Luke Skywalker (Jedi Exile) - SW [TLJ] - Basic

It’s confirmed that Luke Skywalker changes his outfit in Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi. We’re not exactly sure what the subtitle of this figure means, but it certainly has us concerned. Luke Skywalker’s character is already coming across as much too dark for our tastes. We hope that Disney Star Wars doesn’t try to deconstruct what is already established with his character. He is an important part of the Star Wars timeline, and his character needs to remain unadulterated and substantial. We do have concerns if we're honest. That said, Hasbro has tooled an all-new version of Luke and has called him Luke Skywalker (Jedi Exile). The action figure has a great deal going for it, but it also has some issues, all of which we’ll point out here. They didn’t reuse any parts at all for this release. Instead of a primarily white and cream colored Jedi outfit, this time Luke is darkly colored, perhaps to accentuate his “depressed/dark” state as the trailer and rumors are relaying. Although Luke Skywalker (Jedi Exile) doesn’t fall under definitive status for us, Hasbro did do a couple of wonderful things to this figure, most notably the head sculpt.

Luke Skywalker (Jedi Exile) has an excellently sculpted portrait. We would have loved to see this head sculpt used for the Luke Skywalker (Jedi Master) figure instead. It just looks a great deal like Mark Hamill and captures the essence of what an older character of him would appear. In a surprising move, Hasbro tooled a separately sculpted and removable hood. We aren’t fond with how this figure looks with the hood on his head. It honestly looks a bit silly, so we’re thankful that it’s a completely separate piece so that it doesn’t interfere when you want to show his face. The jacket shell is also removable, but because his sleeves are a different color than the rest of the torso area, the figure looks silly without it. Hasbro did a fantastic job tooling detail into this figure. While the paint operations could be drastically better, Hasbro did a fair enough job with the deco to bring out the impressive details in the tooling. Other than looking a little too chunky in the midsection, we think Hasbro did a great job on Luke Skywalker (Jedi Exile). But paint operations have a long way still to go it seems.

Luke Skywalker (Jedi Exile) comes with an interesting accessory. It looks like a super-thin (and long) lightsaber hilt, but it also has some material hanging off of its edge too. There is great speculation about what this weapon can or cannot do, so we’ll be happy when we can answer those questions this December. It is a nicely detailed accessory and can fit in the figure’s hands perfectly well. What’s more, Hasbro has given Luke Skywalker (Jedi Exile) a left swivel wrist and a right swivel wrist, and this allows you to manipulate this accessory in so many more ways. Part of the Force Link basic figure line, Luke Skywalker (Jedi Exile) can communicate a generous amount of lines, five to be exact. The lines are confusing, but we’ll let you decide how you feel about them yourself. There is also a single sound effect of a “blade” sound which perhaps possibly is made from the accessory included with him. But we don’t know for sure obviously. Overall, Luke Skywalker (Jedi Exile) is a decent addition to the Star Wars [The Last Jedi] lineup. We just wish that Hasbro could perfect the same old issues that plague their action figures.