Obi-Wan Kenobi (Jedi Starfighter Pilot) - SW [S - P1] - Basic (’02 #36)

Ten years after the fight to save Naboo from invasion, the galaxy is on the brink of civil war. Under the leadership of a renegade Jedi, thousands of solar systems threaten to secede from the Galactic Republic. A courageous Jedi Knight, his impulsive and headstrong apprentice, and a queen-turned-senator are drawn into the heart of the conflict... and the beginning of war.

Obi-Wan Kenobi is sent to Kamino by the Jedi Council to discover who is behind an assassination attempt. Piloting the Jedi Starfighter, Obi-Wan discovers an industrial facility in which a stunning cultivation is underway – one that may decide the fate of the encroaching civil war.

Collectors will often find that an action figure is worth buying solely for the parts contained within it. This is especially true for many of the figures in the Star Wars “Saga” line. In a line that has a focus on action features over aesthetics, 2002 through 2004 in many instances wasn’t collector friendly. Thankfully Hasbro made it worthwhile by loading these action figures with some impressive accessories, or engineered great compatibility with the corresponding vehicles in the line. This is pretty much how you can sum up Obi-Wan Kenobi (Jedi Starfighter Pilot), a figure that looks great in many ways, but then comes across as an eyesore in others. The figure stripped down is honestly quite atrocious, but the combination of soft-goods, the cool accessories, and the ability to pilot his Jedi starfighter all work together to make the bad characteristics almost forgivable. Don’t misinterpret what we’re saying here please. The figure needs a great deal of work, but even when better pilot Obi-Wan Kenobi figures comes long, you’re going to want to accessories that this figure comes with because they are that cool.

Obi-Wan Kenobi (Jedi Starfighter Pilot) comes with luxe soft-goods Jedi robe. Without a doubt it’s too bushy, but it is soft and silky to the touch and has a reasonable drape to help recreate the scene from Attack Of The Clones where he is communicating to the Jedi Council in the pouring rain from Kamino. To do this, Hasbro has included a radar dish as well as an elaborate stand so you can recreate this scene in its entirety. Also included are binoculars, but they look to be from a cut scene perhaps, or maybe it’s from a scene we missed altogether. In good form, Hasbro has also included a lightsaber. It has a metal hilt with a detachable blue blade. As you might imagine, a magnet has been added to Obi-Wan Kenobi’s left hand so that the “Force attract” feature will work. This novelty is a feature that not many collectors have embraced. We are fans of the real metal lightsaber hilts, but the blades break off very easily with this arrangement and the iny little pegs that hold them into the hilts typically break off inside of them. So, it’s quite bittersweet to get metal hilts for the lightsaber accessories.

Obi-Wan Kenobi (Jedi Starfighter Pilot) comes with 10 points of articulation, plus an action feature, much to the chagrin of collectors. He has a swivel head, two loose swivel shoulders (for the accompanying action feature), two swivel elbows, two swivel wrists (which are a great benefit to this figure), a swivel torso and two swivel hips. He has a decent center of gravity and thanks to the good articulation in the arms, you can pose him in a variety of ways that looks natural and not contrived. If you press the button on his pack, it will activate the “flailing of his arms” which the packaging describes as “slashing motion” when holding the included lightsaber. A nice interactive feature here is the radar dish accessory can detach from the stand and can be placed on his Jedi Starfighter so the R4-P17 accessory can direct it to find a signal so Obi-Wan Kenobi can communicate with the council. There are cool things included here indeed, so the $4.99 purchase price is totally worth it and extremely fair. Better figures will come down the pike, but it’s unlikely that the cool accessories will be carried forward. It doesn’t happen often, so make sure you secure them now.