Luke Skywalker [POTF2] - TBS [L50] - Six Inch Figures

Commemorate the first 50 years of Lucasfilm with figures inspired by the original Star Wars trilogy!

“And then there were three.” “Third time is the charm.” “The three amigos.” Or is it “bad luck comes in threes” or “three strikes, and you’re out” instead? We’re not sure, but Luke Skywalker rounds up the trio of old The Black Series 6-inch figures that Hasbro packaged in The Power Of The Force “2” replica packaging, much to the dismay of the collecting community. Whatever. Thanks to paint operations updates and Photo Real, collectors have another reason to purchase these older figures again. But is that enough to persuade those that aren’t happy with these sculpts to plop down more money for them this time around? Luke Skywalker is arguably the worst of the three updates. Your mileage may vary. Greedo has a horrid head sculpt. Han Solo has an excellent Photo Real update but has a long neck and lanky legs. Luke Skywalker is a mess all over the place. The Photo Real doesn’t help it look more like Mark Hamill, and the bleach-white, oversized soft goods don’t look natural. The figure is still a mess. And it’s difficult to claim that the Photo Real improves the figure’s likeness.

From the beginning, there was quite a bit of criticism directed at Luke Skywalker because of the baggy soft-goods shirt. It feels like it’s worse this time and still too baggy. With the proper amount of futzing, you can make it look adequate, but it will never look like it’s screen-accurate. Most of us would have preferred molded clothing as opposed to what we received, but Hasbro thought ahead so they could use this for future Luke Skywalker figures (and they did. Despite the figure’s problems, it does look decent with its shirt removed. And we hope to see this treatment given to an upcoming The Vintage Collection 3.75-inch version. We are also happy that Hasbro nailed Luke Skywalker’s hair color. Remember The Black Series [Phase II] Luke Skywalker (#03) figure with red hair? Remember The Black Series [Phase I] Luke Skywalker (#01) with orange hair? Well, Hasbro mixed the correct formula of colors to produce a screen-accurate dirty blonde, and it looks spectacular on the figure. However, that isn’t a big enough reason to consider repurchasing this figure.

Luke Skywalker comes with five accessories. At face value, this amount appears generous. But they could have provided more. Little perks go a long way for collectors, and Hasbro would realize that an extra accessory here or there adds value for the $25 average cost now. Everyone, including Hasbro, might be a bit happier if we were getting more value here. Included with Luke Skywalker is the aforementioned soft-good shirt. The figure also has a removable belt, a lightsaber hilt, a blue lightsaber blade, and macrobinoculars. Although we’ve always had difficulty getting the macrobinoculars to fit in either hand, these extras interact nicely with Luke Skywalker. We don’t have any complaints about them at all. Again, we would have loved to see more added. Luke Skywalker comes loaded with articulation, and you can attain any pose or position you want with the figure. If you want to go back to 1995, then focus your attention on the awful packaging. You get to relive the superhero era of Star Wars action figures, complete with a cut-out bio file card on the back.