume. The face is pretty dead-on to what I’ve seen so far for Brutus, but the hair is a little fuller here than what they showed at D23. It is closer to the one scene I’ve seen him in the trailers and stills, so I’m not concerned. I think they could have gone a little wilder with the teeth size.
The paint is good and I especially like the way they’ve weathered the sleeves and the ends of the coat. I think his face could use a little drybrush to bring out that detail and I wish the eyes popped a bit more. Maybe a brighter red and a gloss coat would help make them stand out as they almost glow red in the brief scenes we’ve seen. Something I didn’t notice until reviewing close-up photos is that the red dot for the eye overlaps one of his lower eyelids.
Articulation is good for Black Series. They’ve slowly chipped away at what their standard is over the years, but what they do moves pretty well. I think the slight swivel you get from the ball and socket hips is slighter here than on other recent figures with that piss-poor version of a thigh swivel. I do wish the ankle hinged forward a little more than it does to facilitate crouches a bit better. There is a thin shirt overlay that goes over the shoulders, so while you can get pretty full range of motion, if the arm lifts too high it will lift the shirt. The cape is also pretty flexible and fairly thin while holding detail. Brutus has:
- Swivel/hinge shoulders, elbows, hips, elbows, and ankles
- Ball and socket lower neck, head, waist, wrists
- Hinged butterfly pectorals
Overall this is a nice figure with a bit more than the usual number of paint hits you see on Black Series. I think they did a good job capturing what appealed to me about this character’s look in the trailer. It is always a little dangerous to get too attached to a character for a new thing based on their look in a trailer. They could be completely lame in the show, but at the very least I can always add them to my Cantina alien group.
