Luke Skywalker (In Imperial Guard Disguise) - SOTE - Basic

Height: 1.72 Meters
Status: Jedi in Training
Classification: Human
Affiliation: Rebel Alliance
Weapon of Choice: Lightsaber

The Empire's victory in the Battle of Hoth has brought hard times for the Rebel Alliance. Han Solo has been frozen in carbonite by Darth Vader, and two huge bounties have been placed on the head of Luke Skywalker. The Emperor wants him alive, but Prince Xizor, underlord of the most powerful criminal organization in the galaxy, wants him dead. Worse still is that the diabolical Xizor is holding Princess Leia Organa prisoner in his castle on the Imperial Center of Coruscant. This is a tactical maneuver, part of a larger master plan to lure Luke Skywalker into his castle where he can be easily eliminated – the key step in Xizor's plan to replace Darth Vader at the Emperor's side. Unaware of this danger, the young Jedi and Lando Calrissian sneak into Imperial City hoping to rescue Leia. Simply laying foot on Coruscant is a dangerous act for these two: high on the Empire's list of most-wanted outlaws, they could easily be recognized and captured – or assassinated. Disguising themselves as beggars, they "borrow" the armored uniforms from a pair of elite Coruscant stormtroopers. These troopers are some of the Empire's finest, selected as home guards for the wealthiest and most cultured city in the galaxy. Joining forces with Chewbacca and Dash Rendar, Skywalker and Calrissian attempt to infiltrate Xizor's nearly impenetrable stronghold and rescue the princess.

If there is one thing to guarantee action figure sales success, it would be the interpretation of some Star Wars character in a cool disguise. As long as we can remember, Kenner’s Star Wars action figure line was loaded with great action figures that came with this amazing feature. With properly scaled removable helmets and even better weapons, these figures left an indelible mark on our childhoods. When we became older collectors, we wanted these trends to continue strongly. And for the most part, they have. Enter in a fantastic multimedia event like Shadows Of The Empire, and we’re treated to a whole new cavalcade of characters that also share this unique feature. With the saga’s main hero, Luke Skywalker, he now comes to us as Luke Skywalker (In Imperial Guard Disguise) donning an outfit not all that different from the Emperor’s Royal Guards we saw from Star Wars Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi. The bottom line is that Luke Skywalker (In Imperial Guard Disguise) works and is an excellent addition to the basic figure line.

Let’s face it, we’re never going to get all of the necessary action figures based on Shadows Of The Empire. The Shadows Of The Empire multimedia event isn’t big enough to warrant a lengthy amount of devotion to it. But it has a powerfully strong story with the cast of main characters from the Original Trilogy. It was a guaranteed success upon its inception. The Luke Skywalker (In Imperial Guard Disguise) helps to shed a new character spotlight on Luke Skywalker, who was very active during a time when Darth Vader was obsessed with finding him. It makes sense why he needed to stay disguised for most periods in this timeline. The action figure itself seems to capture the spirit of this version of Luke quite well. His armor is chunky and thick, and with the bulkier frame of all of the POTF2 era figures, Luke seems extraordinarily large. But he still looks great. There is a great deal of detail in the armor, and the paint operations are very nicely applied. Simply put, most collectors are going to find favor with this figure.

Luke Skywalker (In Imperial Guard Disguise) comes with three accessories. The cape is removable (and plugs into a slot in the back when you wish to have him wearing it). He also comes with a complex staff with two ends that have a nice amount of detail in them. It’s amazing how much tooling went into this accessory. The best part, of course, is the removable helmet. It fits almost like a glove over Luke’s head, but in our opinion it doesn’t sit low enough on the figure’s head, meaning you see too much neck for our tastes. With limited articulation and simple features, Luke Skywalker (In Imperial Guard Disguise) certainly isn’t one of the greatest action figures we have seen, but it is awesome to get a truly unique “Expanded Universe” version of him that isn’t from the films. Shadows Of The Empire was truly a “movie without a movie” as so many others have eloquently said before us. And that is the reason that the toy line for Shadows Of The Empire has so many collectors interested in it. We hope more are on the way!