Anakin Skywalker - ROTS - Basic (III 2)

Anakin is now a full Jedi Knight and his heroic feats have made him a hero throughout the Republic. He is lured to the dark side of the Force by promises of unlimited power.

When Hasbro has something in their heads, there is likely nothing collectors can do to help them change it. Hasbro has believed for years that action features are necessary for their action figures during a movie year. Aside from Episode I, the Star Wars collections (for Episode II and Episode III) featured a large portion of the collection of figures that included some sort of action feature in them. Sadly, these action features pretty much destroyed the aesthetics of what could have been pretty good action figures under “normal conditions”. It seems that a multimedia event as big as a new film cripples the action figure line in some respects. Hasbro gears a bulk of their products to appeal to kids. And quite frankly we’re on the fence about this. Why does Anakin Skywalker need to have a spring-loaded waist and loose arm joints to swing his lightsaber? Why can’t good articulation be put into its place instead and have the kid or collector mimic that action manually? Hasbro seems to disagree with this sentiment and all of the Anakin Skywalker figures (and most of the Obi-Wan Kenobi figures) from the Revenge Of The Sith line are anything but collector-friendly.

We tried to find some sort of favor with the Anakin Skywalker (III 2) figure. But we find it to be wholly a train wreck. We don’t intend to be so harsh. But between the inferior sculpt, the poor paint job, the interchangeability of permanently affixed to hand lightsabers and limited movement aside from the action feature, we can’t say that we’re happy with the final result of this figure. It certainly serves a purpose in the Revenge Of The Sith line. And perhaps the kids will enjoy its action feature. We’re not sure about anything of these points actually, but we know that this Anakin Skywalker figure is probably one that would have been best never produced. Man that sounds harsh. But we’re slightly disappointed because not only did Hasbro release it as a basic figure, but they kept returning to it to produce more versions of Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader even after the fact. Heck, this figure was even used in the 2005 NY Toy Fair exclusive promotional item that spun around to reveal Anakin Skywalker’s turn into Darth Vader. There are probably a few things you should know about this figure, even if you’re not planning to own one.

Anakin Skywalker (III 2) comes in three distinct variations. These variations all center around the figure’s accessories. We will refer to them as Version 1, Version 2 and Version 3. Version 1 came with an interchangeable right hand holding a red lightsaber, an interchangeable right hand holding a blue lightsaber and a lightsaber hilt. It is urban legend that Hasbro didn’t know at the time of this figure’s initial production that Anakin would be confiscating Count Dooku’s lightsaber to behead him. As you can imagine this was quickly corrected and Hasbro released Version 2 and Version 3. These releases include an interchangeable right hand holding a blue lightsaber, Dooku’s lightsaber and Anakin’s lightsaber hilt. But the difference that separates Version 2 from Version 3 is that Version 2 comes with a pink-bladed Count Dooku lightsaber while Version 3 comes with a red-bladed Count Dooku lightsaber. The question is do you really care? When this figure was released in April of 2005, the slightest variation on any figure was all the rage, but few collectors seem to care anymore. We feel that if you own one version of this figure, you really have them all. What good are the accessory changes if you don’t have a great base figure to hold them?