Darth Vader - TFA - Build A Weapon (Snow)

Determined to bring balance to the Force, Anakin Skywalker fell to the dark side and arose as Darth Vader.

Is anyone else disappointed that Hasbro is selecting some of their worst action figures of all time and adding them to The Force Awakens line. We understand the need for periodic repacks, but the figures they’re selecting from the Star Wars [Darth Vader/Revenge Of The Sith] lineup are just not up to today’s standards at all. Then again, we’re not even sure what today’s standards are as articulation and quality seem to be all over the place anymore. The new outlook Hasbro has is that kids are no longer interested in articulation, or perhaps we should qualify that with “super” articulation. They have regressed the line to how action figures were designed when Star Wars made a comeback in 1995. But instead of bulky proportions, realistically styled features have been ascribed to the new tooling in an effort to also pique the interest of adult collectors. Darth Vader is a perfect example of this although this sculpt has served as some sort of dividing line for stringent adult collectors. Some like as much as other hate it.

Darth Vader at face value looks pretty good. He only has five point of articulation (all swivel points) and also comes with a soft-goods cape that is made from a cheaper material but has a pretty nice drape nonetheless. Darth Vader is proportionately tall and has a wealth of features worked into the sculpting to make it as realistically styled as possible. The shape of his helmet honestly looks like no other Darth Vader likeness we have seen to date. Interestingly, it looks pretty fantastic, though we wouldn’t go out on a limb and say it’s completely screen accurate. As far as accuracy and realism, Hasbro has held our interest. Darth Vader only comes with his lightsaber and it can only be held in his right hand. As you can imagine, you don’t have many options to pose him dynamically, but at least he can hold the lightsaber. He doesn’t have a perfect center of gravity surprisingly either. You’ll have to futz with his legs and find a way to prevent him from being too top heavy. It’s possible, but this imperfect design drives us insane and we typically don’t possess the patience to waste time on such things.

Originally part of the Darth Vader And Seeker Droid (Star Destroyer) (MS01) Mission Series set, we knew back in 2013 that Hasbro would be utilizing this sculpt many, many times afterwards because as far as Darth Vader is concerned, you won’t find a more basic sculpt than this. It’s fine for what it is, but we will likely go to our graves unable to understand why something about the plastic used for these figures feels cheaper and lacks the wow factor of previously released kid-focused products. We wonder if others will notice these sorts of things too. Along with ever Build A Weapon figure is a pack-in part. We’ve expressed time and again how much we don’t understand this whole concept and how the final assembled weapons don’t make sense either, but it is so “out there” that we can’t be be fixated on its value to the line. If you’re a “one of everything” collector you’re probably going to want to secure this figure for your collection, but if you don’t care about such things then you can easily pass over this release of Darth Vader. With a new Star Wars film on the horizon at the time of this figure’s release, it probably would have been smart for Hasbro to tool an all-new Darth Vader figure. But we got stuck with an old sculpt here.