Ello Asty (X-Wing Pilot) — Star Wars The Black Series #14

Overview

Red Line #14 is Ello Asty — Ello Asty, Resistance X-Wing pilot and one of the Abednedo alien species members who fill the Resistance base and fighter complement in TFA. He flies in the Starkiller Base assault, contributing to the oscillator attack that ultimately allows Starkiller Base to be destroyed. His figure placement in the Red Line wave is in the tradition of the Black Series including alien fighter pilots alongside the named heroes — the same rationale that produced Biggs Darklighter and Wedge Antilles figures for the Original Trilogy roster.

The Abednedo alien design — the head crests, the particular facial structure, the skin texture — gives Asty the same display advantage as other alien figures in the line: no human portrait to date against Photo Real standards. The figure’s quality is measured in the accuracy of the alien head sculpt and the flight suit rendering, both of which are well-executed at Red Line production quality. MSRP $19.99.

The Character and the Beastie Boys Reference

Ello Asty’s name is a deliberate Beastie Boys reference — the album Hello Nasty phonetically rearranged. JJ Abrams and the TFA production team embedded multiple pop culture name references in the background characters, and Ello Asty is among the more openly acknowledged. His character file identifies him as a skilled but reckless pilot, which tracks with his Starkiller Base attack run.

His Abednedo species also appears in Snap Wexley (the human pilot) and Korr Sella (Leia’s emissary to the Senate), making the species one of the better-represented alien types in TFA’s supporting cast. The distinctive head crests and the facial structure are consistent across Abednedo characters, making the species immediately recognisable once you know what to look for.

Accessories

Removable X-Wing pilot helmet and blaster pistol. The helmet reveals the Abednedo alien face beneath — a display option that most X-Wing pilot figures don’t offer since the original design tends toward fixed helmets. Helmet-on for the cockpit configuration; helmet-off to display the alien portraiture.

Articulation: 19 points via the standard Red Line scheme.

Building the Resistance Pilot Squadron

Ello Asty alongside Poe Dameron #07 creates the nucleus of a Resistance pilot display — the ace and one of his squadronmates. For a more complete Starkiller assault squadron: add any Resistance Trooper figures for the ground crew and technical support context.

The alien pilot figure tradition in the Black Series extends from the original line — the Black Series has consistently produced alien X-Wing pilots as a category across all eras, from Biggs and Wedge to Asty and Zuvio (the Kyuzo constable who shared Asty’s wave context). These figures give the Rebel/Resistance fighter corps the visual diversity that named human characters alone can’t create.

Secondary Market

The Red Line Ello Asty is available at or near original retail. No significant variants documented. The alien head sculpt is the display highlight — worth specifically positioning the figure at an angle where the Abednedo cranial crests are visible rather than straight-on where the helmet dominates the silhouette. Alien design gives the figure better long-term display value than most pre-Photo Real human figures from the same wave.

Verdict

Buy for Resistance pilot display variety, alien pilot collection completeness, or Red Line sequence completion. The helmet-off alien face display and the Starkiller assault context are the specific collector arguments.

The Abednedo Species in the TFA Roster

The Abednedo are one of TFA’s most successfully integrated alien species in the Resistance roster — appearing across multiple roles (pilot Ello Asty, senator Korr Sella, general Ematt) with consistent design but individually recognisable variations. The species design by Neal Scanlan’s creature team draws on real-world organic forms — the head crests, the particular eye placement, and the facial texture create an alien that reads as biologically coherent rather than costumally arbitrary.

Ello Asty specifically was designed with the Beastie Boys reference in mind from the beginning — the name was chosen before the character had a full design, and the design then grew around a character whose personality was coded as bold and slightly reckless in the pilot tradition.

The X-Wing Pilot Tradition in the Black Series

The Black Series has consistently included alien X-Wing pilots as a specific figure category across all eras — from Biggs Darklighter and Wedge Antilles in OT waves to Asty and later alien pilots in sequel era waves. These figures serve the collective display function of showing the Rebel/Resistance pilot corps as a diverse, multi-species fighting force rather than the all-human roster that named characters alone would suggest. Ello Asty in a Red Line pilot lineup alongside Poe Dameron #07 creates exactly that impression.

Collector Notes

No significant production variants documented.

Ello Asty’s specific flight in the Starkiller assault is the one where he dies — his X-Wing is hit in the oscillator run and he doesn’t make it out. The figure thus captures a character at the moment before his end, which gives it a specific elegiac quality for Rogue One-era collectors who think about the pilots who didn’t survive the rebellion’s victories. The alien pilot display tradition in the Black Series is partly about acknowledging these anonymous heroes — the ones who flew the missions that named characters survived by luck or Force sensitivity.

The Abednedo species design is one of TFA’s more biologically coherent alien designs — the cranial crests and facial structure suggest a real evolutionary history rather than purely aesthetic creature design. At 6-inch scale, the Asty head sculpt captures the species’ distinguishing features with the level of detail that makes the alien pilot display work: close enough to the reference material that a viewer familiar with TFA will immediately identify the species without needing the packaging label. The helmet-off display option is the specific way to appreciate the alien sculpt quality.

---

Part of Star Wars The Black Series | Red Line. Related: Poe Dameron #07 | Resistance faction | The Force Awakens.