Tag Archives: The Empire Strikes Back

#0210: Luke Skywalker – Bespin

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

LUKE SKYWALKER – BESPIN

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES

Luke(Bespin)

I’m just a moderate Star Wars fan, but I am an action figure fan (in case the site hadn’t already clued you in on that…), and that means I frequently find myself venturing into the galaxy far, far away for my purchases. Hasbro recently brought the characters into the 6 inch scale with their new Star Wars: The Black Series. The line boasts improved sculpts, better articulation, and a greater selection of accessories. It’s also quickly become one of my favorite lines. The third series proved to be a bit difficult to procure at first, but I’ve finally tracked a set down and I’ll be reviewing them today and tomorrow (It’s only a three figure assortment and I don’t need prequel Obi Wan, so just the two for me.)

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Luke comes from the third series of Star Wars: The Black Series. Each figure in the line gets a number, and Luke is #011. He’s presented here in his main gear from The Empire Strikes Back, generally referred to as his Bespin look. It’s generally see as one of the character’s definitive looks, so it’s great to see it in the line. The figure stands just shy of 6 inches tall and features 29 points of articulation. All of the articulation seems to work pretty well, though I am slightly annoyed by the choice to give both hands a forward/back joint instead of the usual mix of one forward/back, one left/right. It’s a minor issue, but it limits the pose-ability a bit. Luke features an entirely new sculpt, which is great all-around. It’s well proportioned, nicely detailed, and the head has more than a passing resemblance to Mark Hamill. He also features an add-on belt piece, which could probably be removed if you so desired, but isn’t meant to be. On the paint side, he’s not quite as good as previous waves, but he’s not bad, and seems a lot better than I’d heard from other reviews. My figure seems to have received a decent paint job with no slop or bleed over. He’s got a decent wash on his body-suit, which does an excellent job bringing out the details in the sculpt. Luke is accessorized with a blaster and a lightsaber, both of which are reused from the previous LightsabersLuke. This is a bit of a letdown, given the larger selection featured with the rest of the line. Heck, the previous Luke even included a helmet in addition to these two pieces. I’d have liked to at least get a few extra hands, or at bare minimum that his right hand was removable to recreate the Bespin duel. Alas, he just gets the two pieces. Oh well.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got Luke from Amazon. He’s been in stock there for a little while, but I wanted to wait until they got in the Stormtrooper at a reasonable price before ordering him. Initially, I wasn’t sure I was going to get this figure. I already had the pilot version of the character from series one, and that’s a really cool figure. However, once I saw some pictures of this figure, I knew I couldn’t miss out on him. Plus, he’s Bespin Luke. What kind of a fan would I be if I didn’t have him? Anyway, I’m really glad I got this figure, and I’m going to have a lot of trouble picking which of the two Lukes will be my default.

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#0161: Luke Skywalker – Dagobah

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

LUKE SKYWALKER – DAGOBAH

STAR WARS: POWER OF THE FORCE II

So, today’s review is actually pretty nifty. I’ve looked at the most recent round of Star Wars toys with The Black Series, and I’ve also taken a look at one of the vintage figures from the original line, but I’ve never really looked at any of the figures released in between.

Star Wars is looked at as one of the permanent fixtures of the action figure aisle nowadays, but that wasn’t always the case. Following Return of the Jedi, the line shifted to Power of the Force for a little while, but that line only ran until 1985, at which point Star Wars toys effectively ended. Ten years later, Kenner relaunched the line under the branding Power of the Force II. In 1995, I was 3 and just getting into action figures. So, POTF II came at just the perfect time and provided me with my very first Star Wars figure, which I’ll be looking at in this review.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Luke was released as part of the 1996 assortment of Power of The Force II. He’s based on Luke’s look while he’s training on Dagobah in Empire Strikes Back. The figure stands about 3 ¾ inches tall, and features 6 points of articulation. That waist articulation was revolutionary, let me tell you. The sculpts for POTF II, in general, have not aged well. For some reason, everybody got really buff. Luke follows that trend, and looks more like Arnold Schwarzenegger than Mark Hamill. From a purely aesthetic stand point, it’s actually not a bad sculpt. There’s some nice texture on his clothing, and the proportions are about right, even if they don’t belong to Mark Hamill. One negative point: the feet are sculpted at a bit of an angle, which can make getting him to stand up a chore. The paint is actually very good for the time. There’s no bleed over or slop and the smaller details are all clean and sharp, and the shading on the shirt to show it’s wet and stained gives the figure a nice level of depth rarely seen on figures of this era. Luke was packed with a lightsaber and a blaster.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The trip on which I acquired this figure is actually one of my earlier memories of going to the store and buying something. I don’t remember what store it was (for some reason my gut says Target, but that doesn’t seem right). What I very vividly remember was being walked over to the toy aisle by my parents, seeing the display of figures and running to them. I saw Luke hanging there and immediately grabbed him. In particular, I remember my mind being completely blown by the idea that he actually included a lightsaber. I guess I just assumed that would have to be a separate purchase. I had yet to pick up on how action figures worked, I guess. Regardless, I was thrilled to have this figure. As the years have gone by, the figure has started to show its age, but I still feel pretty damned nostalgic for him. All in all, he’s not a bad figure, and the sentimental value pushes him up to 11.

#0052: Leia Organa – Hoth

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

LEIA ORGANA (HOTH)

THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK (KENNER)

My last bunch of reviews has veered towards things released fairly recently, but today, I’ll be jumping back to 1980, for a look at a figure from Kenner’s The Empire Strikes Back toy line.  The figure is of main character Princess Leia Organa in one of her looks from the film.  Let’s have a look!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Leia was released as part of the initial assortment for Kenner’s Empire Strikes Back line which coincided with the movie in 1980.  There were two Leias released, but I’ll be looking at the one that depicts her in her cold weather look from the ice planet Hoth.   The figure stands just shy of 3 ¾ inches tall, and has 5 points of articulation.  The sculpt is actually pretty detailed for a figure of this scale and time-period, with all the padding and such being handled quite realistically.  The head doesn’t have much of a Carrie Fisher likeness, but it’s in line with what most of the rest of the line looked like.  The paint was fairly basic, I assume, although, as you can see, mine has seen better days.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

So, for those of you rapidly fumbling with math attempting to piece together my age, no I didn’t get this figure when it was initially released.  I wasn’t alive when it was released!

When I was small, my Dad gave me his collection of vintage Star Wars figures.  They were exclusively from the first film, so this Leia wasn’t among them.  But, I got to really liking them, so over the years, I picked up a few others to expand the set.  The ice planet Hoth (I’m pretty sure you always have to say it like that) look has always been my personal favorite look for Leia, so a while back, I found this figure at an antique store, along with a few others.