Darth Vader - Elite Series

Once a heroic Jedi Knight, Darth Vader was seduced by the dark side of the Force, became a Sith lord, and led the Empire's eradication of the Jedi Order. He remained in service of the Emperor – the evil Darth Sidious – for decades, enforcing his Master's will and seeking to crush the fledgling Rebel Alliance. But there was still good in him...

Disney Stores has officially released their next Original Trilogy focused character and this time it comes in the form of the most popular character of all – Darth Vader. As with all of the figures in the line, Darth Vader probably has just as much going for it as it does against it. But the final figure looks, for all intents and purposes, like a decent Darth Vader mid-range collectible. This die cast metal Elite Series line is exclusive to the Disney store and they made sure that the sculpting and paint operations accurately reflect the overall spirit of the Star Wars figure at hand. While Darth Vader doesn’t scream perfection, we do see a fair representation of the character we have grown to adore from the Star Wars saga. Aside from some disproportion in the helmet area (which really makes or breaks all Star Wars figures), Darth Vader looks relatively faithful to his onscreen appearances from both The Empire Strikes Back and Return Of The Jedi. If you’re looking for a Darth Vader from A New Hope you’re going to have to wait longer.

As you know, if the robes don’t go over the shoulder armor and the chest box has blue lights then the Darth Vader figure is inspired from either Episode V or Episode VI (where little to no differences exist between the costumes in those films). The boots and helmet are shiny and his ribbed body suit and cape are duller which gives Darth Vader the perfect texture and tone to his appearances in the films. The articulation system is a bit of a letdown, but that’s how we feel about all of these figures. The hinge-jointed points of articulation are essentially wasted tooling. If complete ball-jointed type of movement isn’t worked into key spots on the body, then you’re just going to be left with an action figure that just cannot move like a human body actually can. Plus, with the molded lower robes, even the ball-socket hips cannot be fully utilized because the robes stop the legs with very little range of motion available. Disney did add ball-jointed ankles and they’re helpful, but they mostly just enhance the figure’s balance more than anything else.

Darth Vader comes with a fully lit lightsaber. Only his right hand can accompany it as the left hand mimics the “I am your Father” type of gesture from The Empire Strikes Back. With only a hinge-jointed elbow, swivel wrist and ball-jointed shoulder to give this figure all the lightsaber swinging movement possible, which as you can assume isn’t much at all. Still, Darth Vader looks pretty nice when posed in a lightsaber swinging motion, especially when utilizing the included Star Wars display stand as an anchor. We’re eager to see how far this line will go and what other Original Trilogy characters Disney will make in the future. Will they ever take the Hasbro route and make obscure aliens and other characters? Will they make the same characters in different outfits? Will they make some of the larger characters that won’t fit into a standard box? Again, if they could just work in some enhancements that would make these figures relatively flawless, we believe the line would have even more interest than it currently has.