Princess Leia And R2-D2 - POTF2 [FF/TKC] - Princess Leia Collection

Moments before being captured by the evil Darth Vader, Princess Leia inserts secret plans for a new Imperial battle station into her loyal astromech droid, R2-D2.

Although the brainstorming began towards the end of 1997, Kenner sanctioned their girls’ division to work on some Star Wars products in an effort to capture the more feminine side of fandom. As a result of this brainchild, Star Wars Buddies (the Star Wars “Beanie Baby” line and the wonderful Princess Leia Collection were born out of these product development sessions. But most of these lines that Kenner made went unnoticed by the audience they were hoping to latch onto and capture, and it was once again kids and new generation collectors in combination with old school collectors that were supporting these lines. From a success perspective, the lines did alright, but their mission was a colossal failure as Kenner was unable to secure the new audience they’d hoped to reach. Nonetheless, the Princess Leia Collection gave longtime collectors four nicely done versions of Princess Leia with wonderful soft-goods and slimmed down body types that made these highly desired by so many. Aside from dopey accentuated makeup applications, the figures in the Princess Leia Collection remain fan favorites in the collecting community.

The Princess Leia And R2-D2, based on some of the events from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, give us our very first Princess Leia Organa figure from Episode IV with a full soft-goods gown. Now, the gown is a little bit too shiny, but the drape, functionality and silhouette are really an impressive success by any standards. If we had one complaint, we wished the hood was a little more flexible, but you’re unable to make it lay over her head like it does in the film, and we didn’t try any water treatment to see if that would help the issue. Even so, the hood looks perfect hanging down her back. And with the close fitting soft-goods gown, as far as we’re concerned this figure is a dream come true. Sadly, Princess Leia has been designed to appear “extra girly” for the young female audience they were attempting to engage. So, you’ll find fluttering eyelashes and heavy rouge on her face which is unequivocally a big setback for the strides this figure tried to make. Still, she has a lean and athletic frame and we find it hard to criticize it when we find that we like it more than we dislike it. Sure, things could have been done a little more realistically here, but we’re content with what has been offered.

Her soft-goods gown and belt are both removable. And underneath is a white skin tight outfit which keeps her clothed even when her outer gown is removed. She sadly doesn’t come with any weapons, but maybe Kenner was hoping for a softer interpretation of this character. We don’t know. But it certainly isn’t the end of the world. To complete this Episode IV inspired set, Kenner has thrown in 1995’s POTF2 [R/G] R2-D2 figure. We cannot find any differences at all between the two figures, so for us it’s a straight repack. Together, they truly form a dynamic duo. We would have loved to see Kenner retool R2-D2 in some way to have Princess Leia add “Death Star plans” to one of his panels, but alas, this was meant to be much simpler than our own aspirations for it. Regardless, Princess Leia And R2-D2 may have been designed for a completely different market, but it’s going to be the “boys” buying these up. And by “boys” we mean grown men. If Kenner needs to find an excuse to release four female action figures at once by calling it a “girls’” line then so be it. But they can certainly feel free to make it less “doll like” and more action figure oriented instead. Then everyone will be completely happy.