Obi-Wan Kenobi - ROTS - Collectible Figure And Cup

Jedi Master Obi-Wan Kenobi must confront his friend and former Padawan, Anakin Skywalker, who has fallen to the dark side of the Force. The two powerful Jedi face each other on the volcanic planet of Mustafar. Raising his glowing lightsaber, Obi-Wan engages Anakin in a climactic lightsaber duel amid erupting volcanoes and boiling lava.

Perhaps Hasbro shouldn’t use the action figures they create for kids (i.e., those figures with action features) for exclusives geared for the collector? That’s about as nutshell of an assessment we can give you for the Obi-Wan Kenobi Collectible Figure And Cup set which is part of the first wave of these TARGET exclusives for the Revenge Of The Sith line. Granted, Hasbro didn’t have too many options when it came to choosing an Episode III version of Obi-Wan Kenobi for this release, but maybe it would have been more beneficial to choose another character altogether? Either way, hopefully, collectors will give this exclusive release a chance because the cups included contain some of the nicest artwork we have seen on kitchenware. They’re also reminiscent of the original Burger King glass collector cups released during the Original Trilogy. Nostalgia plus action figures yield stuff that collectors are interested in, and it goes without saying that the Collectible Figure And Cup collections are hitting all of the sweet spots in collectors. Yes, most of the pack-in figures are redundant and poorly constructed, but there is so much more here that is keeping the line a success.

Obi-Wan Kenobi is a slight repaint of 2005’s ROTS Obi-Wan Kenobi (III 1) figure, the very first action figure in the Revenge Of The Sith line. The figure comes with the ”Lightsaber Attack!” branding which is emblazoned “loudly” on the front of the original figure’s packaging. Action features surely make some kids happy, but we’re not sure if the novelty will last all that long. We have felt for years that Hasbro has an uncanny ability to make “most” of their Obi-Wan Kenobi action figures look pretty good. And we reluctantly admit that this version of Obi-Wan Kenobi doesn’t have that bad of a portrait either. It does resemble him. But once you get beyond the head, you’ll start seeing a strange disconnect in accuracy and resemblance of this character. And it’s all because of the need to incorporate the action feature. But where the figure may score higher marks for having a good likeness, it suffers terribly in aesthetics. The swinging “Lightsaber Attack!” feature works very well, but if you inspect his arms you’ll notice that he has very wonky proportions – almost to the point of them looking non-human.

When his lower legs are squeezed together, Obi-Wan Kenobi swings his lightsaber quite freely. From this perspective, the figure is a true success. But it’s a figure that won’t satisfy the adult collecting crowd and they’ll be expecting a retry almost immediately. We did. For the action feature to function as intended, the lightsaber in the alternate hand attachment is permanently affixed. But thankfully, you do get a plain hand attachment and a separate lightsaber hilt that attaches to a hole in his belt as well. This approach makes the pain of the action feature a little more bearable. Again, Obi-Wan Kenobi may have some “redeeming” qualities, but it lacks in significant areas. Aesthetics and usable articulation are high priorities for us, and he lacks in both areas for us. Also, Obi-Wan Kenobi’s torso is a slightly different color than the rest of his body most likely because a different type of plastic was utilized. Either way, it’s easy for us to overlooks the missteps of this action figure. We’re much more enthralled with the included cup. The artwork is divine and contains key movie sequences from Episode III. And for us that is reason enough to pick up this set.