Luke Skywalker - TVC - Basic (VC131)

Celebrate the legacy of Star Wars, the action-and-adventure-packed space saga from a galaxy far, far away, with this collection of premium, highly-detailed 3.75-inch scale figures and vehicles. (Each sold separately. Subject to availability.)

There was great anticipation for Luke Skywalker (Jedi Master) in The Black Series [Phase III] Walmart exclusive line. Then Star Wars Episode VIII: The Last Jedi got released and the anticipation for him quickly dampened. But even if you didn’t find Episode VIII problematic, you did the action figure. Luke Skywalker came without any useful accessories, possessed a likeness to Kenny Rogers and had limited articulation thanks to the way the figure was approached. Still, many collectors overlooked the figure’s faults because they were so happy to have a Sequel Trilogy version of him finally. Now Luke Skywalker is part of The Vintage Collection, and he is a straight repack of the Walmart exclusive figure. The same issues are copied and pasted over to The Vintage Collection release, up to and including the issue of his right eye. The figure is essentially boring. And until Hasbro includes more accessories with all of their Star Wars figures, characters like Luke Skywalker that come with very little to begin with, feel cheated when Hasbro doesn’t add a few extra pieces here and there to make the purchase worthwhile. Like so many of their recent figures, there is no denying how great the sculpt of Luke Skywalker is. But the paint operations and choices for articulation only to be inhibited by molded parts is as frustrating as it is disappointing.

On paper, Luke Skywalker is a good action figure. He is loaded with super-articulation. With a total of 27 points of articulation, Luke Skywalker should attain any pose you want him to attain. Sadly, the lower sculpted robes prevent any meaningful movement. You have ball-jointed hips, knees and ankles all obstructed thanks to his lower robes. This in and of itself makes Luke Skywalker not much better than statuesque. What’s the point of including all of this premium articulation only to have it inhibited by other parts of the figure that prevents the movement of them? We’re extremely disappointed by this. Even the upper body feels like it’s obstructed, even when it’s technically not. There is just so much potential here that has been rendered useless thanks to not thinking this figure out all the way before considering it final. We’re even not crazy about his head sculpt. It seems as if Hasbro faithfully recreated Mark Hamill's likeness here, but the particulate paint operations don’t reinforce to the collector that this is a great likeness of Luke Skywalker from The Last Jedi (and the end of The Force Awakens). His face looks more round than the Star Wars [The Last Jedi] Luke Skywalker (Jedi Master) figure, and in some ways, we think the 5POA version looks better as a result. It’s maddening and disappointing.

In a pleasant move, Hasbro included a nice soft-goods cloak. This supersedes the 5POA version for this feature alone. The material is woven from premium fabric, and it hangs nicely on the figure’s head and covers his profile very nicely. It has a beautiful drape and hangs as you’d expect it would. But the accessory inclusion stops there sadly. Why is there no porg included? Why are there no alternate hand attachments? Why doesn’t he have his lightsaber hilt or fully lit lightsaber? Why couldn’t Hasbro include a gun for good measure? Hasbro could have included a whole heck of a lot more, but they went cheap on collectors. We’re not sure why they cannot extend a little more grace to 3.75” super-articulated collectors. Perhaps like many of you, we have over-anticipated this action figure for so long that it probably would have never met our expectations. Then again, we feel about the same way for The Black Series [Phase III] 6” Luke Skywalker (Jedi Master) (46) figure too. It was backed by a great deal of hype, but ultimately the final product just hasn’t delivered satisfaction in any meaningful way. We also wish Hasbro would give proper sub-titles to the figures in The Vintage Collection. This version of Luke Skywalker shouldn’t just be called Luke Skywalker. On a more positive note, Luke Skywalker is one of the first figure’s to come with a reduced-sized bubble on the card back. The figures look infinitely better with the smaller bubbles.