Ever since that first brief glimpse of ‘Dark Rey’ in a trailer for The Rise Of Skywalker, I was instantly excited! Fans had been creating cosplay versions of an alternate Dark Side version of Rey for a few years, and now it actually came true! While fans usually imagined Rey in a black version of her usual ‘Jakku’ outfit, the Dark Side vision Rey in The Rise Of Skywalker wears a dress closer to the robes of Emperor Palpatine.

I loved the way Dark Side Rey was incorporated in the film, and was so excited when Funko revealed her inclusion in their upcoming line-up! As much as I wish I could collect all the Star Wars Pop Vinyl figures, that is a costly undertaking, so I focus on my favourite characters, like Rey and Leia.

This figure was a birthday present from my husband – while my birthday is still four days away, with a nationwide lock down starting at midnight tonight, we held a simple little impromptu birthday party today at home, where my husband surprised me with this fantastic little figure he knew was at the top of my wish list.

I already had the standard Episode IX Rey Pop Vinyl figure that was originally released on ‘Force Friday’ 4th October 2019, and it’s neat to have them both as a cute little mini set. I wonder if we will ever see a Pop Vinyl figure of Rey holding up her new yellow lightsaber? That would be awesome!

I loved the use of ‘Dark Side Rey’ in The Rise Of Skywalker, and I’m so happy that her brief appearance was used for merchandise. I really hope she will eventually be available in the 3 3/4″ action figure line as well, but for now I’m so happy to have my own cute little Funko Dark Side Rey for my collection.

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Will Hasbro release more Knights of Ren in either 3.75″ or 6″ scale? We don’t know for sure at this stage, but at least we’ve got one representative from that mysterious group of Dark Side acolytes.

Although not named at the time of release (the backing card for this figure only calls him “Knight of Ren”), we now know this character as Ap’Lek. He was a recognisable character amongst the Knights, in some ways, as he used a bladed weapon (Mandalorian executioner vibro-ax, crafted from beskar) that we have previously seen versions of in the collection of Dryden Vos, in Solo: A Star Wars Story, and in Dok-Ondar’s Den of Antiquities at Galaxy’s Edge, Disneyland and Walt Disney World.

The figure itself is nicely sculpted, with layers of leather-like cape over his dark armour. The articulation serves his upper limbs well, allowing a two-handing grip of the vibro-ax, but it’s a little hard to get decent natural-looking decent poses out of his legs, particularly given the way his heavy cloak draws his centre of gravity backwards, hampering his ability to stand unaided. Never-the-less, with the aid of a pegged stand, this guy is a fun, mysterious character to have in our (currently limited, but hopefully due to grow soon) The Rise of Skywalker line-up.

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The Star Wars Episode 9: The Rise of Skywalker trailer is out! We watched it as soon as we could (YouTube link)… which was within seconds of being able to access it online. And then watched it again, over and over. But even that’s not enough, as there is so much action, and new material – the screen-cap gallery over on SWNZ, Star Wars New Zealand breaks the trailer down into individual scenes so we can look delve into all the background detail as well as the key heroic action.

Matt: There is so much going in this trailer, that it’s hard to know where to start. The take home message, I think, is that it totally has me amped, with fully piqued curiosity, to see how Ep9 unfolds, where it takes us, and how it wraps up.

We live in an unusual time – although we’ve experienced the “final Star Wars film” scenario before, there is something about the abundance of Star Wars material these days that has us expecting a permanent Star Wars presence for the rest of our lives now, so it feels significant that this is the finale for the Skywalker arc. At least we’ll have lots of call-backs to movie material in the upcoming streaming series.

I have a number of favourite scenes from the trailer. All the new material is interesting (new characters such as Zorii and Jannah) for sure, but I particularly like the touches that imply a lot of references to other eras and plot lines will be drawn together. The blockade runner at a dramatically low altitude over the jungle, the densely-packed ensemble Rebel fleet, the Emperor’s throne room, and so forth. There are strong implications that there will be more of a single central plot thread, with Poe, Rey, and Finn travelling together for a lot of what we’ve seen so far. We haven’t seen a lot of the First Order side of the movie just yet (nothing of the Sith Troopers, or Richard E. Grant’s FO Officer character), so there is undoubtedly lots that remains to be discovered when we see film. 56 days to go, at the time of writing… I can’t wait.

Anaria: I wasn’t sure how many new scenes this trailer would show, but I was pleasantly surprised! It is interesting that we mostly see the Resistance forces in this trailer – besides Kylo Ren, we also see a few Stormtroopers but that’s basically it. Nothing of Hux or Richard E. Grant’s character, or the recently revealed Sith Troopers.

I am so happy that General Leia made an appearance, especially that this trailer was released on Carrie Fisher’s birthday. I know she won’t be in the film as much as I would hope, or as the filmmakers originally intended, but I’m happy that we will be able to see scenes like this. It is heartwarming to see that Carrie Fisher is given first billing on the poster. I know that seeing her on screen again, and for the last time, will be hugely emotional.

I am excited by the number of shots that leave me asking so many questions. For this last trailer, I was expecting that we wouldn’t see much new material – but now I have even more questions! I haven’t been following any spoilers, so I am really intrigued by this shot of Rey and Kylo smashing a dark object, and what appears to be an ancient sith throne?! It has an Old Republic feel, like something we’d see in SWTOR.

I knew that this final trailer for Episode 9 would be emotional, but the scene that really pulled my heartstrings came from an unexpected moment in the trailer – a line of dialogue from C-3PO –

Taking one last look, at my friends.

Of course we know that this is the final film of the Skywalker Saga, but C-3PO’s line just makes it really hit home that this is the last time we will see our favourite characters on screen. While characters like Rey, Poe, Finn, and Kylo are all fairly new additions to the Star Wars franchise, it will be hard to say goodbye to them. Saying a final farewell to Leia and Luke, the characters who started it all, is going to be tough.

We have our tickets booked for the midnight release, and this trailer has us even more excited! So many story threads to resolve, so many questions to answer – not too long to go until we’ll be watching the opening crawl at midnight. In the meantime, we’ll be watching the trailer quite a few more times!

Photos sourced from and belong to Disney/Lucasfilm.

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Although 3.75″ action figures make up a large part of our collection, we haven’t actually picked up many of the TVC 3.75″ Episode 9 figures just yet. This rendition of Zorii Bliss, the new character played by Keri Russell in The Rise of Skywalker, is a really interesting design, and there is just something about the colours and execution of this figure that meant we had to grab it. I believe that she is only packed one per case in the Episode 9 assortments, so she has been a little scarce on the shelves of local toy retailers.

The figure is highly articulated, and comes with a pair of blaster pistols that fit into belt holsters. Unfortunately, she’s a little unstable on her feet, and only has shallow peg holes in her boots, but we’ll overcome that by displaying her on a stand (as we do with most of our figures, to try and avoid painful domino catastrophes) .

Although, at the time of writing, it remains to be seen what role female scoundrel will play in the story along with Poe, Finn, Rey, and Kylo, it it nice to have such a character with such a distinct, new costume style as one of our first Ep9 collectibles.

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