Ezra Bridger

What is this, History of the World, Part I? Growing up, Ezra learned to trust no one and to rely on his street smarts - and subconcious [sic] Force abilities - to survive. This all changes with his introduction to the crew of the Ghost, a small band of rebels fighting back against the Empire. Ezra comes to believe in their cause, and sees that he can help change the galaxy for the better. Ezra is the POV character for Rebels. Before meeting the crew, he'd been living alone on the streets of Lothal for seven years - his parents had been speaking out against the Empire, and on his seventh birthday, they disappeared. After all that time, he had a hard time trusting anyone, but slowly warmed to the gang of outlaws surrounding him, and even found a mentor who could teach him about his burgeoning Force abilities. His friends helped him get over his anger, and he determined to find and free his parents from whatever Imperial prison they were in. The moral of the story is you're never too young for antifa. Ezra is named after the Biblical character who rebuilt the Jewish community after their exile to Babylon. If you read the book of Ezra, you'll find that he was also unsettlingly concerned with who was and wasn't a real Israelite and with keeping the bloodlines pure. And then his buddy Nehemiah rolls up and builds a wall to keep out the foreigners. People really been using the same exact playbook since 538 BC, huh? Anyway, Rebels was probably just leaning on the meaning of the name - "help" - and not on the problematic Make Jerusalem Great Again history behind it. Ezra is rocking his shaggy pre-Season 3 hair, which makes him look like a cross between young Keanu Reeves and animated Aladdin. Or perhaps voice actor Taylor Gray? As with the other Rebels characters, the toy's face has been untooned so he'll look more like a human than a drawing. Though if this is really a Season 2 figure, he should have some small scars on his left cheek. Like Aladdin, Ezra survives by stealing, and his clothes reflect that. He's got an orange jumpsuit sized for a child (which raises some prickly questions about the labor laws on Lothal), but the left leg has been ripped off and repaired with tan material from a different source, with a brown kneepad attached. Actually, it's nearly the same shade as the little short-sleeved vest/jacket he wears; did it come from a matching set? The vest has yellow trim and a logo on the back. What is the logo? Uh... "citation needed"? It does have some hints of the Skywalker Sound logo, but it's probably meant to be a stylized Loth-cat or Loth-wolf or something. He wears a holster harness belt, as in Season 2, but still has the energy slingshot on his left wrist from Season 1. The articulation is up to the high Black Series standards: swivel/hinge ankles, double-hinged knees, swivel thighs, balljointed hips, a balljointed torso, swivel/hinge wrists, swivel/hinge elbows, swivel/hinge shoulders, and a balljointed head and neck. The elbows have deep cuts to allow the arms to bend quite far despite only having a single hinge. Additionally, the armor plate on his right shin is done as two pieces, so the bit on the kneecap moves with the knee rather than floating freely with the rest of the pad. Acra's Ezcessories include his lightsaber and one of the Stormtrooper helmets he collects. This is an Imperial cadet helmet, which he did wear in the show, though he gave it a custom paint job that this one is lacking: the red markings are standard on trainees, apparently. His lightsaber is a unique design that kind of looks like a staple gun: he designed it himself, with a fully functional blaster in the handle; because he was initially not very good at redirecting blaster bolts, he can turn the blade off and fire at distant enemies directly. Nifty! The blue blade is removable, and the piece has a loop that allows it to hang on the belt's loop. Ezra Bridger is, in a way, a reflection of Anakin Skywalker: rough upbringing, introduced to the Force later in life than he "should" have been, prone to getting lost in his anger when his friends or family are threatened... heck, Palpatine (seeking a replacement for the "ruined" Darth Vader) even tried to recruit Ezra with the same sort of promises of power and protection; but unlike Ani, Ezra was strong enough to resist. He didn't fall for it. Rebels was an awesome show, Ezra was a great character, and this is an excellent toy of him. -- 07/14/19