Holographic Princess Leia - OTC - Basic (Exclusive)

In the Rebel Alliance’s most desperate hour, Princess Leia hides the stolen Death Star plans in R2-D2’s memory bank. She instructs the droid to find Obi-Wan Kenobi on the desert planet of Tatooine. It is at Kenobi’s home that a holographic Princess Leia pleads with Kenobi to come to the aid of the Rebel Alliance. Although she is regretful that she cannot appear in person to ask Kenobi this favor, her mission is a success.

Kenobi, along with Luke Skywalker, C-3PO and R2-D2, meet up with Han Solo and Chewbacca and fly to Alderaan to deliver the stolen plans. Their travel plans, however, are disrupted when they discover that Alderaan has been destroyed by the most powerful space station the galaxy has ever known!

Isn’t it a shame when Hasbro decides to make a novelty figure like Holographic Princess Leia that they don’t use the best possible sculpt? The 2005 San Diego Comic Con exclusive Princess Leia Organa figure was a long time coming for avid Star Wars collectors, but instead of using the excellent 2004 VOTC Princess Leia Organa figure, they dusted off 1998’s POTF2 Princess Leia Organa (All New Likeness) figure and casted it in clear purple plastic to simulate a holographic effect. Heck, even the 2000 POTF2 [Comm Tech] version of her would have worked out best since that figure already had her hood up! The final result leaves a lot to be desired. Before we get to the actual figure, collectors were immediately alarmed that her twin blasters weren’t included because the packaging inside show holes for where they should have rested in the bubble. But that ended up not becoming part of this release at all. With an inflated MSRP, Holographic Princess Leia sold for a ridiculous $14 when figures in the basic figure line with a lot more “wow” to them were retailing for less than $5. (And they even came with their own action figure stand too.)

Holographic Princess Leia is a rework of 1998’s POTF2 Princess Leia Organa (All New Likeness) action figure that was part of the Freeze Frame phase of the line. As a figure it’s quite weak, but as a faithful likeness to Princess Leia it works very well in purple translucent plastic. The figure’s articulation is very minimal and sports only six points. Inside the bubble is nothing but the figure. There isn’t a stand or an accessory to be had, so the value seems even less because of this. As this has been the “go to” figures for years, we should have expected them to utilize the sculpt again to bring us this particular version of Holographic Princess Leia. But we have to admit that we would have loved to see how the 2004 VOTC sculpt would have looked in clear purple plastic with purple soft-goods where needed. It certainly would have made the retail a little bit more palatable for collectors. That’s for sure. This figures serves its purpose for what it is, but quite frankly it’s extremely boring. Besides, we never thought that purple was an appropriate choice for a hologram effect.

Available between July 13th and July 17th in 2005, Holographic Princess Leia was later sold at StarWarsShop.com to help out collectors who couldn’t attend the physical show in San Diego, California. The figure sold very briskly but was available long enough to allow everyone who wanted one to buy her with relative ease. Every year Hasbro does their best to keep their exclusive clandestine, but no longer able to keep the exclusive surreptitiously from us, information leaked out early announcing that this would be the piece for the convention. We also think that an all-new sculpted figure may be the best choice for a convention exclusive anymore. Because these figure are higher-priced than the average standard basic figure, Hasbro could afford to include new tooling in these releases because of the extra money they charge for them. Holographic Princess Leia has been desired by the collecting community for some time now, but we don’t think it turned out they way most collectors wanted. If this is your cup of tea than more power to you, but we feel that this figures leaves quite a bit to be desired.