Kyle Katarn

The man, the myth, the legend! No, really: everything about him is now only part of the "Legends" continuity. Fearless mercenary-for-hire Kyle Katarn accepted a Rebel Alliance contract to investigate the Imperial Dark Trooper program and steal the Death Star plans. Oh, he's a mercenary-for-hire, is he? Not onle of those laissez-faire mercenaries who just show up when they feel like it, and do all their mercenarying for free? The thing that makes Kyle Katarn special, as a mercenary, is that he's willing to work for money? Totally blazing bold new trails there, Kyle, really shifting the paradigm of what it means to be a mercenary! Although the box claims this figure to be from 1995's Star Wars: Dark Forces, we can absolutely tell you that it is not, and we've got several fine pieces of evidence to back that claim up. The first is the head. This figure matches the popular image of Kyle Katarn: that is, a dude with a beard. But Dark Forces didn't have human actors, it had hand-animated drawings, because it was Lucasarts' first attempt to make a Doom clone after making their name on hand-drawn adventure games like Secret of Monkey Island or Sam & Max - drawing things was what they did. That was, until the sequel came out two years later; by then using art in your game was uncool and outdated. So Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II switched to FMV, putting actors in silly costumes in front of a green screen, and then compositing some truly jank-looking CGI backgrounds behind them (insert "Prequels" joke here). This toy's sculpt does look somewhat like Court, but there seems to be a bit of Ryan Gosling in there, too. Apparently, to go along with the "Star Wars doesn't have paper" thing, George Lucas once decreed that Star Wars also doesn't have buttons or zippers, in an effort to make even the clothes seem futuristic. Of course, sequel-based Kyle Katarn was not wearing any fancy costume, he was basically just in an off-the-shelf ren faire shirt. He was made more "sci-fi" by addition of dark panels under the arms, and a single brown pad on his right shoulder. For this figure, the shirt is just a PVC shell that fits over the solid torso beneath, which seems unnecessary. Why would you not just sculpt the whole thing? His upper arms seem very short, and his forearms seem very long, which may have been done to help the elbow joints avoid his leather bracers, but is still hard to ignore. In the FMV cutscenes, Kyle's pad came up onto the top of his shoulder, as well as covering the side of his arm. In the game, it jutted out into the air. It wasn't until the third game that it was fully on the side of his arm, like it is on this toy. That's also where the drawstring on his collar came from, meaning we're now looking at this as a Jedi Knight II figure, one step further removed from Dark Forces. Yes, for whatever godless reason, the first game was Dark Forces, the second game was Dark Forces II: Jedi Knight, and the third game was Jedi Knight II: Jedi Outcast. By that logic, if there'd ever been a fourth game, it presumably would have been called Jedi Outcast II. If this were a full-fledged Star Wars: Dark Forces 3: Jedi Knight 2: Jedi Outcast 1 (& Knuckles) figure, he'd have a second, light blue shirt under his regular cream-colored shirt instead of just bare skin. Kyle's shoulder pad is a separate piece held on by a ring inserted between the arm and torso, which means it can turn and flex however it needs to when you pose the figure. He's got a barbell head, balljointed neck, swivel/hinge shoulders, swivel/hinge elbows, swivel/hinge wrists, a balljoint waist, balljoint hips, swivel thighs, swivel/hinge knees, and swivel/hinge ankles. We've said this before, and will probably have to say it again until Hasbro wises up and starts doing things right, but we do not need a swivel both in the thigh and at the knee: they both do the same range of motion. What we need is some kind of swivel below the knee. Either drop the thigh joint or make the knee a plain hinge, whichever one is better, and place that extra joint at the top of the boot. Kyle Katarn has killed more Stormtroopers than Death Star explosions, so it's fitting he comes with two weapons. First his his modified Bryar pistol, the gun you start the game with (though you can pick up a replacement for it the instant you kill your first enemy, and that replacement uses the same ammo type but is more powerful, so the odds are good you'll fire four shots with this gun and then never use it again). It's a blocky piece, and fits in a cross-draw holster on his belt. And then he's got the final thing that absolutely reveals this is not a Dark Forces toy, his lightsaber. Kyle was not a Jedi in Dark Forces. Kyle did not have any Force abilities in Dark Forces. He only got a lightsaber in Dark Forces II, and only got this lightsaber in Jedi Order II; his first one was a hand-me-down with a green blade, then it was detroyed and he took a yellow one from someone, and finally after briefly being turned to the Dark side and redeemed by his apprentice, he built a new one sometime before Jedi Knight II. It has a long hilt with two separate handgrips, and most distinctively, a blue blade. So this toy has 1995 packaging, a 1997 face, and a 2002 body and accessories. He also gets the "waving" lightsaber blade Hasbro loves so much right now, which looks idiotic and in the years to come will be looked back upon as a failed idea. When Dark Forces was in development, it was originally going to star Luke Skywalker and follow the events of Episode IV. The developers realized that would be fairly limiting, so they opted for a new story instead, which is why it starts with something that had (at that point) never been seen: the theft of the Death Star's plans. The character was going to be customizable, like Revan, but that got dropped in favor of a defined protagonist with a set name, and the series is better for it. This toy may be confused about where it comes from, but it's somehow still the most accurate Kyle Katarn yet. Now, when will we get a Jan Ors to go with him? -- 06/27/26 How do you want them to bring Kyle Katarn back into continuity? Tell us on our message board, the Loafing Lounge.