Darth Vader (Emperor’s Wrath) - POTJ - Basic

Although Darth Vader would perish without his body armor's life support system, he remains a powerful and imposing figure. His black suit and the dark side of the Force protect him from numerous opponents until he loses his cybernetic right hand in a fateful lightsaber duel with Luke Skywalker on the second Death Star.

The surprise figure of 2001 may have just been Darth Vader (Emperor’s Wrath). If we’re honest, none of us expected that we would ever receive a scene-specific version of Darth Vader that was only visible for seconds in the film..... but in fact we did receive him. After Luke Skywalker cries out for his father’s help as he is being electrocuted to death courtesy of Emperor Palpatine, Darth Vader disavows his allegiance to the dark side of the Force and saves his son from imminent death. It’s a very gut-wrenching scene but it was perhaps the most focused aspect of the climax to Return Of The Jedi. Hasbro is often clever when it comes to making unique versions of core characters that don’t change outfits throughout the Star Wars saga... or at least that often. So they opted for that “blink and you’ll miss it” appearance of Darth Vader as Force lightning is running through his body created an X-ray like effect. An all-new sculpt, collectors can welcome Darth Vader (Emperor’s Wrath) into the basic figure line, a figure with an excellent sculpt, great likeness, and the perfect special effect feature. With limited articulation, we believe Hasbro is banking on collectors to be swept away by the deco more than the figure itself. But it’s still a nice figure regardless. But will you fall for it?

Darth Vader (Emperor’s Wrath) comes with eight points of swivel articulation. The standard six points of articulation are present on this figure, but then Hasbro also added a swivel bicep and swivel right wrist to make him more compatible with the included lightsaber accessory. They’ve also designed a complete removable plastic molded cape. It’s a little too flyaway for our liking, but it fits him well and looks great on the figure when you have him fully assembled. But the reason you’re buying a new Darth Vader figure in this case is for the cool Force lightning effect. Darth Vader (Emperor’s Wrath) is essentially transparent. This is so you can see the skull through his helmet as well as his mechanics through the plastic as if he is really being electrocuted. It’s a simple way to recreate this effect in the film, but we feel it work very, very well. A few more more detail inside of the upper chest areas as well as the arms would have been really effective to help reinforce what is happening to him, but again, the figure is done very well. You can actually see a skull inside of the head sculpt. It’s a brilliant addition. And then on the outside of the helmet, Hasbro has added Force lightning marks which surrounds the helmet in a collective way. Again, it’s done very, very well.

Is Darth Vader (Emperor’s Wrath) issue free? Not necessarily in our opinion. The helmet is pretty accurate for the most part, but the nose area is a little too pug in our own estimation. The legs are at a slightly awkward lean and because no articulation exists below the legs, you’re very limited with how you’re able to pose him. Also, Darth Vader was quite injured in this scene from Episode VI, so it would have been great if they added soft-goods so you could recreate him lying on the ground or hunched over in pain as he risks his own life to destroy the Emperor. With the way they made Darth Vader (Emperor’s Wrath), he is basically solid (opaque) from the waist down and translucent from the waist up. This definitely gives the figure a weird appearance, but who knows how accurate it is because you really can’t see Darth Vader from the waist down when he is being electrocuted. It’s evident that one Darth Vader action figure after another is going to get boring quite fast. Hasbro will need to continually revisit sculpt, articulation and deco to make them better and better with time. Darth Vader (Emperor’s Wrath) is a great new approach as far as a Darth Vader action figure is concerned, but Hasbro still has a long way to go before any of us will be satisfied and deem it as definitive.