Two More Makers Enter The Star Wars Minifig Fray [CB Toys and Bom Bom Star Wars]

The Star Wars franchise, man, it won’t ever run out of steam. At least in my lifetime, it won’t. It’s practically a cash cow for merchandise makers, whether it’s officially-licensed or otherwise.

So it really comes as no surprise that two more makers hope to cash in on the Star Wars minifig gravy train. Both of these, I haven’t covered yet in this space, so this also serves as an initial look-see if these two are as good as, better, or worse than the ones we’ve seen so far.

Here’s the CB Toys logo first:

And then here’s the Bom Bom logo:

Both of these follow the usual Divisoria pricing of 25-ish pesos per piece when bought as a set.

Both sets contain six minifigs, and interestingly enough, both sets even have the same characters, so this should make for a good head-to-head comparison. It should be noted that CB Toys appeared in the local market later than Bom Bom. But I wasn’t able to procure the Bom Bom set as soon as it hit the marketplace, though – there was a time when Divisoria stalls didn’t carry the Bom Bom brand, and you’d have to go to Sulit (now Olx.ph) to find local sellers for it. So essentially, I bought both Bom Bom and CB Toys sets at the same time.

What’s included in the set? As shown in the thumbnail photo, you’re getting these characters from both sets:

- X-Wing pilot

- Lobot

- TIE Fighter Pilot

- Naboo Pilot

- Sebulba

- AT-ST Driver

So yeah, it’s an usual set of characters, to be honest. It’s a mix-and-match of characters from both trilogies, and none of them are major characters. You have two supporting characters in Sebulba and Lobot.

If you’re a completionist, though, the regulars we’ve seen (Decool, Lele, and SY) don’t cover any of these characters yet.

Let’s now look at the minifigs, shall we?

X-Wing Pilot

The Bom Bom version is the one with the extra plates on top of the provided display plate. From the get go, both versions fail to impress, especially if you’re already spoiled with top-of-the-line bootlegs from Decool and SY. The printing is skewed and erratic with small holes on the Bom Bom figure. On the CB side, the details are less pronounced, and if you’ll notice, the chest details on the CB side use less colors than Bom Bom, probably as a cost-cutting measure.

On the face piece, Bom Bom uses thicker details while CB whiffs on the chin strap.

Both minifigs are equipped with blasters, with CB having a slightly cleaner piece than Bom Bom. You might also notice that the hands are colored differently between the two, as well as the waist piece. For reference, though, the original Lego version has a gray waist piece, so CB has it correct in this particular detail, as well as the black hands

Now here’s how they look like from the back:

Definitely a win for Bom Bom in this case. The painting might be skewed, but at least there’s detail there. CB just leaves it blank. The helmet pieces are of comparable quality.

I should also point out here that CB’s version has a leg piece that don’t exactly fit nicely. Here’s a photo showing the issue:

It’s probably the case that the crotch area is slightly thicker than it should be or that the cut on the top inner part of the legs are shallower than it should be. In any case, it means that you’d have to kinda squeeze the legs together when attaching the minifig to the plate.

Lobot

So here are both sets’ Lobots. There’s already a striking difference between the two right from the start. Bom Bom shows better details, and truer-to-the-original colors. It’s CB who now uses thick details on the face, as well as an angrier expression. The higher position of the face details on CB’s version also makes it seem like their Lobot has a more prominent chin.

I’d like to point out something curious about Bom Bom’s face details, though. Their Lobot’s in particular has this layer of sheen to it, as if the face details are part of one whole decal that’s slapped on. I can’t say for certain that that’s the case, but still, I thought I’d give you guys a heads-up on that. Even with that curiosity, though, I’d prefer Bom Bom’s Lobot over CB’s, and looking at the backs of both will only add to the reason why:

Again, even with the misaligned paint job, at least Bom Bom even includes it. CB’s looks practically bare, and the lack of details on the head in particular means that Lobot goes from looking like a cyborg to looking like a regular bald dude with crazy sideburns.

TIE Fighter Pilot

Now this looks more like an even match. Both sets’ minifigs have about the same level of detail to them, except if you look more closely, you’d see that CB’s version have more blocky chest details than Bom Bom’s.

The back for both minifigs are just plain black, so let me just bypass that for now and instead, look more closely at the helmets:

Have to say, the molding and details on the Bom Bom’s minifig looks better than CB’s. The mouth grille is thinner and more, uh, stealthy, on the CB version thanks to the gray paint used.

Naboo Pilot

Once again, we’re given two different takes on a character. Just so you know, in this case, CB has the details closer to the original than Bom Bom. The helmet and hands of the original are brown. Also, the details on the CB figure are crisper than that of the Bom Bom’s, which is quite blurry.

The backsides of both show no details, though, so they’re even on this regard. Bom Bom’s minifig shows some roughness on the body pieces, though. It might also be of note that if you look at Bom Bom’s helmet, there are lighter-colored areas where the paint didn’t quite reach.

Sebulba

It’s another win for CB Toys on this front, as their Sebulba has the violet details closer to the original that Bom Bom’s doesn’t. Other than that, the molds are quite close to each other to sway one’s decision one way or the other based on just that.

The back shows cleaner minifig cuts and details for the Bom Bom figure, though.

I’d have to say, though, that Bom Bom’s minifig shows an infinitely less-menacing expression than CB’s. In fact, you’d be forgiven to think that Bom Bom’s Sebulba might even be flirting with you. Just look at those eyes, man. Those eyes have love for you.

AT-ST Driver

So here’s our final comparison of the day. The face details, for me, jump out in a not-so-good way. Both faces have been painted at a higher point than usual, leaving both minifigs with big chins, much more so CB’s.

As with the Lobot minifig, Bom Bom’s body details are better than CB’s (Bom Bom seems to do better than CB with characters that have light gray clothes), but as with Bom Bom’s other minifigs, it also suffers from slanted, misaligned paint work.

There’s also a discrepancy with the backsides, with Bom Bom once again having the extra details that CB doesn’t. It’s interesting to note, too, that Bom Bom aligned this specific detail work better than the others, so there might be some batches that might have both front and back details nicely aligned. Of course, that also means being able to open boxes and select which minifigs are better than others, a luxury not every seller will afford you, more so if you’re buying as a whole set.

So those are the CB and Bom Bom sets for you. I can’t really recommend either one, and unless you’re a completionist, these sets offer nothing in the way of quality that Decool and SY have to offer.

There isn’t even a clear-cut better choice which whole set is better over the other, with some minifigs better with CB Toys and some better with Bom Bom. I leave it up to you to decide if it’s worth having.