Luke Skywalker/Mara Jade - TAC - Comic Packs (No. 10)

After Return Of The Jedi hit theaters in 1983, it was unknown at the time whether or not fans would be treated to the Sequel Trilogy which supposedly comprised Episode VII, VIII and IX. Nearly thirty years later, we all now know that these films are coming. Thankfully the Expanded Universe stepped up to the plate beforehand to give us some great stories. One comic in particular, Heir To The Empire introduced us to a woman who would eventually become the wife of Luke Skywalker, but started off as a rogue smuggler on a mission to kill him for his responsibility in the death of her former master, Emperor Palpatine. Hasbro bases a new Comic Packs set on their first time meeting and it’s a set that many EU fans are going to love to have finally in their collections, but falls slightly short because of some inferior articulation and not so great likenesses. But you’ll have to judge that for yourself. We can tell you that for the most part this two-pack should make you relatively happy. Besides some swivel articulation in Luke’s arms, it’s a very fine sculpt of him half in and half out of his X-wing fighter pilot gear (along with this "Dagobah training" clothes, especially his tank top). And Mara Jade, while proportionately in scale and well sculpted, should have gone through a likeness tweaking before Hasbro settled on this final production version.

Luke Skywalker really does look fantastic. He comes with a healthy amount of accessories including a lightsaber, removable helmet with a cord that plugs into the back of his belt, removable holster and a blaster pistol. He also has been designed with some really great articulation as well. These points of articulation include a ball-socket head, ball-jointed shoulders, swivel biceps, swivel wrists, swivel waist, swivel hips and ball-jointed ankles. His legs are spread perfectly to allow for some variation in the poses you choose for him and the paint job, while very simple, comes to life with very clean applications and great choices of color. Luke unfortunately is shorter than Mara Jade because of the way his legs are posed, but the difference in scale isn’t affected because it takes into account that he isn’t standing up straight in a completely erect position. The likeness of the head sculpt looks to be based on previous versions of Luke Skywalker action figures, but it looks as unique as it does reused. So for us, Luke Skywalker is an all-new figure, for the most part, but we believe that his head sculpt may have been based or slightly retooled and repainted from 2007's TAC Luke Skywalker (30 25) figure. There are just too many similarities to not believe that some “parts” of this head sculpt were applied to this Comic Packs figure. But we could be wrong.

Mara Jade is clearly an all-new figure that was designed with the best intentions in mind. The figure for all intents and purposes should be considered excellently made, but we’re just not happy with the portrait Hasbro has chosen for her (amongst a few other things). Her forehead is much too wide, her hair looks too short and the paint job applied to her face is less than stellar. But that's because she has a painted face instead of a face cast in flesh toned plastic. What’s worse however is that her outfit is done in the wrong color. They got it right with the 1998 Expanded Universe figure. It should be black but now it’s purple. We take this to heart because we have waited for such a long time to get a great version of Mara Jade into the basic figure line with updated articulation, but this one leaves us wanting a little bit more. You may want to consider your 1998 Expanded Universe Mara Jade figure the definitive version still in your collection as sad as that may sound. She comes with a removable helmet (that looks more like something a beekeeper would wear), blaster and a purple lightsaber. (She has also come packaged with a green lightsaber as well.) Don’t get us wrong. This is a great Comic Packs set, but you’ll probably be fixated on what Hasbro missed or got wrong instead of the positivity the two-pack brings. (Editor's Note: Special thanks to Jayson Krebsbach from Yakface.com for the reference images.)