Luke Skywalker - POTF2 [R/G] - Electronic Power F/X

An adult should cut the background card out. Use the full length of the background to combine two sets OR... cut or fold it at the white arrows to use it on a single set.

The Electronic Power F/X line has some moments, but many collectors felt that the line didn’t deliver the way it needed ultimately and overall. And while some of the characters work well in this line, many (most) others do not. In particular, the Luke Skywalker figure in this line might be the worst of the lot. And it might be one of the worst figures by Kenner/Hasbro period. But if you look at Luke Skywalker in a different light, you might find some charm with the figure, because it can easily double as Luke Skywalker from the Expanded Universe, if you allow yourself not to get hung up on the finer details. Luke Skywalker is based on his appearance on the second Death Star when he faces Darth Vader for the last time. When he faced Darth Vader, his Jedi Knight outfit changed to remove the tunic and his cape. However, for reasons unknown, Kenner/Hasbro added the cape for this release, creating a “Dark Empire”-like version of Luke Skywalker. It works. It doesn’t work. And then it works again. You’ll likely equivocate on your opinion of this figure as well.

Kenner designed Luke Skywalker to interconnect with the Darth Vader Electronic Power F/X figure. And we’re confident to assert that this is the reason the Darth Vader figure in screen-inaccurate to A New Hope. They needed a scene-agnostic version of Darth Vader to work across both films (Episode IV and Episode VI). In our opinion, Luke Skywalker is a hot mess. He’s still bulky. He has an extraordinarily long neck. He’s in an annoying crouched position, and he comes with a scree-inaccurate cape that looks as good as it does not. It’s all very perplexing. Luke has a HUGE lightsaber hilt tooled in his right hand. And a removable green lightsaber blade lights up when you press a button on his back. With this figure, the cape is completely removable. The good news here is that you can fix up Luke Skywalker to be more screen-accurate than the way he’s packaged. And when you set him up with the Electronic Power F/X Darth Vader figure, the diorama is admittedly very nice-looking. Still, we have a difficult time getting past Luke Skywalker’s likeness.

It is still based on the “awful” original POTF2 sculpt. Kenner/Hasbro didn’t take the opportunity to freshen it up in any way, so Luke Skywalker doesn’t look all that much like his onscreen character. The base is the same as the one included with Ben (Obi-Wan) Kenobi. There are no differences at all between them. However, the background that you cut out from the figure’s packaging is different. Based on scenery found with the second Death Star, Luke comes with the entire backdrop which centers on the elevator seen in Return Of The Jedi as Darth Vader introduces Luke Skywalker to Emperor Palpatine. Once Darth Vader’s and Luke Skywalker’s plastic display stands are interlocked, the Luke Skywalker backdrop is long enough to provide the background for both. And the scene is lovely to the eyes. The only eyesores here are the figures themselves. In our opinion, Luke Skywalker is the worst-looking figure in the Electronic Power F/X line. Between his awful posture and terrible likeness, the figure has little saving grace. But you will have a great Episode VI setup if you buy it for the other parts.