Obi-Wan Kenobi - SW [DV/ROTS] - Saga Legends (SL04)

Obi-Wan flies his Jedi starfighter through a Separatist armada to infiltrate an enemy ship. Obi-Wan and Anakin Skywalker are on a daring mission to rescue Chancellor Palpatine, who is being held hostage on General Grievous' ship.

They’re Kenner vintage action figures just like you remember them. Just different. Actually, the 2013 Saga Legends line has taken collectors on a very harsh and sudden left turn and it doesn’t look like Hasbro has any plans to put the ride in reverse. We bet that none of you out there in cyberspace ever expected to get 1978-1985 era styled Prequel Trilogy character in the modern line did you? Forget about the Episode I line. Those often included extra points of articulation and the points were applied differently. We’re talking about approaching the characters with the same rectangular five points of articulation that the classic Kenner figures did. It may have behooved Hasbro to create a “The Vintage Collection Junior” line and place these figures in “vintage-styled” packaging because that’s essentially what we’re getting here. And in retrospect that might have been very successful in pulling in adult collectors. We never had an opportunity to get classically simplified action figures from the Prequel Trilogy. Now that they’re a priority with Hasbro, it may have secured their shelf life a bit longer had they’ve complemented the classic tooling with classic packaging.

Obi-Wan Kenobi is another character on Hasbro’s priority list for the Saga Legends line. There are indeed some plusses with the new sculpt, but there are also negatives. And as adult collectors ourselves, we’re not sure if we can draw a fair line as to what is acceptable for kids any more. Hasbro believes that kids do not care about articulation. We have to disagree with those sentiments almost completely. But cost is on the rise and Hasbro needed to find ways to contain it otherwise the future of the Star Wars brand would become a big question. Obi-Wan Kenobi brings forth a decent chunk of accuracy and fair likeness into the Saga Legends line for 2013, but we still have to belabor the point and ask why is an all-new tooling the way to go here when there are super-articulated sculpts available that require a $0 tolling budget. We believe that assembly costs come into play and that cobbling together five points of articulation to a figure made up of six simple parts is clearly more cost effective to manufacture than a figure with superior quality and infinitely more articulation. So what does Obi-Wan Kenobi bring to the table that we really haven’t seen before?

You may find this somewhat ironic, but Obi-Wan Kenobi is the simplest Episode III version of Obi-Wan Kenobi Hasbro has ever created. It’s hard to believe that in 2013 we are getting Obi-Wan Kenobi (based on his appearance from Revenge Of The Sith) with a simple yet good likeness and the least amount of articulation. Not even the figures from 2005’s Revenge Of The Sith line received this little of articulation. As a Star Wars action figure it does its job. It sits, it stands, it holds a lightsaber. It can even look to the left and to the right. And if you’re really clever, you can make Obi-Wan Kenobi hold his lightsaber in a quasi action pose if you’re so inclined. (It’s possible to have him lean with one foot forward for the record.) Obi-Wan Kenobi looks pale overall. His outfit is bleached and his face is so fair that he looks a little bit unhealthy. A different type of plastic was used to cast him and the paint operations have been simplified to the point where he doesn’t have much personality at all. Collectors will likely pass on the revamped Saga Legends line, but we’re sure there are collectors out there that will need to have one of everything. Or will these figures finally break that cycle too?