Darth Vader - SW [TLJ] - 12-Inch Figures

Destined to bring balance to the Force, Anakin Skywalker fell to the dark side and arose as Darth Vader.

The best metaphor we can find to describe the Star Wars [The Last Jedi] Darth Vader is that it’s a square peg in a round hole. Hasbro has taken an overused template of a Darth Vader 12-Inch Figure sculpt and is using it to generate every type of variation in the costume across the Star Wars films. Simply put, it’s not working out too well. This Darth Vader figure is tired and should be put to bed for good now. Darth Vader was one of the first “shampoo bottles” Hasbro ever produced, and they didn’t have the template perfected. Darth Vader is much too lanky, comes with a poorly cut soft-goods cape and has a lightsaber hilt permanently affixed to his right hand. Oh, and the plastic used to cast him is much too shiny. It’s ridiculous how much he glistens in the littlest bit of light. After a fantastic appearance in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story, one would think that Hasbro would have tooled an all-new version of Darth Vader to make him more relevant to the modern era. This 12-Inch Figure of him is no longer working. It’s time to tool an all-new figure from here on out.

Darth Vader comes with the same seven (7) points of articulation as he always has. Movement like this doesn’t do much to help you pose the figure meaningfully. The hilt of the lightsaber is permanently affixed to his right hand. The blade, however, is removable, so you get some interchangeability here. While Hasbro added swivel wrist movement to this sculpt, Darth Vader still only comes with a swivel head, two swivel shoulders and two swivel hips which again does very little for the kid or collector. The sad thing is that swivel shoulders give you minimal movement. The good news is that the swivel wrists do help to allow you to pose the lightsaber in some optional ways, but it’s still not ideal. Darth Vader also comes with a poor quality cut soft-goods cape. It’s essentially a felt triangle that is permanently attached to the figure. With a little patience, you can attain a rather believable drape with it, but it looks cheap and no consideration was made to make it look aesthetically pleasing to the eye. Darth Vader has been cast in a very cheap plastic that is much too shiny for his own good. It’s a shame that Hasbro decided to reissue this figure when they’re making better figures currently.

When fully displayed, at first glance Darth Vader may not look that bad to you. But we can assure you that unfortunate sacrifices have been made to keep this figure within Hasbro’s tooling budget and subsequent MSRP of less than $10. And for all intents and purposes, that’s exactly what you’re getting here. It’s quite perplexing how this 12-Inch Darth Vader figure can be created and priced to be within the same MSRP of a 3.75” 5POA figure. You seem to get better quality and more accessories with the smaller figure (generally speaking). So what about that square peg/round hole thing? Well, Darth Vader’s chest box seems to be mirrored after his appearance in Rogue One: A Star Wars Story and Revenge Of The Sith. But the costume is Original Trilogy based like the ones we saw in The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi. This version of Darth Vader is pot luck. All in all, we’d say it’s time to put this sculpt into retirement and develop an all-new 12-Inch Figure of this character. Toy lines are also in need of refreshing, and Darth Vader is in major need or being updated.