Luke Skywalker - TAC - Basic (30 12)

Young and impulsive, Luke was already a phenomenal pilot when he arrived at the Rebel base on Yavin, having developed his skills hot-dogging his T-16 through Beggar's Canyon. Even so, without trusting in the Force, he might never have landed the proton torpedoes that destroyed the Death Star.

How does one describe an action figure that equally excites as it does frustrates? That is the best way we can describe Luke Skywalker (based on his ceremonial duds on Yavin) from the 30 (77-07) line. It’s a figure we desperately wanted to see updated for years but the final product leaves us wanting a little bit more. It’s a figure that hasn’t seen a much-needed update in almost 10 years. It’s finally here and we love it so much, but it seems like Hasbro left it hanging in mid-production because it feels unfinished in a couple of ways. What makes it extra frustrating is that had Hasbro spent a little more time on the deco, it may have been flawless. For example, we aren’t sure what went wrong with Luke’s skin color. This is the palest version of Luke our collections have ever seen. And this problem is amplified by the very sloppy and too dark paint job Hasbro gave his hair that looks more like mud than hair. Oh, and there is a running change to this too. SO you get to choose from two sloppy and muddy-looking hairstyles. It appears that Luke’s portrait could have had great potential, but none of us may ever know just how good it actually is since Hasbro didn’t see a great paint job of it through to completion. Hasbro did indeed master the proper scale of this figure so we’re eternally thankful for that. And Luke Skywalker has more than enough articulation to make anyone happy. But the figure has other problems besides lack of a great paint job. So where else does this figure go wrong?

Despite a seemingly well-sculpted body type, the figure does actually lack in a few more areas. For reasons unknown, Hasbro has included Darth Vader’s lightsaber hilt with Luke Skywalker. At this stage in the game, mistakes like this just shouldn’t be happening. In our same breath, we don’t think it’s the end of the world. We have more than enough pieces (including multiple lightsaber hilts) that can be used to correct this issue. So while it’s frustrating, it’s not detrimental. Luke Skywalker also has a removable jacket. While we suppose this adds an element of realism to the figure, we’re not confident that it is necessary. If you were to remove the jacket, you’d be left with Luke having a black shell and yellow jacket arms. This is ridiculous and none of us would pose him that way, so why include a removable middle section of the jacket? We’re not sure. But despite this, the details on the jacket have bee replicated beautifully. The texture, ribbing and insignias are all in place as well as the tan lines along the opening of the jacket. Hasbro spared no expense to recreate every last painstaking detail. And it complements his brown pants which are also wonderfully recreated and have the matching yellow blood stripe running along the outside of them. The figure is finished off with simple but shiny black boots. And Luke also comes with a blaster pistol that fits into a functioning holster as well as a ceremonial medal.

While Luke Skywalker isn’t super-articulated, he does have 12 points of articulation and it’s more than enough for him. And surprisingly, for “only” having 12 points of articulation, he can move a lot better than many figures with the full 14 points! That’s ironic, isn’t it? Luke Skywalker has lots of ball-joints and they all work wonderfully well here. His arms (which look ever so long) and hands work in conjunction with each other for optimal gun posing options. Hasbro really managed to squeeze in some great opportunity with this figure. And it’s a terrible shame that Luke suffers only from a poor paint job. We don’t mean to harp on this, but we are very curious to find out what went wrong here. At the very least, we hope Hasbro at some point can reissue this figure with a much-improved paint job. And if they do decide to do this, we bet many of you will only then realize just how well this action figure was made. We think Luke Skywalker in his ceremonial outfit is the perfect figure to include in a 30th anniversary line. In fact, Sideshow Collectibles also celebrated the 30th anniversary of Star Wars by making a 12” version of this action figure too. There is something “celebratory” about this outfit for Luke Skywalker in more ways than one. Celebrate it too and be sure to pick him up for your collection!