Luke Skywalker - TAC - Basic (30 18)

On a desert planet like Tatooine, water is a precious commodity. Moisture farmers earn a living extracting water from the air to use or resell. But Luke was never happy with the life of a moisture farmer and dreamed of leaving home to attend the Imperial Space Academy and become a pilot.

By the time Luke Skywalker (30 18) from the 30 (77-07) line was released, Hasbro had released no less than a dozen versions of Luke Skywalker in his Tatooine “farm boy” duds from the iconic Star Wars film. And with age and technology, each version seemed to eclipse the previous. By 2005 when The Saga Collection's Early Bird Figures set of figures came out from The Saga Collection, fans were treated to a very gimmicky version of Luke Skywalker. His outfit was incorrectly (and quite terribly to be frank) colored and while Hasbro had every good intention to pay homage to the telescoping lightsaber of the 70s, the incorporation of a modern day take on it just didn’t work. But up until that point this was the best version of Luke Skywalker money could buy you. Right after it, a feeble attempt was made to update the POTF2 Comm Tech version of 1999 in 2006’s The Saga Collection , released as Luke Skywalker (SAGA 036) and while the paint applications were improved (somewhat) and the figure came with some pretty cool accessories, it was a dated figure that just didn’t meet current standards. (But you should definitely buy that figure for the accessories.)

So Hasbro went back to the 2005 TSC Early Bird Figures version of Luke Skywalker figure but totally reinvented it from the ground up to create the interesting TAC Luke Skywalker figure. The figure is cool, but it’s not the reason to get this basic figure. (We’ll get to this more in a moment.) The TAC figure uses the legs from the Early Bird Figures version as well as the torso and skirt. But the torso and skirt have been retooled with a few changes thus rendering it “new” in our eyes. For example, Hasbro added different pouches to Luke’s belt in addition to including a hole to store his lightsaber hilt. Luke Skywalker only comes with ten points of articulation, but Hasbro included quite a few ball-joints so this should make collectors in general content. The paint job is alright, although we think Luke looks a bit washed out in spots and some of the finer details look slightly muddy. His new head sculpt is interesting. His hair is windblown but his expression is bizarre, looking almost as if he doesn’t know where he is. But to be honest, this Luke Skywalker figure is not the focus of this basic figure. The incredible moisture vaporator that Hasbro included is truly the star of this set.

If there is one thing collectors could count on in the 30 (77-07) line, it’s the inclusion of either huge figures like Hermi Odle (30 29), Pre-Cyborg Grievous (30 36) and Concept Chewbacca (30 21) or figures with humongous accessories like Han Solo With Torture Rack (30 38), Elis Helrot (30 23) and Destroyer Droid (30 59) for example just to name a few. Probably the tallest accessory in the entire 30 (77-07) line is the moisture vaporator which stands about three times taller than Luke’s height and comes apart in six pieces and has the most splendid rugged and weathered paint job on it. These were seen way in the background in Episode IV and even closer in a deleted scene in which Luke is standing close to one while watching the space battle between the Tantive IV and the Galactic Empire through his macrobinoculars. So if you’re going to ask us if we need another Tatooine Luke Skywalker figure, the answer would be an immediate “yes”. This is one figure to ensure you have in your collection at some point. The less than seven dollars of its original retail is more than worth it for the moisture vaporator alone.