Luke Skywalker - TBS [P1] - Six Inch Figures (#11)

Luke battles Darth Vader on a narrow platform in Cloud City and rejects Vader's urging to turn to the dark side and rule the galaxy with him.

"You'll find I'm full of surprises."

The Black Series 6” line really hasn’t even gotten its feet wet, but ravenous Star Wars collectors who love super-articulation are finding solace in the line in an era where articulation is taking a backseat in the smaller 3.75” lines. History repeats itself in so many ways, and we’re already feeling like we’re reliving getting a new line of figures in a very familiar pattern. Some Star Wars characters stand out from amongst the rest, and you can probably come up with a list of 25 Original Trilogy characters on your own that you know Hasbro will bang out eventually over time. Luke Skywalker (Bespin Fatigues) would certainly make that list, so it should come as no surprise that he is part of the third wave of The Black Series 6” line. He doesn’t have the star power as the glorious Stormtrooper from the same wave, or the awesome Sandtrooper from the first wave, but we’re willing to give Hasbro some time to calibrate their processes so they can perfect whatever science is need to make the best 6” figures as possible. Luke Skywalker (Hasbro dropped his classic subtitle on the packaging) isn’t perfect, but if you don’t consider the portrait, you’ll find that he gets pretty darn close to perfect anyway. Before you get upset, his portrait isn’t horrific. But, and there is a big but here, Hasbro has done better in this line already (with the Luke Skywalker (#01) figure) so we’re surprised that a subsequent release has a few “bugs” to ruin the likeness.

The biggest issue with Luke Skywalker is that his eyes and nose are all wrong. What accentuates these errors is the poor paint job both receive. Luke is strangely looking to his left and it severely limits how you pose him (and where you make him look). Our sample doesn’t vary that much from other samples we have seen online, so it appears that Hasbro needs to tighten up the paint operations on this portrait to make it a little more scene and/or expression agnostic. If you can get past the portrait (and it will behoove you if you can), you’ll find that Hasbro has essentially sculpted and produced a flawless sample of his Bespin fatigues. We are honestly impressed. From the texture of the various pockets to the final wash that captures every little score mark in the sculpt, Luke Skywalker presents to the collecting community a fine representation of this Star Wars character that will stand the test of time; but you’ll have to overlook the problems with the head sculpt in order to appreciate the really great points about this figure. Significantly less articulated than the Stormtrooper or the Sandtrooper, Luke Skywalker comes with 17 points of articulation. Many fans have complained about the double-jointed knees. We are empathetic to their discontent. While we love the theory of these joints, they do look slightly odd when fully articulated. Another bummer is that they have no horizontal movement, so you need to rely of the figure’s swivel thighs to move the legs in and out from the body.

Luke Skywalker comes with a lightsaber, which breaks down into a hilt and a blade, and a blaster pistol. Aside from getting very scene specific accessories like his vittles and lamp (while he was on Dagobah with Yoda) or a tourniquet (after his battle with Darth Vader), we’d say that the minimal inclusion of accessories may work out the best for collectors. Sensory overload with accessories can be cumbersome at times, but for $19.99, we believe that Hasbro should be including a little more plastic with the figures inside of the packaging. The Sandtrooper (#03) figure is what we consider a perfect gauge for the appropriate amount of accessories. Based on this assessment it does feel like Luke Skywalker is packed a little bit too lightly. One accessory isn’t removable (by normal means). His holster and belt is a combination piece that floats “freely” on the Luke Skywalker figure, but technically isn’t removable without pulling the figure apart, something we’re not willing to do for this review. We’ll let others take the risk to see if this is indeed fully removable or not. It’s well designed and has a functioning strap that works well with or without the blaster pistol in place. We’re quite taken with how well this was designed. The other details of his costume are right on par to where they should be and are done just as well, too. Aside from his head sculpt, we’d say that Luke Skywalker is a total success. Hopefully Hasbro will concentrate on likenesses a bit more before finalizing these figures for production.