Luke Skywalker (Jedi Master) - TBS [P3] - Six Inch Figures (46)

After tragedy destroyed his attempt to rebuild the Jedi Knights, Luke Skywalker vanished from the galaxy. Now, the Resistance needs his help to thwart the efforts of the evil First Order.

The biggest surprise announcement for 2017’s San Diego Comic Con was undoubtedly the Rey (Jedi Training)/Luke Skywalker (Jedi Master), a two-pack set up in deluxe The Black Series [Phase III] packaging and an elevated MSRP. The announcement of these two figures got out just a tad earlier than planned, but Hasbro was able to maintain its release a secret until right before the event. It was Hasbro themselves that screwed up keeping this a total secret. The images showing off its contents appeared on Hasbro.com’s website where they were unceremoniously taken down once news began to spread. Then once the figures were finally announced at the SDCC convention, this two-pack, along with all other Hasbro exclusives, appeared on Hasbro Toy Shop’s website, where once again, the Star Wars items were removed. Hasbro then sent out a brief press release that the original August 14, 2017 public availability date was being bumped to September. That’s what transpired, and fans who didn’t attend SDCC were able to secure these figures. Now that Force Friday II has come and gone, Hasbro packed both Rey (Jedi Training) and Luke Skywalker (Jedi Master) in their individual red and black boxes so they could be part of the mainline. With just a few slight paint operations differences (and we’re not even sure if they’re intentional or not), Luke Skywalker (Jedi Master) comes singly into The Black Series [Phase III] line with little to no changes.

After a grueling two-year wait, we had such extremely high hopes for Luke Skywalker (Jedi Master). But we can’t help but feel like this figures ended up becoming lackluster. We hate to let you down, but Luke Skywalker is a disappointment for us. He looks like a cross between Charlton Heston playing Moses in The Ten Commandments and Gandalf the Grey from Lord of the Rings. He even has a little bit of Jeff Bridges going on here. Luke Skywalker (Jedi Master) just looks off, and we don’t know why the figure reminds of us so many other people before Mark Hamill’s character. Perhaps his likeness is above average because the sculpting is absolutely there, but something went awry in the finishing stages. Everything below his head looks great, even though we’re not crazy about the color and pattern of his robes, but they sadly aren’t too functional. The molded lower skirt really inhibits how you can pose this figure. It does have pliability, but you will find that its rigidness is more harmful than helpful to attain some cool action positions. The sculpt is decent. He comes with a cybernetic right hand but all you see is the cupped fingers, so it’s hard to get the full effect of his bionic parts. The white and tan alternating stripes look a bit strange to us. It doesn’t seem like a serious design, but that’s just our opinion. It seems that a gray outfit might have been a more wise choice for an old version of Luke Skywalker (Jedi Knight).

We truly appreciate the soft-goods outer robe. It has been woven in a luxurious fabric and appears to be made of a high-quality material. It has a wonderful drape and it seems like its texture would feel similarly to the material used for the real prop in the film. But again, Luke Skywalker (Jedi Master) will have the same posing inabilities because of his molded lower roves and general encumbered range of movement thanks to bulky clothing (that is tooled in plastic). Think “Obi-Wan Kenobi” from The Black Series [Phase III] line. You’re going to have the same issues with Luke Skywalker (Jedi Master). The 6” line should make movement fluid and seamless. Hasbro should be thinking of ways to design these figure so that their great articulation is rendered useless. But that’s what’s happening here with Luke Skywalker (Jedi Master). Sadly, Luke Skywalker (Jedi Master) doesn’t come with any other accessories. To make him an interesting figure we took the lightsaber from Rey (Jedi Training) and shot a couple of images of him with the hilt as well as the full lit lightsaber. It makes the character a heck of a lot more interesting. How hard would it have been to pack him with another lightsaber? Or is that a major plot point that Disney doesn’t want getting out yet? Perhaps we’re exhausted from the unacceptable two-year wait to have Luke finally, but we truly expected better. He isn’t terrible, but he isn’t perfect. And we need perfection for $20+.