Enfys Nest

Hey, May the 5th! Seems like a perfect time to review a Star Wars toy! An extremely dangerous marauder, Enfys Nest is brutally carving out a nefarious reputation for herself and her gang of swoop-riding pirates, the Cloud-Riders. Oh, well, that saves us the trouble of dancing around the issue of her gender. Technically that surprise was blown by a French trading card before the movie came out, though English sources maintained the character was male. So it was entirely possible to not know it ahead of time, if you had a casual (read: "normal") interest in the film, but also possible to know it, if you were obsessively tracking every bit of information - such is the wonderful world of spoilers! Enfys' mother led the Cloud-Riders before her, and Enfys has inherited her mom's battle helmet. The ridges on the sides have slight design similarities to Stormtrooper helmets, but the spikes sticking out of the back make her look a bit like How to Train Your Dragon's Valka. The eyes are a thin slit in a silver panel, inspired by the man with the mirrored glasses in Cool Hand Luke. There appears to be black hair sticking out from beneath the helmet, but as seen in Solo when she unmasks, that's actually part of it. The entire outfit feels like something cobbled together from random parts, especially the chestplate that seems to be built from spare wires and bones. There are repulsorlift boosters strapped to her legs, allowing her to jump higher, further, and faster than normal. The dark clothes she wear contrast with the lighter striped cloth hanging from her belt. The fur-trimmed cape she wears is black with a red lining, which made a lot of people suspect there was some connection between Enfys and Qi'ra when it was seen in the trailers: the overall colorscheme was very similar to Q's "Assistant Trade Route Blah-de-Blah" disguise. The figure has the usual Black Series articulation, though it should perhaps have alittle bit more: in the movie, those armored panels on her forearms can kind of flare out to form small shields, but the toy can't do the same - as far as weaponry goes, she only gets her electroripper staff, which has a blade on one end and a cudgel on the other. The staff is actually used in Solo to telegraph Enfys' alignment: if Enfys Nest is really as ruthless as we're led to believe, why would she use it to carefully cut Tobias Beckett's gun and not just lop his hand off? Enfys Nest is not part of the normal Black Series, instead coming from the vehicle subline. Naturally, Enfys' vehicle is her swoop bike. The Cloud-Rider gang led by Enfys Nest terrorizes the skies atop their mean-looking swoop bikes. Little more than engines with seats, swoops are hard to control but capable of incredible speed. Solo certainly did its part to bring a lot of Expanded Universe elements back into the fold, didn't it? The "Cloud-Riders" were a gang in the first non-movie storyarc the comics ever did, and swoops (as something distinct from the speeder bikes seen in Return of the Jedi) came from Shadows of the Empire. Next step, Jaxxon! The bike requires some assembly after you take it out of the box, and the final model is about 20" long. The handlebars can move back and forth, though the attached pistons do have to flex around the removable engine cover a little bit. The control pedals also move, and behind the driver's seat are four bindings that would allow other members of the gang to clip in and ride (relatively) safetly. Enfys added a blaster to the front of her swoop, between the three steering vanes, and there are hooks on both sides where she can stow her staff. The design of the bike has a long, thin nose to support those vanes, holding them way out in front of the main bulky body, which is little more than a saddle on an engine. The extended shape was inspired by Peter Fonda's Easy Rider chopper, while the red flags on the front and back are inspired by fuedal Japanese soldiers' sashimono banners, like those seen in the 1985 film Ran. The toy is held aloft by a clear balljointed stand that's molded to look like a puff of air. Personally, I don't care about the swoop bike. Solo was good, and I wanted Enfys Nest, but I'd rather have just gotten her without the superflous ride. She's a character in the mold of Boba Fett, Darth Maul, or Captain Phasma, somebody who's more about having a really cool look than anything else. And if she'd been sold by herself, maybe they could have made the helmet removable. The toy's nice, but waiting for it to hit clearance at Target was definitely the right choice. -- 05/05/19

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