Obi-Wan Kenobi - SW [TLJ] - Basic

After our rumor report came out stating that we would all likely see a new Obi-Wan Kenobi and/or Yoda in the 5POA line on or around Force Friday II, the speculation began about why Hasbro would choose a figure like this for the line. Is Obi-Wan Kenobi tied to Episode VIII in some fashion? If he is how will he or his legacy appear? How will the figure look? That was quickly answered as the packaged figure leaked on eBay and across the web. From a distance, Obi-Wan Kenobi looked pretty fantastic. And now that we have him after finding him on shelves we have to say that visually the sculpt is outstanding. What will disappoint you, however, is his lack of articulation. The Star Wars [The Last Jedi] line is proving to be a hybrid line. We can’t help but notice the similarities to this line when compared to another “middle installment” line all the way back in 2002, the Star Wars “Saga” line. Both lines were created to celebrate the entire Star Wars universe under one banner. You won’t find the words “The Last Jedi” on the packaging, yet the three main heroes from the film populate the graphics. It’s a great way to prevent Hasbro from limiting what characters they’ll produce for this line. New, old, classic and trendy: all of these types of characters will feel right at home under this new line look. It is, however, refreshing to see a classic OT character like Obi-Wan Kenobi enter the limelight once again. Is this the end-all Obi-Wan Kenobi 3.75” action figure? No, but he isn’t a terrible figure either. Let’s take a closer look at him.

Obi-Wan Kenobi is actually a delightful figure. Sure, he lacks most of the articulation points needed to recreate his most memorable poses. But Hasbro’s engineer explained to us that she created new “mushroom joints” (you can see them clearly in our photo gallery) which give a faux ball-socket range of motion. But this extra movement allows his prepositioned bent elbows to rest on his belt (just like in A New Hope) as well as hold the included lightsaber accessory with both hands (just like in the movie). This was a brilliant approach to capture two distinct poses for Obi-Wan Kenobi from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope and we’re thrilled that they were able to capture this so well in a line that is so limited with its sculpting and articulation. Obi-Wan Kenobi certainly isn’t perfect by any stretch of the imagination, but look how awesome he looks displayed on a shelf, or engaged in a duel with Darth Vader. Hasbro captured the spirit and essence of this character remarkably well and they should be proud of what they accomplished here in the 5POA range. To top things off, Obi-Wan Kenobi has a very nice portrait, although, it’s seemingly not difficult for Hasbro to nail his likeness well. They’ve also sculpted a removable robe shell with the hood up. Sadly, his arms remain dark brown. Otherwise, we could have had two figures for the price of one here: cloak on and cloak off. Still, it isn’t often that we get a “hood up” Obi-Wan Kenobi (without soft-goods of course), so this alternate take is welcomed.

If you look carefully at Obi-Wan Kenobi’s head sculpt when the hood is removed, you’ll see that Hasbro was very generous with the paint operations. They’ve applied their “controversial” dot matrix patterns to give Obi-Wan Kenobi’s hair highlights and depth. From our perspective, it works very, very well. His eyes haven’t been painted perfectly, but we feel they pass the test as they don’t affect his likeness all that much. The rest of the action figure has been painted in very simple tones without any highlighting or textures. But we wouldn’t expect anything more as this is as simple as a color scheme a figure can get, other than a Stormtrooper perhaps. He comes with a ball-socket head, two ball-socket/”mushroom joint” shoulders and two swivel hips. The interior of his legs have been sculpted to show his legs, but this has been commonplace for this line for a while now. Obi-Wan Kenobi also comes with his signature lightsaber. And as mentioned above Hasbro tooled the arms in a way that allows his hands to rest on his belt but also allow him to hold the lightsaber with his two hands and away from his body. We would have LOVED to have seen Hasbro add swivel wrists here, but sadly that didn’t come to pass. But even without them, Hasbro has proven what they can do in a small workspace yet provide satisfying results regardless of the limitations. If you’re looking for a great version of Obi-Wan Kenobi with his hood up, then this is probably the best of the bunch. If not, you should always default to your The Legacy Collection Obi-Wan Kenobi (BD 34) figure instead.