In the summer of 2011, I purchased a small lot of 12-inch items, from a fellow collector, to fill in some holes in my Sideshow Star Wars collection. As a bonus, the seller threw in a couple 12-inch Hasbro figures. One of those figures happened to be Hasbro's IG-88, which I immediately took an interest in. For a Hasbro figure, I was impressed at the clever engineering that allowed for a good range of articulation, and the relatively accurate aesthetic. It could have done without the clunky blaster and laser rifle, but overall I thought this was a solid figure that fit in well among my Sideshow figures--that is until I received my Sideshow IG-88. 

Looking at Hasbro's IG-88, I didn't think there was much more Sideshow could do to squeeze authenticity out of the IG-88 character. Sure they'd improve upon Hasbro's paint applications and have crisper, more accurate sculpting, but that's really it, right? Wrong! Sideshow really impressed beyond my expectations for their interpretation of this character. 

Let's start with the most obvious, the sculpt. The sculpt on Sideshow's IG-88 is incredible. It's not produced out of a single solid piece, but rather several sections stacked together that give it depth and realism. The figure's midsection is an example of this multi-part construction where a raised set of pistons are connected by exposed wiring that can be traced around the body down to the legs, suggesting that the pistons and their surrounding housing at the figure's core facilitate IG-88s movement. Also impressive are the figure's elbow joints, which have a flexible concertina type hinge (think bendy straw) that looks great and works well, and the extendable legs that pull upward increasing the figures height to the scale-appropriate 14 inches. Add some fantastic paint applications and you have the worn, weathered and battle hardened look characteristic of the classic Star Wars universe. 

You'd think that with the strong focus on aesthetics, IG-88's articulation would suffer, but that couldn't be further from the truth. This figure has an amazing range of articulation highlighted by an almost countless number of ball-joints that allow for a wide range of motion. You'll need to be careful getting the shoulders rotating as a lot of IG-88 owners are reporting that the shoulders are overly tight and should be warmed with a hair drying prior to moving to avoid damaging the figure. In my opinion, the figure's tight joints indicate Sideshow's commitment to ensure the long-term quality on this piece, since the gangly figure could have easily collapsed under loose joints, but having to use a blow dryer to move the arms is frustrating.

Some other details about this figure that impressed me were tiny adapters on the figures weapons and forearms. This peg / hole system ensures that the figure can hold both the laser rifle and blaster without issue. If you’d prefer, you can store the blaster in the holster, which attaches magnetically to the faux-leather bandoleer. Three mines, which also magnetically attach to the bandoleer, are a nice touch as well. Finally, the figure's light up eyes--which were a last minute addition--and their ominous red glow give the figure a true assassin droid aura, especially when displayed in a dimly lit room. My only complaint about the light-up eye feature is that the seam where you place the batteries in the head doesn't seal completely and it bleeds a little bit of the red light in an area where it shouldn't. 

Another last minute addition to this figure was the deluxe illuminated base, which resembles a section of the carbon freeze chamber floor on Bespin. While IG-88 was never seen in the carbon freeze chamber in The Empire Strike Back, the base looks awesome when lighted and makes a wonderful companion piece to Sideshow's Lando Clarissian figure, if you're a stickler about screen accuracy. If you're one of the lucky 750 people who were able to get the exclusive version of this figure, you're treated to a unique vibro axe accessory that, again, while not screen accurate adds to the menacing look nonetheless. I really like the inclusion of the diorama-style base (which will also come with Sideshow’s upcoming Boba Fett sixth-scale figure) and hope sideshow continues to offer these display style stands in lieu of the disc-style bases, which always seem to stick to the bottom of my figure’s feet and peel off the base’s Star Wars logo.

Sideshow's IG-88 exceeded my expectations for this character and has me waiting, impatiently, for the remainder of The Empire Strikes Back's bounty hunter lineup. I rate Sideshow Collectibles' sixth-scale Star Wars IG-88 figure a 9 out of 10.