Bandai’s Mandalorian Samurai Warrior

If you have seen season two of The Mandalorian you may have noticed that Chapter 13 felt very much like a Samurai film. There may be something in the aesthetic of the Mandalorians that pays homage to Samurai film traditions.

With this in mind, Bandai has just announced that they have just opened pre-orders for the latest addition to their Meisho Movie Realization action figure line. The line seeks to transform characters from the Star Wars Galaxy into feudal-era Japanese warriors.

Previously, they have reimagined Boba Fett, Darth Vader, Kylo Renn, and even C-3PO among others.

Their latest offering is a Samurai warrior version of Din Djarin’s armor from the first two chapters of the series.

According to StarWars.com (original article can be found here.), the two designers, Julian Oreska and Takayuki Takeya, tried to walk a fine line between the Meisho style of armor while keeping the character recognizable.  For the helmet, arguably the most recognizable piece of Mandalorian armor, they wanted to keep the iconic look and so decided to use a specific helmet style from Japanese history.

“There was a highly independent fighting group known as the Saikashu,” Takeya told Starwars.com, “who wore a very distinctly shaped helmet called kabuto. In the Star Wars universe, I  felt the Mandalorians were a similar fighting group, so, from the start… I thought it would work well to make the Mandalorian character’s helmets in the style of the Saikashu.”  The effect is just a beautiful piece of work.

While the latest offering does not include The Child “Grogu,” the designers do say that our favorite little green padawan will appear in future offerings.

The action figure stands 6.7 inches and is made from ABS & PVC with a cape made from cloth.

Pre-orders began in October and will run through the end of February.  It is expected to ship in March.