Baze Malbus — Star Wars The Black Series #R1 05

Overview

Baze Malbus closes the R1 Collection’s first five figures at #R1 05, and he does it with a cannon. The heavy weapons specialist, the former Guardian of the Whills who lost his faith but kept his skill, the man who follows Chirrut through a war he’s not sure he believes in anymore — Baze is Rogue One’s most quietly heartbreaking character, and the figure with the largest weapon in the first half of the collection.

Repeating cannon. 19 joints. Fan Channel exclusive. $22.99. 2021. The only Black Series Baze Malbus.

Baze Malbus and Why He Matters

Baze’s specific characterisation is the inverse of Chirrut’s. Where Chirrut has absolute faith in the Force and acts on it without reservation, Baze has lost whatever faith he had and continues to act anyway — not because he believes the mission will succeed, but because the person he’s committed to is committed to it. He carries a massive cannon because he has decided that the Force won’t carry him the way it carries Chirrut, and he’d better make sure his own capabilities are up to the task.

The specific dynamic between Chirrut’s faith and Baze’s pragmatism is the R1 Collection’s most interesting character relationship, and it’s rendered in plastic across two consecutive numbered figures. Baze does the things that Chirrut’s faith doesn’t need to. He suppresses the stormtroopers who would otherwise have shot Chirrut. He provides the covering fire that makes Chirrut’s battlefield walk slightly less suicidal. He is the practical infrastructure of a partnership that the film presents as transcendently spiritual.

His death — immediately after Chirrut’s, in direct response to it, the pragmatist following the believer into whatever comes next — is the film’s most direct statement about what the two characters mean to each other. Baze doesn’t believe in the Force. He believes in Chirrut. The distinction barely matters at the end.

The Repeating Cannon

Baze Malbus carries a massive MWC-35c repeating cannon throughout Rogue One, and the figure includes it as the single accessory. The cannon is oversized relative to a standard blaster in the way Baze’s approach to combat is oversized relative to the other Rogue One characters: he doesn’t do subtle, he does sufficient. Where Chirrut uses a staff and a small bow blaster, Baze uses the largest weapon available.

The cannon should be verified on secondary market purchases. It is a single piece and the defining accessory of the figure — without it, Baze Malbus is just a man in heavy armour. With it, he is immediately legible as the character.

19 Joints for a Heavy Armour Configuration

The 19-joint scheme on Baze reflects the heavier combat construction of his armour and the specific display demands of a figure who carries a large weapon. The joint configuration enables the two-handed cannon-raised combat pose that communicates Baze at his most functionally imposing — braced, aimed, committed.

Completing the First Five

With Baze at #R1 05, the R1 Collection’s first five figures cover the mission’s core team: Jyn (#01), Cassian (#02), K-2SO (#03), Chirrut (#04), and Baze (#05). Every figure is Fan Channel exclusive. Every figure is at $22.99. The team is complete as a five-figure ensemble, and the display of all five together is the Rogue One ensemble that the films’s opening crawl is about — the people who stole the Death Star plans so the Alliance could build the weapons that destroyed it.

We think the five-figure R1 Collection opening sequence is one of Phase 4’s most consistently strong ensemble displays. The characters are all individually compelling, the accessories communicate who each person is before context is required, and the Fan Channel exclusivity means that anyone who assembles all five has specifically sought out the collection rather than stumbled into it. The display is earned.

Secondary Market

Above-retail secondary market prices. 2021 Fan Channel exclusive. Verify cannon. No production variants documented.

Our Verdict

Baze Malbus at #R1 05 is the R1 Collection’s heavy hitter in every sense — the cannon, the armour, the character who makes Chirrut’s faith possible by handling the practical reality around it. He closes the first five figures of the collection on the heaviest note available. Buy him. Display him beside Chirrut. The pragmatist and the believer, in plastic, side by side, ready for Scarif.

The Team’s Completion and What It Means

With Baze at #R1 05, the R1 Collection has its core mission team in plastic: two operatives, a droid, a Guardian, and his protector. The five figures together represent the Rogue One ensemble that the franchise’s subsequent films depend on — these are the people whose successful theft of the Death Star plans makes the events of A New Hope possible.

Displaying the five figures together is an act of specific franchise respect: acknowledging that the events of the original trilogy have a pre-history, that there are people in that pre-history whose names the opening crawl doesn’t mention, and that those people are worth remembering in plastic. The R1 Collection’s Fan Channel exclusivity means the display requires effort. That’s appropriate. These are people who required effort.

Baze’s Canon Name and the Collected Display

Baze Malbus is the only member of the R1 Collection’s first five who has a canonical full name that doesn’t appear in the film’s main title card — his name comes from the end credits and expanded materials rather than a scene introduction. He is the team’s most anonymous member in narrative terms, and yet the figure is as specific as any of the others: the cannon, the armour, the specific expression of someone doing a job he’s chosen to do even after losing the faith that once animated it.

The complete five-figure R1 Collection display, with Baze at the right flank, K-2SO at the back for height, and Chirrut and Jyn and Cassian completing the ensemble, is one of the Black Series’ most compellingly assembled film teams. The Faith, the Pragmatist, the Droid, the Spy, and the Reluctant Hero. Buy them all.

Baze Malbus closes the R1 Collection’s first five figures with the heaviest weapon in the ensemble and the quietest grief. The pragmatist who follows the believer into whatever comes next. The cannon verified, the figure purchased, the Rogue One team complete.

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Part of Star Wars The Black Series | Phase 4 Rogue One Collection. Related: Chirrut Îmwe P4-R1-04 | Cassian Andor P4-R1-02 | Rogue One.