Luke Skywalker - SW [DV/ROTS] - Saga Legends (SL14)

Luke goes to the second Death Star for a final confrontation with Darth Vader. When Luke refuses to turn to the dark side, a devastating lightsaber battle ensues between father and son!

We all have to give Hasbro more credit than we do, but they sure make it difficult don't they? It’s no secret they angered so many of us with the new approach given to kids’ toys. But they cleverly try to get collectors to peek into these simplified action figures by releasing updates to figures that haven’t been in the line for quite some time, or even a a short while back. With the release of Luke Skywalker (SL14), Hasbro takes an iconic version of Luke Skywalker but with a detail that can only been seen towards the very end of the film (at about the time when the Emperor tries to kill him). During this time in Return Of The Jedi, Luke’s shirt opens up revealing a white flap. It’s not like this version hasn’t been attempted a couple of times in the basic figure line, but dare we say that this is the very first time that Hasbro has produced the most screen accurate version of this character…. in a kids’ line no less? It pains us to say it, but Luke Skywalker is without a doubt the nicest version of this specific angle of Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker the basic figure line has seen. As we all know, Hasbro is releasing a complementary 12-Inch Figures line along with the Saga Legends figures. And there is an obvious use of the same/similar sculpts utilized to make each scale. But when it came to Luke Skywalker, they opted to shake things up a bit and released the Luke Skywalker 12-Inch Figure with the flap up and the 3.75” Saga Legends figure with the flap down. But there are more similarities than differences that exist between these two figures.

Luke Skywalker has a fairly excellent sculpt. Yes, he only comes with five points of articulation, but the silhouette of his body frame is perhaps the most accurate we have ever seen of Luke Skywalker from Return Of The Jedi. He is thin yet athletic, has a tapered outline and actually has the potential to look like Mark Hamill should Hasbro find a way to paint the eyes without him looking like a “deer in headlights”. Luke Skywalker is posed very statically, but it’s a style we prefer when articulation is sacrificed. There is no “one foot in front of the other” action pose so displaying him in your collection will be cake. Luke Skywalker comes with a lightsaber accessory. The blade is fully lit, but we feel the blade is much too yellow as opposed to green: the color it should be. It’s not the end of the world of course, but in a line where so many details are forfeited, it would have been sublime to get an accurately colored lightsaber blade. Aside from that Luke Skywalker is what he is. And to be very honest, he would make a fine addition in all collections: kids’ and/or collectors’. As mentioned above, where the figure lacks is in the face, but that is all due to sloppy paint operations. The sclera of each eye is much too big and starts going outside the outlines of the eyes and the pupil/iris combinations takes up much of the oversized sclera (in both eyes) too. If Hasbro could find a way to tighten up these paint operations we would be thrilled. It would soften the discontent we have for these simply articulated action figures a little more.

Although rare in the line, this isn’t the first time Hasbro has attempted this version of Luke Skywalker (Jedi Knight) in the line. There are two other instances. The first version was released as 2003’s SW [S - P3] Luke Skywalker (Throne Room Duel) (’03 #17) basic figure. It came two ways because Hasbro accidentally gave the figure the wrong gloved hand. An action featured action figure by all means necessary, it hardly met the expectations for a definitive release. It did however come with a cool environmental display piece which can also be used with Luke Skywalker (SL14) as well. The latest version (not show in the photo gallery), aside from the Saga Legends version, is 2009’s LC Luke Skywalker (BD16) figure. The Legacy Collection figure really was a failure if we’re honest because it came with a much too bulky chest (thanks to the silly removable chest section so you could recreate his look with flap up or flap down. While super-articulated, Luke Skywalker (BD16) was hardly as poseable as his articulation led you to believe. There were quite a few wasted articulation points that just weren’t meaningful to the action figure’s pose-ability. (It’s also worth noting that this figure came with two hair colors too – like so many other Luke Skywalker figures do.) So where does this leave us? We have to concede. Luke Skywalker (SL14) is perhaps the nicest version of “flap down” Luke Skywalker [Jedi Knight] that Hasbro’s basic figure line offers. It’s certainly not perfect, but we believe it even supersedes the super-articulated 2009 Legacy Collection figure as well. How is that for a shocker?