Luke Skywalker - TBS [P3] - Titanium Series (03)

Luke Skywalker was a Tatooine farmboy who rose from humble beginnings to become one of the greatest Jedi the galaxy has ever known.

Hasbro had plenty of years to plan for a collector-friendly line of Star Wars toys in 2017 to celebrate the 40th anniversary of Star Wars. Instead, they did the last thing collectors wanted and reintroduced a line of Titanium Series 3.75” action figures with dreadful paint operations with the expectation we’d be happy. They were wrong. On paper, a 3.75” line of die-cast metal action figures isn’t the worst thing contrived. But when it is meant to take the place of a 3.75” super-articulated line of action figures, especially those we’re desperate to see updated, Hasbro might as well pour salt in all of our wounds. In all honesty, not all of the figures in the 3.75” Titanium Series line are terrible. Some have their moments. Darth Vader was a decent release. Princess Leia Organa was an alright release. But when it came to human characters like Han Solo and Luke Skywalker, well, there was a whole lot left to be desired. Luke Skywalker is perhaps the case in points to why Hasbro must fix how deco is applied to any figure in their line. It might be one of the worst examples of bad paint operations in some time. Let’s take a close look at this figure, see if it has any merit, and discover if you need this one for your collection. (SPOILER: You don’t.)

Luke Skywalker is a complete debacle. We don’t like the shape of the head sculpt. We don’t like the pose. And we don’t like his feminine hands. It might be the worst figure Hasbro produced in a very, very long time. Luke Skywalker doesn’t capture the magic of A New Hope, and while we can understand the effect they were going for with the action-oriented pose, it fails by a large margin because they didn’t come close to matching the spirit of the character. Luke Skywalker comes with the standard articulation of the figures in the Titanium Series line. But most of it is useless thanks to lanky outstretched arms and widespread legs. Hasbro missed the mark. And without Princess Leia Organa holding onto him for dear life, there is nearly no purpose for the existence of this figure. Also, Hasbro is “cheating” in the Titanium Series line by adding too many plastic elements, which we imagine makes their lives easier. And in our estimation, it helps make the figures look better too. The same approach was done with Luke Skywalker. While we do have a 2011 The Vintage Collection update of Luke Skywalker (Death Star Escape) (VC39), why not go all out and make a completely all-new plastic figure of this character instead. We’re sure all collectors would have gladly paid the extra premium for that.

Luke Skywalker comes with an E-11 blaster and a second one but with a blast effect attached. He comes with no other accessories. Like all of the Titanium Series figures, Luke Skywalker also comes with a pretty sweet display stand that has a reversible panel. The front features the entryway into the Death Star chasm (the door he blasts shut). The reverse side, which can be flipped to the front with the base, is a silver and black artistic scene which features nicely done front view of Luke Skywalker with some other backgrounds from A New Hope worked into a collage-like scene. The display base also comes with four pegs to help the figure attach to the display base better. The Luke Skywalker Titanium Series figure will not be for everyone. But it could be had Hasbro painted the figure much more nicely than they did. Also, Hasbro is guilty of watering down The Black Series branding for a while now. Titanium Series should be its own line. And The Black Series name should only house the 6” scaled figures. It is getting very confusing now. Luke Skywalker is not a walk in the park. He is difficult to look at, and we don’t know how a figure like this passes quality control. It’s very disappointing. Aside from a second wave of The Force Awakens characters coming in this line, we don’t see a long life for 3.75” Titanium Series figures after that.