Vel Sartha — Star Wars The Black Series #AND 08 (packaging error, should be #9)

Overview

Vel Sartha at #AND 08B is the Andor Mural Collection’s most notable Hasbro packaging-error figure — the Aldhani heist team leader, Mon Mothma’s cousin, and the rebel operative whose Black Series figure shipped with packaging numbered #8 in the collection’s release sequence even though the position should have been #9 (since #AND 08A, the single-boxed Cassian Andor, had already been released earlier in the year). Released July 2023 as a single-boxed mainline release. Non-exclusive. MSRP $24.99 (the standard Mural Collection mainline pricing). One accessory: a blaster rifle that breaks apart into three pieces. 19-joint Phase 4 articulation. The figure that captures Faye Marsay’s Aldhani heist commander, with a packaging-numbering oversight that has become part of the figure’s collector lore.

The Packaging Numbering Error

The figure’s most notorious detail: the packaging indicates Vel Sartha is #8 in the Andor Black Series figures, but that’s wrong. Position #8 in the collection sequence had already been taken earlier in 2023 by the single-boxed Cassian Andor figure (#AND 08A in our cataloguing). Vel Sartha should have been #9 in the sequence. The packaging error is a Hasbro production oversight — likely the result of parallel design pipelines for the Cassian re-release and the Vel Sartha new release, where the packaging team for Vel Sartha’s release didn’t account for the Cassian #8 having already shipped.

For collectors, the packaging error has become part of the figure’s identity. Two figures sharing a “#08” designation in the official Hasbro packaging creates a small collectible curiosity — the kind of production mistake that makes individual releases more interesting to long-term collectors who track Hasbro’s mistakes alongside their successes. The cataloguing convention of treating the figures as 08A (Cassian) and 08B (Vel Sartha) preserves the packaging designation while distinguishing the two distinct figures. Functionally, Vel Sartha is the ninth figure released in the Andor Mural Collection. Officially per the packaging, she’s the eighth.

For collectors building the boxed mural display, the packaging error is irrelevant — both figures display as their character regardless of the numbering on the box. For collectors who care about the precise release-sequence logic of the Mural Collection, the error is a footnote worth knowing. Hasbro has not (as of this writing) issued any corrected-packaging variant for the Vel Sartha figure, so the original-packaging version with the wrong number is the canonical and only release.

The Aldhani Heist Team Leader

Vel Sartha is the Andor character who leads the Aldhani heist team during the show’s most kinetically loaded multi-episode arc. She is also Mon Mothma’s cousin (a connection the show develops across several episodes), and her relationship with Cinta Kaz provides one of the show’s quieter emotional through-lines. The figure captures Vel in her Aldhani-mission civilian-rebel-operative configuration — the pragmatic working-clothes look that the character wears across most of the heist sequence and the broader first-season scenes.

This is the right configuration to capture. Vel Sartha is not a costume-variant character with multiple alternate-configuration releases. She has one screen-accurate look (with minor variations across scenes), and the figure depicts that look. For collectors building Aldhani-team displays — the multi-figure recreation of the heist team that includes Cassian, Vel, Cinta, Skeen, Taramyn, and Nemik — Vel is the team leader and the figure that anchors the squad’s command structure.

The Three-Piece Breakdown Blaster Rifle

The figure’s single accessory is a blaster rifle that breaks apart into three pieces. The weapon disassembles cleanly into stock, body, and barrel sections, supporting display configurations where the rifle is broken down for transport or assembled for combat. The three-piece construction is a screen-accurate reference to the heist sequences where Aldhani team members carry their long-arm weapons in disassembled form for concealment, then assemble them on-site for the actual operation.

The weapon fits well into both of Vel’s hands in its assembled configuration, supporting the standard rifle-up firing-stance and rifle-down patrol-stance poses. The breakdown configuration is more of a display-flexibility novelty than a practical posing aid — for most display configurations, collectors will either keep the rifle assembled or set it aside, with the three-piece breakdown serving as an occasional setup for diorama-specific displays.

The single-accessory loadout is on the lean side compared to the Mural Collection’s most accessory-rich figures (Luthen Rael’s four-accessory loadout, Cassian Andor Jedi Legend’s six-accessory loadout from the Obi-Wan Mural Collection), but the breakdown-rifle design adds engineering interest that compensates for the lean count. For collectors who appreciate when figures include weapon-engineering details that respect the source material’s combat-realism aesthetic, the three-piece rifle is a meaningful inclusion.

The No-Removable-Parts Outfit

There are no removable parts on the figure beyond the blaster rifle. The outfit is sculpted as integrated elements — no removable jacket, no removable belt, no swap-out hands. For collectors who hoped for swap-out flexibility, the all-integrated design is a limitation. For collectors who treat the figure as a single-configuration display piece, the integrated everything reads as appropriate to the character’s specific costume identity.

This is the same design philosophy that affects most non-Inquisitor non-trooper Mural Collection figures — characters whose costumes don’t require alternate-configuration display options ship with integrated outfits, and the cost savings get redirected into the head sculpt and the accessory engineering. For Vel Sartha specifically, the integrated outfit is the right choice; the character’s costume is her identity, and removable elements would have undermined the visual reading.

The Outstanding Head Sculpt

Vel Sartha’s head sculpt looks nice and the figure was sculpted well. Hasbro captured Faye Marsay’s Andor-era likeness with the level of definition that distinguishes serious Black Series female-character releases — the cheekbone structure, the eye shape, the hair styling that matches the screen-accurate Aldhani-era look. The face reads correctly under display lighting.

For collectors who care about Black Series figures capturing live-action female-character likenesses sharply, the Vel Sartha head sculpt is a successful release in a category where Hasbro has historically been more inconsistent. The figure looks like Faye Marsay looks in the show, which is the test the head sculpt needs to pass.

The Paint Critique

The figure’s most defensible negative is the paint application, which looks lacklustre without any dirt or wash on the clothing. The Andor TV series’s Aldhani sequences are visually heavily textured — the planet is depicted as a high-altitude wilderness with appropriate environmental wear on the team’s clothing — and the Vel Sartha figure has clean paint application without the dirt-and-grime weathering that the screen-accurate look suggests.

This is the recurring critique that affects most of the Mural Collection’s late releases (Wandering Jedi, Jabiim Obi-Wan, Bix Caleen, Luthen Rael, Vader Duel’s End): Hasbro consistently undershoots on screen-accurate weathering. Vel Sartha is no exception. A more aggressive paint pass — dust on the boots, grime on the lower clothing, weathering on the upper jacket — would have transformed the figure substantially. As shipped, Vel looks like she just stepped off a clean ship rather than out of the Aldhani wilderness.

The Silver Dot on the Right Ear

A specific detail flagged by detailed reviewers: there is a tiny dot of silver paint on Vel Sartha’s right ear, and it’s unclear if this is supposed to be an ear piece (a screen-accurate communications earbud reference) or just a factory paint error. The ambiguity makes the detail an interesting collector curiosity — it could be a deliberate small-detail inclusion that respects the show’s communications-equipment design, or it could be a quality-control oversight where a paint application landed where it shouldn’t have.

For collectors who want to interpret the silver dot favourably, it reads as a screen-accurate communications earbud — the kind of small detail that the Aldhani team would carry for inter-member coordination during the heist. For collectors who want to interpret it less favourably, it reads as a paint error that production quality control didn’t catch. Without authoritative confirmation from Hasbro, either reading is valid. The detail exists; what it means is up to the collector.

Articulation

19 joints. Ball-jointed top neck, ball-jointed lower neck, butterfly joints in the shoulders, ball-jointed shoulders, ball-jointed elbows, ball-jointed wrists, ball-jointed upper body, ball-jointed hips, swivel thighs, ball-jointed knees, ball-jointed ankles. The butterfly shoulder joints are the upgrade over the standard 17-joint Phase 4 baseline, supporting the two-handed rifle poses and the dynamic combat configurations that the Aldhani heist sequences depict.

Vel Sartha stands well on display without losing balance. The figure handles the assembled-rifle weight cleanly and supports the screen-accurate combat-ready poses without balance issues. For collectors building dynamic-pose displays, the figure performs as designed.

The Mural Collection Position

Vel Sartha sits on the Rebels-aligned side of the boxed Andor mural display alongside Bix Caleen, Luthen Rael, Mon Mothma, and the Cassian Andor releases. For loose display, Vel works best alongside Cassian (the Aldhani Mission figure at #AND 01 specifically, for the heist-team configuration) and the eventual other Aldhani-team Black Series figures if Hasbro releases them. The Aldhani team display — Vel as commander, Cassian as the new recruit, the rest of the team flanking — is the figure’s most natural multi-figure context.

For collectors who care about specific narrative-arc representation in plastic, Vel Sartha is the figure that carries the Aldhani heist arc’s command-structure reading. Without Vel on the shelf, the Aldhani display reads as missing its leader. With Vel included, the team configuration becomes coherent and the heist sequence has a credible 6-inch recreation.

Secondary Market

Single-boxed mainline release, non-exclusive, July 2023. Available at or near MSRP on the secondary market with broad retail availability through 2023 and into 2024. The mainline distribution and the standard $24.99 MSRP keep the figure accessible. The packaging-error #8 designation has not affected secondary-market pricing meaningfully — the figure ships at standard rates whether collectors care about the numbering oversight or not. Verify the three-piece blaster rifle is included with all sections present. No production variants documented (no corrected-packaging version has been issued).

Our Verdict

Vel Sartha at #AND 08B is the right figure for what it is: a screen-accurate Aldhani-era Vel Sartha with the Faye Marsay likeness captured cleanly, the screen-accurate Aldhani-mission outfit, the engineering-interesting three-piece breakdown blaster rifle, and the 19-joint articulation supporting the necessary dynamic poses. The mainline distribution makes the figure accessible. The build quality is solid with appropriate balance behaviour.

The clean paint application on a character whose screen environment demands lived-in texture is the figure’s biggest defensible negative. The silver-dot-on-ear ambiguity is a curious quality-control detail. The all-integrated outfit limits display flexibility. The packaging numbering error is a Hasbro oversight that has become part of the figure’s identity. None of these are deal-breakers for the figure itself.

Buy this figure if you are completing the Andor Mural Collection, if Vel Sartha’s Aldhani heist commander role mattered to you, if you build Aldhani-team displays, or if the packaging-error collector curiosity appeals to you. The $24.99 MSRP is fair for what the figure delivers, and the mainline distribution makes her easy to acquire.

The Aldhani heist team commander. Mon Mothma’s cousin. The figure with the wrong number on the box and the three-piece breakdown rifle. Buy her. Display her alongside Cassian for the heist-team command-structure vignette. The Andor Mural Collection’s most-notable-packaging-error figure earns the position by being the best (and only) 6-inch Vel Sartha available, and by carrying the Aldhani arc’s commander reading correctly.

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Part of Star Wars The Black Series | Phase 4 Andor Mural Collection. Related: Cassian Andor (Aldhani Mission) P4-AND-01 | Cassian Andor P4-AND-08A | Luthen Rael P4-AND-06.