Dec 27 2013

Star Wars Black: Padme Amidala (3 ¾” Scale) by Hasbro

I know what you’re thinking. “What? More of those shitty little Star Wars Black figures? Why don’t you review the 6-inch figures, you sonofabitch?” Woah, there! I promise that this is the last of the 3 ¾” Black figures that I’m going to look at before moving on to cover Wave 2 of the 6-inchers. The name of the game this week has been doing quick features that I can squeeze in between my busy schedule. I’ve been intentionally putting the 6-inch Black figures off until January so that I could give them their proper due once things have calmed down for me. I’ve already featured two of these 3 ¾” figures and it’s safe to say that the line has not been kind to me, nor I to it. Let’s see if Natalie Portman can turn the tides!

There’s the SWB 3 ¾” card and I’m still not digging it. I will say that at least this figure’s bubble hasn’t prematurely separated from the card, so that’s something. Contained within the miraculously still attached bubble is Padme Amidala in her strategically torn clothing from ~~Thor: The Dark World~~ “Attack of the Clones.” Hey, Hasbro, if you’re going to do an update to an Amidala figure you certainly picked the right one. Although if you do another, you might want to release her in that little black outfit from that scene where she’s telling Anakin she’s a Senator with only business on her mind while wearing an S&M inspired negligee. Anyway, I tend to think of this release as “Arena Battle Padme” and I’m pretty sure the last time this version was done was way back as part of the original AotC series and that’s when Hasbro was incorporating a lot of pre-posed sculpts and action gimmicks, which meant that the figures often sucked.

No action gimmicks here! In fact… I’m almost shocked to say it, but… holy crap this is actually a really nice figure. No, strike that… this is an EXCELLENT figure! The detail in the outfit is fantastic, right down to the little sculpted piping in the top and the leggings. The boots are intricately detailed, her belt features some little pouches and a working holster and even her bicep rings are neatly painted. Now this is how to properly do a figure in 2013, Hasbro!

Flip her around and she has some rather gruesome scratches across her back as well as tears in her top from one of those arena creatures. The scars are not only part of the sculpt, but also painted in with laser precision. Honestly, I could have done without them, as they are rather gross and off-putting, but I can’t help but respect how beautifully they were executed. Hasbro also did a pretty nice job sculpting Ms. Portman’s derriere. I’ll confess, I’ve grown a new appreciation for her butt after seeing “Your Hignesss.”

The portrait is also quite good for a 3 ¾” sculpt. I’d definitely say this figure features a better likeness to Ms. Portman than Diamond’s recent Marvel Select version from their Thor 2 line (Woof!), and that’s a twenty dollar 6-inch scale collector piece. The likeness here is just superb and the paintwork on the face is crisp and clean!

The articulation here is pretty good, with the only thing holding it back being the T-crotch for the hips. Proper ball jointed hips would have really made this figure perfect and the old style jointing feels dated alongside the rest of the figure’s articulation. The legs feature ball joints in the knees and ankles. The arms have ball joints in the shoulders and elbows and swivels in the wrists. Padme has a ball joint in the torso, which is cleverly hidden under her torn shirt, and her head is ball jointed. Not bad!

Padme comes with two weapons. You get her Naboo-style blaster, which fits comfortably in her hip holster. You also get a larger blaster rifle, which I believe is one she salvaged from a downed Battle Droid, but I could be wrong about that. “AotC” is not exactly one of my “go-to” movies and it’s been ages since I’ve seen it. Her right hand is sculpted to hold the pistol and her left to hold the larger blaster, but I’ve been able to make it work the other way around as well.

After doing two Star Wars Black features with two shitty re-hashes of figures that have been done so much better, it’s refreshing to finally hit a payoff here. Padme is a superb figure and an updated version of the character that was long overdue. I’d go so far as to say she’s one of the best Star Wars figures I’ve picked up in a while. I got her for $5 during Amazon’s sale, but I would have been perfectly happy laying down ten bucks for this kind of quality. This is a figure that would have been right at home released alongside the other Vintage Collection figures. I believe she was planned for another line that was to coincide with the aborted theatrical re-release of “Attack of the Clones” in 3D and if that’s the case I’m very happy that Hasbro eventually got her to the pegs because she’s a must-have for any collection.

Dec 24 2013

Star Wars Black: Biker Scout (3 ¾” Scale) by Hasbro

The first figure I looked at in the Black 3 ¾” scale series was the Stormtrooper and it was pretty disappointing. Nonetheless, thanks to Amazon selling these things for ridiculously cheap I couldn’t resist picking up a bunch of different figures in the line. Case in point, they were handing out Biker Scouts for less than $3 each so I gambled and picked up four of them to add to my already sizeable Imperial Forces. Could I possibly go wrong buying Biker Scouts for $3 a pop? Let’s find out!

I love the minimalist and artsy deco used for Star Wars Black’s 6-inch window boxes, but I do not care for it all that much on the 3 ¾” carded packages. These figures look like the same kind of stuff we’ve been getting on the pegs for a long while and wrapping them in collector-style art house packages doesn’t really do them any favors. It’s kind of just bizarre and confusing. Now I don’t care one way or the other because I’m tearing these bitches open, but even the MOC collectors may have issues here since the matte finish on the cards don’t wear well and three of the four Biker Scouts I got have issues with the bubbles separating from the card. In fact, one bubble was completely off the card and rattling around in the shipping box. Also, there are no pictures of other figures on the back of the package. It goes against ages of Star Wars figure packaging tradition. It’s just wrong.

Ok, so there he is. I picked one of the four I got at random for most of these shots. I wouldn’t say he’s the best or the worst, as they all have their share of problems. If you were gracious enough to read my SWB Stormtrooper feature than you know I’m not keen on scrutinizing and comparing different versions of figures. I find it boring and tedious. That having been said, quick research tells me that this figure is a repack of the one that came with the updated Speeder Bike released not too long ago. I never did pick up one of those, but most of my Biker Scouts are from the Legacy Collection, which in turn were repacks of the Vintage Collection figures… I think. I’ve always been very happy with the sculpting and articulation on those figures and so I bought them whenever I saw them on the pegs.

From the waist down, this new Black release appears to be a repaint of the Legacy figures I own. The pic above shows the two figures side by side. The sculpting on the Black figure strikes me as being much softer in some areas, and the plastic doesn’t feel as good a quality. Happily the ankle holster is still there for him to stow his pistol and most of the detailing has transferred over. But the real problem with this figure lies in the paint job or specifically the lack of painted hinges in the shoulder joints. Yes, the shoulder hinges are left black giving him huge black stripes running down his shoulder plates. Blah! The hinges in the ankles are also left black, but with the shoulders being so obvious, it’s kind of hard to get upset about the ankles too. I suppose I could try to convince myself that the shoulder hinges are a paint stripe to denote a special squad of these guys, but I’m really reaching for an excuse. I am usually extremely forgiving about unpainted pins and hinges, but here the oversight is just too obvious and the fact that they were left unpainted in what is supposed to be a 3 3/4″ collector line is just bullshit. The rest of the paint on this figure’s body is give and take, with a fair amount of slop and bleeding between the black and white. The one notable improvement in the paint is the lack of mud on the boots. I prefer my Biker Scouts to be clean, although it was never a major sticking point for me on the Legacy Scouts.

The head on the Black figure is the one thing about the sculpt that varies from the older release. Besides the detail being a lot softer on the Black release, the paint isn’t applied as well and the visor is notably bowed. Of the four figurs I have, the visor varies from being totally rounded to just somewhat bowed, but none of them are as straight as they should be. I definitely prefer the straighter visor and crisper detail on the older figure.

I’ve never featured the Legacy Scout on FFZ before so let’s run down the articulation. The head rests on a generous ball joint, which is nice because he can look up when riding a Speeder Bike. The shoulders are ball jointed with a pin and hinge and the arms feature ball joints in the shoulders and swivels in the forearms. The legs have ball joints in the hips, knees, and ankles. There is no waist swivel, but there is a pretty flexible ball joint in the torso that gets the job done.

In the end, I’d say the Biker Scout is only slightly better than the Stormtrooper and still quite a disappointment. With the cheap plastic, soft sculpt, and spotty paint it literally looks and feels like a knock-off. At $10 he is a huge step back from the previous released versions and the people at Hasbro should be ashamed of themselves for putting these on the pegs. It’s one thing to repack an old figure and sell it as new, but for the love of God, why make the figure worse? Granted, at less than three bucks a pop, I can’t get too upset about buying these. There’s always room in the back of my AT-AT for these guys to chill out and just buff up the numbers of my Imperial cannon fodder, but it’s no secret why Amazon is practically giving these things away as “Ad On Items.” So, that makes Strike Two for the 3 ¾” Star Wars Black line, Hasbro. We’ll come back to the line again in a couple of days and see if the next one is any better.

Dec 11 2013

Star Wars Black: Stormtrooper (3 ¾” Scale) by Hasbro

As some of my more stalwart readers may remember, back during the First Great Toy Purge I sold off the bulk of my 3 ¾” Star Wars figures. A lot of them went, although I did spare my Imperial Forces and even if you don’t count those I still had over 200 figures left. After that I picked up a few here and there, but when the 6-inch Black line was revealed, I promised myself no more 3 ¾” Star Wars figures. I finally had an out. Then Amazon had a half-price sale on them and I buckled because I am a weak, weak man who cannot even keep a promise to himself. Among the figures I bought was this addition to my army of about 30 or so Stormtroopers. Most of mine are from the Vintage Collection and the Legacy Collection, so I was rather interested to see if these Black Stormies were better, worse, or just repacks of the same figures. Keep in mind I absolutely hate scrutinizing subtle differences between releases, as I find it tedious and boring. Plus, I’ve been out of Star Wars collecting long enough that I’m hardly an authority on it anyway. I will, however, use the Legacy version with the removable helmet as a stand in for comparison, since I have a lot of those in my army. I hated the removable helmet on that guy, but I still think they were pretty good figures. Nobody seemed to want them so I was able to find them on the pegs just about every time I went shopping at Target or Walmart.

This is my first look at the 3 ¾” Scale SWB packaging. It mimics the black, minimalist decos used on the larger scale boxes, only this time in the form of a more traditional card and bubble affair. I like the look of this on the 6-inch line, but here I’m not so sure. The artsy-fartsy style lends itself to promote the larger figures as a collector line, whereas it seems rather out of place on figures that look more or less the same as the stuff we’ve been getting for ~~years~~ decades now, especially since some of these figures are straight repacks or kitbashes. And not showing additional figures on the back of the card? That’s been a tradition since the first Star Wars figure rolled off the line way back when and it seems like sacrilege not to do it. I should also note here that a lot of collectors are reporting instances where the bubbles don’t stick to the card properly. As an opener, it doesn’t bother me, but I can see where the bubble on this one is beginning to separate from the card at the top. MOC collectors, beware!

Ok, so a little research tells me that this is a Vintage Collection Sandtrooper with a regular VC Stormtrooper’s belt. {YAWN!} See? I’m boring myself to tears already. The torso and arms seem pretty close to my Legacy trooper, but when we move below the waist the Black version has something that looks more like a T-crotch only it isn’t. The hips are still ball jointed but he has an awkward and permanent wide stance, which doesn’t look right. Some have complained about the giraffe neck, which comes from this being a Sandtrooper with no pauldron, but honestly I don’t see it as a big issue with my figure. Perhaps the fact that he’s perpetually bow-legged draws my attention away from the neck. There is, however, some notable black paint slop on some of the white armor and even white showing through on the black joints. Jeez, Hasbro, the figure is white plastic with black paint. How hard is that to get right? To slam the disappointment home, I had to shave some mold flashing off this guy, particularly around the joints. That’s the first time I ever had to do that with a 3 3/4″ Star Wars figure. I thought even the 3 ¾” version of Black is still supposed to be a collector line. You wouldn’t know it with this kind of QC.

But we haven’t even gotten to the real sticking point yet. The helmet is god awful. There’s more paint slop, particularly around the chin and the sculpting for the eyes make his helmet look puffy and wrong. Seriously, look at his eyes… it looks like he just woke up or is having an allergy attack. And why are they set so far apart? Keep in mind, I’m comparing this head sculpt to the removable helmet on my Legacy figure. By all rights the Legacy figure should look worse because it’s sculpted on soft rubbery plastic. But, no. It looks so much better. The Black figure looks like it’s supposed to be some kind of primitive variant helmet. Folks, I am by no means a stickler for total accuracy on these figures. Hasbro can get (and probably have) an awful lot of discrepencies past me without me even noticing, but they weren’t even in the ballpark with this one.

The articulation here is fine. This guy is loaded with ball joints so I can get him into all the usual shooting and dying poses that I require from my Stormies. Ironically, however, the weird configuration of the hips makes him look odd when just standing at attention in my ranks. It’s like this guy has spent way too much time in the saddle of a Dewback.

As far as accessories go, This Stormy comes with the same belt as my Legacy version, which is cool because it includes the functional holster. He comes with a rifle and a brand new E-11 Blaster, or at least it’s new to me! I find it ironic that Hasbro flubbed so much with the actual figure and then went all out on the Blaster, which now features a multi-piece folding stock. I’ve never seen this piece before and it is quite impressive for a weapon in this scale. But to further drive the irony home, you have to pull off all the extra parts if you want it to go into the holster and that gets the official Admiral Ackbar Facepalm Award.

If you can’t tell by now, I’m not impressed with this figure. I realize that the 6-inch Black figures are the real collectible line, but by putting out the crappy 5-point articulation 3 ¾” figures on the pegs alongside these, Hasbro is practically targeting these to collectors as well. This figure is a huge step back from a number of recent Stormtrooper releases and that’s just baffling to me, because they would have better served their customers by just repacking the VC or Legacy figures and making them available again. At $5 each through Amazon’s sale, I was tempted to buy five of these, and I am oh, so glad that I didn’t. Of course, the great thing about army building Stormtroopers is you can always put the sub-par ones in the back of a display to fill out the ranks and that’s where this guy is going to go.

Aug 30 2013

Star Wars Black: Imperial Sandtrooper by Hasbro

It’s my third outing for Hasbro’s new Star Wars Black 6-inch figure line. This will also be my last feature for the first wave, because I’m not buying Darth Maul. If I go back on that, I’ll have a contest where the lucky random winner will be flown to my hometown, spend the night in a fine hotel, and get to kick me square in the balls in front of all of the Youtubes. But don’t get excited, because that’s just not going to happen. Anyway, I saved the figure that I was looking forward to the most for last: The Sandtrooper!

There’s the artsy-fartsy collector packaging. I still dig it a lot, but once again, I would have appreciated either some character art or the name of the figure on the side of the box for easy reference. It’s totally collector friendly, so Mr. Sandtrooper can get packed away for storage when you’re done playing with him, or when you want to rotate something else out onto the display shelf. Some collectors I know were questioning why a Sandtrooper in the first wave? Why not a regular Stormtrooper? Well, much like the decision to go with X-Wing pilot Luke, I just find this one to be a more exciting choice. Besides, the extra equipment better shows off what Hasbro can do with this scale. Of course, if you want a regular Stormtrooper, all of this guy’s gear is removable, so let’s start off with the base figure.

Yup, stripped down you get a basic Stormy. Granted, he’s a dirty boy who hasn’t washed his armor in a while, but I’m sure there are plenty of planets where this guy would look at home trudging through swamps or other filth in search of Rebel holdouts. The sculpt is excellent, but it doesn’t pull too many surprises. I have no doubt that some Star Wars ~~nutjobs~~ dedicated enthusiasts could pick apart problems with this sculpt, but that ain’t me. I think it looks great. Maybe the helmet is too big? But seriously, it looks fine to me. Oh, and before you get any bright ideas about a head-swap to make your own Luke in Stormtrooper disguise, forget about it. The ball joint for this guy is way too big to make the swap work.

The articulation here is quite good, but the sculpting on some of the armor pieces does its share to inhibit some movement. You get ball joints in the neck, shoulders, hips, wrists, and ankles. The arms feature swivels in the biceps and double hinged elbows. The legs have swivels at the hips and double hinges in the knees. The torso also features a ball joint with a solid range of movement. I’m quite happy with what this guy can do, even with some restrictions at the hips because of the armor pieces.

Of course, it takes more than a dirty set of armor to make a Sandtrooper. It takes cool gear and weapons and a burning desire to hump that shit out in the hot sun baked desert looking for some goddamn droids. For starters, you’ve got the pauldron, that piece of orange and black shoulder armor. It has straps that fits around the figure’s neck and under his arm and it’s easily removed or attached by popping his head off. Next up, you’ve got the big backpack, which pegs right into the hole on his back. There’s also an extra ammo pouch on it that hangs down the figure’s left shoulder. It pops up a bit, but you can tuck it under his helmet to make it behave.

Weapons! This dude is lugging more firepower then he knows what to do with. I’m reminded of the line in Firefly: Why are you bringing so many guns, you’ve only got the two arms… or something to that effect. The Sandtrooper comes with his standard E-11 blaster, a longer rifle with a bipod, which unfortunately does not fold down, and a carbine with a shoulder strap. The carbine can be slung nicely over one of his shoulders. Unfortunately, there’s no holster for the blaster. C’mon, Hasbro even the 3 ¾” Stormy had a holster for his blaster!

I had high hopes for this figure and I’m happy to say that Hasbro managed to rise to the occasion. He’s not perfect. I think there are some missed opportunities with the scale change. There’s also nothing much on this guy that hasn’t been done already on the best of the 3 ¾” versions, but I still love the way he turned out. He’s a ridiculously fun figure to play around with and I’ve had him patrolling my desk in various poses since I got him out of the package. And that wraps up my look at Wave 1. I’ve already got Wave 2 on pre-order (yup, this time I’m buying the whole thing) and I can’t wait to have them in my hands as well.

Aug 23 2013

Star Wars Black: R2-D2 by Hasbro

The wait for this 6-inch R2 has been a bumpy ride. Hasbro’s initial images looked great and then we got some final product images, which looked not so great. Further details about the figure’s gimmickry started getting me worried. Now I have R2 in hand and the final result is… decidedly average. He’s honestly better than I thought he was going to be, but I had very low expectations. Let’s take a look at the ups and downs of this little Astromech droid…

We saw the packaging last week with Luke, so there’s not a lot for me to add. I dig it enough that I’ll probably be keeping the figures stored in these boxes, at least until I have enough to set up a display shelf. It’s still hard for me to believe that anyone at Hasbro designed this packaging because it’s so antithetical to mass market toy design. Sure, it’s designed for collectors and not kids, but it’s still odd to see something as subdued as this hanging on a peg in the toy aisles. R2’s attachments are strategically spread out above and beside him to help the little guy fill out the tray. The first thing I had to do when taking R2 out of the package was attach the blue strips to his legs. These each peg into two slots, but mine wouldn’t fit right until I took a razor blade and shaved off some of the mold flashing on the pegs. It’s not a big deal, and they fit perfectly now, but should I really have to do this on a figure that cost $22? I think not.

Starting at the top and working my way down, I have issues with R2’s dome and the biggest one should be obvious: The seam! Unless I’m looking at R2 dead on from the front or back, it’s impossible not to notice this eye sore. I know next to nothing about making toys, but surely there’s a way to manufacture half a sphere in plastic without this kind of seam mucking it up. Second, the paint apps on the dome are overall quite good, but the blue ring around the base of the dome is wobbly, particularly in the front. I don’t want to keep coming back to the price point, but this is a $22 figure and this kind of stuff is unacceptable. The rest of the dome is great. I’m very happy with the way the opening panels on the top close and fit nicely. Yes, you can tell they’re there, but they aren’t as obvious as they could have been.

Things get a lot better as we move down to the body. All the little panel lines are sculpted and look great. I was worried about how the opening panels on the front would look. Early production shots had them rather warped, but on my figure they close up flush with the rest of the body. I’m sure there are plenty of people more familiar with R2’s design than I am, but as far as I’m concerned, this guy looks pretty accurate. The blue paint apps are neat and clean, and while I’m not usually a fan of Hasbro’s attempts at weathering, the work they did on the feet turned out pretty good.

Gimmicks! For better or worse, Hasbro decided to pack this R2 with gimmicks. Some of these work, others do their part to unfortunately mar the figure. Again, let’s start from the top down. R2’s dome has three removable hatches on top. Inside there are slots where you can peg in his sensor device, his periscope, and Luke’s lightsaber. The lightsaber slot is specific to the hilt, but you can put the periscope and sensor into either of the other two. Hasbro could have just as easily only had one hatch to use for the sensor and the periscoe, but I’ll applaud their attempt at accuracy by making them separate. These all work pretty well, and I will admit, I like the idea of being able to display R2 with some of his gizmo’s deployed.

The body features the two opening hatches, each with an arm that folds up. The right door has a computer interface and the left one has a grabber arm. Again, these are cool little features, that don’t harm the toy, apart from the little bumps on the panels to help you open them up. They’re also a lot easier to get out than I suspected they would be.

Next up are those dopey flight-jet things that attach to his arms. Here, you just pull off the side pieces and attach the jets. I hate that these exist and apart from shooting the picture above, I will never use them again. On the bright side, you can just leave them in the package and forget about them. They don’t hurt the figure in any way.

Ok, so here’s the biggie. Hasbro decided to make the third leg deploy by turning R2’s head. It’s the one gimmick that I really wish had been left out. It’s a cute enough gimmick when it was on the smaller R2 figure designed for kids to play with. On the 6-inch collector figure, I think it’s a mistake.

When all is said and done, R2 is a solid enough figure, but he’s not as spectacular as he could have been. To me, he feels like nothing more than an up-scaled 3 ¾” R2, and that’s a big difference from the “wow factor” that I felt when playing with the SWB Luke figure for the first time. Far be it from me to encourage Hasbro to make collectors double-dip, but I would have been happier had Hasbro delivered a great R2 where they focused more on sculpt and paint and less on gimmicks. Hell, I would have happily traded every gimmick on this figure if to get rid of the ugly seam in the dome. Later, they could have released a more gizmo-laden version, which I could have left on the pegs. I was fairly satisfied with Luke at $22, but this R2 just doesn’t feel as worth it to me. If you’re going to do a collector line, Hasbro, do it and leave the gimmicks for the kids toys.

Aug 17 2013

Star Wars Black: Luke Skywalker (X-Wing Pilot) by Hasbro

It still seems surreal, but Hasbro has finally shipped the first wave of their 6-inch scale Star Wars figures. 6-inch Star Wars figures? Madness! Nonetheless, they’re here and I was mighty damn anxious to get my hands on the first batch. Well, the first batch minus Darth Maul, a character I care nothing about. The rest of the first wave consisted of R2-D2, an Imperial Sandtrooper, and the fellow we’re looking at today: Luke Skywalker as X-Wing Pilot! I know more than a few collectors questioned having X-Wing Pilot Luke as a flagship figure in the new scale, but I was very excited for this figure. To me, iconic Luke has always been him in his X-Wing gear because when I was a kid, I thought it was so freaking cool that this yokel farmboy was getting to suit up and fly a starfighter. The chief appeal of Star Wars to me has always been the blaster fights and starship dogfighting rather than the hocus-pocus Force crap. It’s only natural that Luke suited up and poised on the ladder of his X-Wing was and always has been my favorite image of him. So, when Hasbro announced the new 6-inch line, well… hell yeah, I wanted this version of the character.

The packaging here is so distinctive that I would never in a million years guess it came out of Hasbro. It is very artsy and very much not a mass-market retail action figure package. It’s not flashy and it’s not designed to draw the eyes of sugared-up kids running through the toy aisles. Nope, this is minimalist presentation at its best, which is admittedly cool, but also kind of misses a few opportunities. For example, I would have liked to see the name of the character printed on the side of the box so I can line them up on the shelf and be able to distinguish who is who. I guess you can do that with the other side facing out, but it’s not quite the same. It’s also interesting that nowhere on the package does it say that this is Luke in his X-Wing gear. It just says Luke Skywalker. We’re sure to get a few versions of the character, so it’s odd to me that distinction isn’t made. Anywho, the box is totally collector friendly, with the figure nested into a plastic tray and the accessories off to the side.

With Luke out of the box, I am immediately impressed with this figure. The quality of the plastic feels great, giving the figure a nice heft for his size. The pilot outfit is lovingly sculpted with all the little rumples and stitching and it’s even textured throughout. The ribbed white vest is sculpted as part of the outfit, on top of that is the console worn over his chest. The additional rigging is cast separately in soft plastic and is loose enough so as not to inhibit the articulation too much. Hasbro went with a glossy black for the gloves and boots, which contrasts nicely with the duller orange matte used for the suit itself. There’s a little bit of overspray evident on the white paint, but nothing too bad. Honestly, we’ve seen this suit executed extremely well by Hasbro in the smaller scale, but I’m happy to say it looks just as impressive when blown up to nearly twice that size.

The head sculpt is where Hasbro often stumbles when it comes to this character, but early photos showed promise and with the figure in hand I’m satisfied with the final result. No, it’s not perfect. I’ll concede it’s a little too soft and maybe the paint apps are a little too simple. I’ve seen better work in the Marvel Legends line, but the likeness to Mark Hammill is certainly there and it is admittedly one of the lines first figures, so I’m hoping things can only go up from here.

Luke’s articulation is superb. You get a ball joint and a hinge in the neck, which grants a wonderful range of motion for the head. The arms feature ball joints in the shoulders and hinges and swivels in the elbows and wrists. I thought the lack of bicep swivels would bother me, but the elbow joints make up for the omission quite well. The legs are ball jointed at the hips, have double hinged knees, swivels in the thighs and at the tops of the boots, and the ankles have hinges and rockers. There is no waist swivel, but there is a ball joint hidden under the vest. Yup, the articulation has been carefully considered and flawlessly executed on this figure. There are no weak or wobbly joints and no soft or flimsy hinges.

Luke comes with three accessories. You get a lightsaber with a detachable blade, his blaster, and his flight helmet. The helmet is a fantastic piece with great weathering, clear yellow tinted visor, and a soft plastic chin strap. It fits well on the figure’s head. The lightsaber hilt seems really oversized, which is probably the only disappointing thing about this figure for me. It is nice, however, that you can pull out the blade and hook the hilt to his belt. The blaster is just perfect and it fits great in Luke’s right hand.

If you can’t tell, I’m absolutely in love with this figure. It surprised me a lot, as these days I’m only a casual Star Wars collector at best. But the 6-inch Black line may be just the thing to get me back in full guns. It’s a refreshing to start out with a clean slate as opposed to wading through the sea of 3 ¾” figures with so many variants of so many characters. The only really questionable thing here is the price. Luke set me back about $23, which is usually a few dollars over what I’m willing to blow on a 6-inch mass market release figure. Nonetheless, I’m happy with the quality Hasbro delivered and if they keep the releases to a reasonable number, I will likely be coming back for more.

FigureFan Zero

Action Figure Reviews, Toys & Collectibles…

Tag Archives: star wars black

Star Wars Black: Padme Amidala (3 ¾” Scale) by Hasbro

Star Wars Black: Biker Scout (3 ¾” Scale) by Hasbro

Star Wars Black: Stormtrooper (3 ¾” Scale) by Hasbro

Star Wars Black: Imperial Sandtrooper by Hasbro

Star Wars Black: R2-D2 by Hasbro

Star Wars Black: Luke Skywalker (X-Wing Pilot) by Hasbro

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