Luke Skywalker - TFA - Build A Weapon (Forest)

Determined to rescue his captive Rebel friends, this young Jedi-in-training must face Darth Vader and confront the truth of his father's fate.

Hasbro has come very far with the simply articulated figures. While they are still clearly problems with it, both sculpting and deco have exponentially increased in positive ways. We feel sometimes that it’s also best to treat a change in era as some sort of bygone, and maybe not refer back to it when moving forward. The very first Mission Series and Saga Legends figures are some of Hasbro’s worst efforts to date, yet they resurrected two of them for the first waves of the Build A Weapon line. The only saving grace is that the paint operations have been ever so slightly updated to make the figures look better. But even with that thrown into the mix, we don’t think that Luke Skywalker looks all that much better from the way we first received him in 2014. What’s more, they actually revised the body (which includes the torso and cod section as one single piece) to include a hole which allows the figure to accept the included Build A Weapon pack-in part. Hey, at least Hasbro is attempting to make these figure interact with kids better. Still, between the confusing organization of the line to th even more perplexing Build A Weapon convention, we’re just not sure how well any of this is resonating with anyone.

With all of the action figures the basic figure line needs, we are having quite a difficult time understanding why Hasbro would include Luke Skywalker in a The Force Awakens dominant line. Hasbro has explained that to fill some holes in case assortments that they’ve included repacked action figures that somehow tie into Episode VII, which is the reason for the inclusion of Luke Skywalker at least. Still, we think a Luke Skywalker action figure based on Return Of The Jedi would have been a little more poignant here. Plus, because these older Saga Legends/Mission Series figures were created with swivel necks, they seem out of place in a line that has updated ball-socket heads now. We still feel that this Luke Skywalker sculpt, which has been used multiple times now, is just atrocious. Back in the day the sculpt was so poorly produced that we thought in one case assortment that there were three different head sculpts due to the horrid paint operations. While it seems the paint operations were cleaned up, there are just too many painful memories associated with this sculpt that we feel strongly that it would have been better if Hasbro just left this figure in their past. Luke Skywalker even has a hard time standing upright. What kid is going to have patience with that?

The sculpt of his body isn’t horrific, but with only swivel shoulders and swivel hips, there isn’t much you can do with it. You can’t make him battle Darth Vader realistically and despite improvements, the paint job is so pale that it feels like this figure is completely lacking from head to toe. We still appreciate the functioning holster and the well made lightsaber. And while Luke Skywalker can’t do much of anything with them, at least they’re interactive to some degree. Included with Luke Skywalker is a Build A Weapon part, and admittedly, it’s one of the most interactive Build A Weapon parts we have seen in the line yet. It functions like a backpack of sorts and Luke can stand up while wearing it. We’re not so sure of the point of it, but it certainly adds more play value than all the other Build A Weapon parts combined. it’s likely you don’t need another Luke Skywalker based on Bespin in your collection at this point. And it’s also likely that you have no interest in the Build A Weapon construction. So this maybe one of the easiest passes in The Force Awakens line for you. Besides, there are so many more and better options online in the aftermarket and you will get quality even if you have to spend a few dollars more. The Force Awakens line really does the complete opposite of this.