Anakin Skywalker (Tatooine) - EI - Basic

Only nine years old, Anakin Skywalker began life as a slave on Tatooine. After winning his freedom, he will be trained to become a Jedi.

Before the Episode I product launch on May 3, 1999, three figures were first introduced at Star Wars Celebration (the very first one); which became a bonus of sorts for collectors attending the Star Wars community’s first event on such a large scale. A party of sorts, most patrons were connected by their love of toys, so it made sense that Hasbro would debut something Episode I related for them. Hasbro was certainly proud of the figures they showed. It was evident by the “new proud parents” demeanor on the reps’ faces that this was going to be a line that was going to focus on accurate proportions, enhanced articulation and brilliant paint operations like collectors never saw to date. In all truthfulness, thankfully, the Episode I line delivered many times over what our expectations were. While we didn’t know much about the plot of the film, all we needed to know was that The Phantom Menace was a new Star Wars film. That was enough to make us fall hook, line, and sinker for it. One of the figures shown at Celebration was Anakin Skywalker (Tatooine). By all accounts, the figure is rather excellent. Too bad he was whinier than Luke wanting to go to Tosche Station looking for power converters. Let’s find out why it should hold up well over time.

Anakin Skywalker (Tatooine) is definitely an excellent sculpt. The action figure looks a whole lot like the young Jake Lloyd. The bowl hair cut is perfect. He looks concerned and very naïve. And the paint operations bring this all to a wonderful head and collectors are left with a pretty darn nice action figure. Anakin Skywalker (Tatooine) comes with six points of articulation. His outfit looks spot on, and there are plenty of fine details etched into the figure that makes his clothing and other outfit textures look completely realistic. But like so many other figures in the Episode I line, Anakin Skywalker (Tatooine) is blessed with a stunning paint job. It accentuates the fine details in the sculpt and both the base and final washes breathe an inordinate amount of life into the excellent sculpt. Anakin Skywalker (Tatooine) is perfectly scaled in our opinion too. Hasbro did a great job making him look proportionate to the rest of the figures in the line. We’re quite impressed. Between the great sculpt, superb paint operations and nicely applied scale, collectors should have nothing to complain about when it comes to the Episode I Anakin Skywalker (Tatooine) figure.

Anakin Skywalker (Tatooine) comes with two accessories. The first is a large backpack which looks too earthly for our tastes. It looks like he just got off of the school bus and is heading home to be greeted by his stay-at-home mom. We admit that a space aged backpack may not look a whole lot different than one in our world, but we think more could have been done to set it apart. As a slave of the Toydarian Watto, Anakin Skywalker (Tatooine) also comes with a grease gun. The accessory doesn’t stay perfectly in place in his hand, but at least he can hold it. And we should probably mention that he still has a great center of gravity despite the large and bulky backpack that accompanies him. Overall, we know kids and collectors will have a blast with this figure. Anakin Skywalker (Tatooine) also comes with a CommTech chip which allows him to speak lines from the film as well as serve as a display stand when not in use electronically. Three Anakin Skywalker figures are part of the Episode I basic figure line. The Anakin Skywalker (Naboo Pilot) was just a repaint of Anakin Skywalker (Tatooine) with new accessories. It made sense to reuse a great sculpt.