Bix Caleen

Petite brunette. In an era filled with danger, deception and intrigue, Cassian Andor embarks on a path that will turn him into the rebel hero who will challenge the evil Galactic Empire. Yeah, that's great, this toy's not him. Unless Andor Season 2 is going to have one hell of a plot twist! Hasbro continue to be real lazy about copywriting for their toys, so let's do what they used to do, and just copy whatever info's on the official Star Wars Databank: "On the world of Ferrix, Bix Caleen gets by through her ingenuity, running a successful business pulling apart old tech scraps and selling the parts. Fearless and bold, Bix is a risk taker with no love for the Empire and a fierce loyalty for her friends, including Cassian Andor." Now, isn't that more informative? Don't you feel like you actually have a grasp on the character now? I know I needed it, because my dumb ass had her confused with Cinta Kaz, the girl who was actually in Cassian's rebel cell. Bix was played by Adria Arjona, who you might recognize from Pacific Rim 2 or Good Omens, but you absolutely do not recognize from Morbius. Because nobody saw that. She also voices Ramirez in Fortnite, but that's more of a trivia fact than helpful information. The likeness is good, with her two messy braids hanging down in front of her shoulders. The character really only wears, like, two outfits during the course of the show, so it probably wasn't too challenging for Hasbro to decide what the toy should have on. Her look is best described as "Rey, if she lived in central Britain instead of a desert planet." Come to think of it, we've seen Rey in a rainier environment, and yeah, she looked a lot like this. Bix wears pants and boots under a fairly utilitarian dress-thing, and a shirt that either has multi-fabric sleeves or gets long, zip-up gloves outside of it? Or maybe sleeves that turn into gloves? This is what she wears at work, so she's got a dark brown tool belt with a few items stuck in it. Bring on the cosplays! While it's a great looking outfit, the toy doesn't quite do her justice. The strength of Star Wars over Star Trek was that its world looked lived-in, with dirt and grime rather than pristine beauty, and Andor was the grimiest of all: Ferrex was a dreary world of hardscrabble wastelands and tenacious population centers, so everyone was perpetually caked with the filth of work. For Hasbro's Star Wars team, the paint apps are always the first thing to go, so Bix is mostly just whatever color she was molded in. Like, the tools in her belt are painted silver, which is nice, but the two in the pocket on her left side don't get anything. Her dress/coat needs schmutz on it, it needs dark drybrushing to make it look like something she wears, not something she's trying on. The figure moves well, though the long skirt blocks the legs exactly as much as you would expect it to. She's got joints at the head, shoulders, elbows, wrists, waist, hips, thighs, knees, and ankles. The knees are swivel/hinges, meaning having swivels in the thigh is unnecessary; they really should have built those joints the other direction, so the lower leg would be the part swiveling, not the upper. Her head maintains almost its full range of motion, despite the long hair, because she's only got the braids in the front, nothing in back, and it's all molded from a soft PVC for flexibility. A few of the joints were stiff, right out of the box, but everything got moving with no real trouble. Bix only has one accessory - or maybe two. It's a yellow datapad of some sort, and while it's not something she's seen using in the show, it is sitting on her desk at one point. What she does use, however, is a small handheld device with a ribbon cable dangling from it, and you may not realize it at first, but the figure does also include that: it's apparently just a part of the larger datapad, so the toy has a little piece that slides out of the pad. Neat! It's not substantially different from putting a removable clip in an action figure's gun, but it's also not something we've seen before. Interesting idea, and it works the way it's intended to. Still doesn't feel like enough stuff, though. You know what would have upped the value? The welding helmet she was wearing when we first met her. Which she then pushed up on her head and walked across the room to pick up the little handheld scanner that this toy does include. When we meet her, Bix Caleen is confident and has her life together. But she's betrayed by someone she trusts - possibly the first and only person she's ever trusted - and it absolutely breaks her; she starts to spiral as more and more goes wrong, and by the end of Season 1 she's basically a child, not even able to take care of herself; an idea that came from Adria Arjona herself, collaborating with showrunner Tony Gilroy to make sure the character didn't come off as weak or reductive. It sounds like an impossible challenge, it sounds counter-intuitive, to craft a strong female character who gets less independent as the story goes along. But that's just one of the amazing storytelling moments Andor pulled off, and we're excited to see what Season 2 has in store. And if Bix gets a second figure, keep the level of quality we have now, but up the paint budget. And give her an accessory she actually uses. -- 09/09/23