2012 Wave 3

I didn't see a thread for this wave (and I promise, I did look) so I figured I'd start one since I got to open a few of these today. Generally I don't review figures but I can to the realization that this was a wave of figures I'd really been looking forward to so here are some of my thoughts:

Hoth Luke - It had been ages since we had a decent Hoth Luke and with the new Tauntaun it seemed like this figure couldn't come soon enough. Unfortunately this figure does not live up to the hype I'd created in my own head. The figure's shoulders are extremely pointy looking and spoil the joints and I can't decide if he looks worse with or without the scarf accessory. Without it his head looks tiny and he's missing the little flap that should hang down the side and with it, well, it's not a good fit and looks just as goofy. I think I'll have to resort to a head swap on this one.

CW Anakin - Surprisingly, this was another figure I suppose I'd been looking forward to for a while. Since I don't buy the animated series stuff I had always wanted them to make the characters in the realistic style and here was my first chance to get one. And on the whole it's not bad. The interesting trade-off here is the wrist articulation instead of ball jointed hips. That seems odd for a figure that has the soft goods skirt but it's not bad. What is bad is the head sculpt which doesn't look at all like the character. Hopefully and ROTS Anakin head will fit on the post, though the hair should be shorter to match the character design from the show.

Darth Vader - I know some people would be happy never to see another Darth Vader on the pegs and I would consider myself one of those people unless the figure offers something I haven't seen before and this Vader is one of those figures. I think the only Vaders we've seen recently that were supposed to have the ANH costume all had removable helmets and/or a wonky right hand that couldn't hang on to a lightsaber to save their lives. Not only does this figure correct these issues, it also adds the red-tinted lenses also seen on the ANH costume. For me this might be the best figure in the wave (as far as the figures I've been able to get my hands on).

I skiped Darth Malgus cause, I won't be playing the MMO KOTOR so I couldn't care less about that character and I wasn't able to get the Imperial Navy Commander but that's another re-make of a figure I'm looking forward to getting as I couldn't stand the knees on the TAC version.

The first new figures I've seen in months were in a Target today, and apparently it was this wave. I passed on Luke (goofy head and neck), Vader (wouldn't have known it was different anyway), DS Trooper (still looks bad and emaciated, sorry), and Annie (just not interested). But Darth M. looked good to me, and I liked the EU novel version of Old Republic, so $8.99 + tax, did the general coffers fill. Haven't opened him up yet, but that will come.

I wanted Luke for my Tauntaun, so I ordered him from Amazon along with Evazan and Kithaba, not realizing I was ordering 1 figure from each OT movie. :p

Luke arrived with the others, but he's the only wave 3 figure so I'll comment on him here.

The shoulders look bad, but the problem isn't what I thought - the sculpt found an aspect of the costume's shoulders I hadn't really noticed and expanded upon that, unfortunately between the highlighting of the shoulders and what I believe to be a torso not fully seating the arms, the figure has big ball joints for shoulders and it looks bad. Hasbro sculpted him a separate, removable collar for his jacket, I'm guessing so they can reuse the torso with a non-Luke figure, but it might need to be glued into place as it's wiggly and falls out occasionally. The separate collar looks good, but the figure's neck is so tall that it makes the collar look short when the problem is actually the head being twice as far from the torso as it should be.

The figure's real problem though is the scarf/goggle situation. Rather than come up with 2 heads, they went with a removable "being worn" scarf/goggle combination piece, it's very thick and bulky, the scarf doesn't sit right, the goggles don't look right because they're at a funny angle, and the whole thing is awkward when he's wearing it; it recreates a look from a very small portion of his screentime. Once that piece is removed, things go from bad to worse though as now he has NO goggles and NO scarf, and they're vital parts of this costume, without them his head looks naked and skinny, and it's a real shame as it dooms this figure to being a lesser-than.

Paint and sculpt are otherwise ok, he's got a rather soft sculpt of his gun - I think it's actually Han's ESB pistol, but they're not so different in the film - and a lit and unlit version of his ESB saber, the unlit one plugs into a hole on his belt.

This figure feels like a "90% there, yet 100% failure" and that's a shame. The head and shoulders are both wrong choices and it hurts, the shoulders I maybe could have gotten past but the head just keeps it nigh-unusable and that's too bad because had they not tried to get so cute with it, they could have had a winner.

I nearly did cartwheels this afternoon when I found Malgus and the Imperial Navy Commander at Target. I got Anakin and Vader at TRU six and a half weeks ago, and Hoth Luke at Walmart this past week.

Despite the Republic logo on his shoulder and the fact that I didn't think the TAC/Saga Legends version was that bad, the INC looks pretty cool. Comparing the card art with the original image, it's very clear that they photoshopped in a new face, which is kind of unsettling for some reason. The lips could theoretically be chalked up to them lightening the image, and the eyebrows are significantly lighter, but the nose is the dead giveaway. The old one was much more bulbous and facing the left side of the image, while the new one is smaller and facing the right side, so it looks a little bit off. The details in the face are also much more defined than the somewhat blurry helmet; I wonder if that played a part in them changing it. It's just a little creepy.

I don't care much about Malgus himself, but I'm glad to not have to pay eBay's ridiculous prices to get him. He'll display well with the other ancient Sith, even if they weren't living in exactly the same time.

I like Luke better than you do, JT, but I feel your pain on the scarf issue. They could easily have put a hole in his head and added a separate scarf, like they did in the late 2003 version. As it is, he does look really good riding the Tauntaun, so that's how I'll display him. I'd like Hasbro to re-release the Tauntaun-riding Luke and Han figures with alternate heads - Luke with the scarf down, and Han with his hood up, since the current ones are only good for very short moments in the film. I appreciate the accuracy, but I would also appreciate flexibility here.

The Clone Wars Anakin is really good - it's odd that they're only now starting in this direction, after four years of animated-style figures. But it does open new display options, so that's cool. I really like his wrists; they're ball-jointed but not bulky. I'd like to see more figures, especially Jedi, with this range of motion.

All that aside, this wave's Darth Vader is a stunning figure. From the amazing, from-the-ground-up sculpting to the exceptional articulation, this is my favorite Vader they've ever done. The poseability and look of this one is just fantastic. The only thing missing is the ability to hang a lightsaber from his belt. I really want them to do a similar Vader for the other movies; we'll see how the Emperor's Wrath version is. If anyone is on the fence on this one - or, hell, even decided against getting this one - you need to reconsider. "Badass" is probably the word that best describes this one.

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Originally Posted by Mr. JabbaJohnL

All that aside, this wave's Darth Vader is a stunning figure. From the amazing, from-the-ground-up sculpting to the exceptional articulation, this is my favorite Vader they've ever done. The poseability and look of this one is just fantastic. The only thing missing is the ability to hang a lightsaber from his belt. I really want them to do a similar Vader for the other movies; we'll see how the Emperor's Wrath version is. If anyone is on the fence on this one - or, hell, even decided against getting this one - you need to reconsider. "Badass" is probably the word that best describes this one.

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I keep hearing amazing things about this new Darth Vader figure. I've got one coming in the mail, but I traded him for one of my extra Gamorrean Guards, so he had better be fantastic or I'm going to feel like I got the short end of the stick on this deal.

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Originally Posted by bigbarada

I keep hearing amazing things about this new Darth Vader figure. I've got one coming in the mail, but I traded him for one of my extra Gamorrean Guards, so he had better be fantastic or I'm going to feel like I got the short end of the stick on this deal.

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Well, hell. The Gamorrean Guard and this Vader are both two of my all-time favorites, so I dunno. Plus I think the Gamorrean will still be more rare than this Vader, given how often they'll be shipping. And you like Jabba-related stuff a whole lot. So I dunno, man. :D

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Originally Posted by Mr. JabbaJohnL

Well, hell. The Gamorrean Guard and this Vader are both two of my all-time favorites, so I dunno. Plus I think the Gamorrean will still be more rare than this Vader, given how often they'll be shipping. And you like Jabba-related stuff a whole lot. So I dunno, man. :D

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Well, Vader was my all-time favorite Star Wars character as a kid; but if I don't like this new figure, then I'll just have to take solace in the 8 TVC Gamorrean Guard figures that I have left in my collection. :D

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Originally Posted by Mr. JabbaJohnL

Despite the Republic logo on his shoulder and the fact that I didn't think the TAC/Saga Legends version was that bad, the INC looks pretty cool. Comparing the card art with the original image, it's very clear that they photoshopped in a new face, which is kind of unsettling for some reason. The lips could theoretically be chalked up to them lightening the image, and the eyebrows are significantly lighter, but the nose is the dead giveaway. The old one was much more bulbous and facing the left side of the image, while the new one is smaller and facing the right side, so it looks a little bit off. The details in the face are also much more defined than the somewhat blurry helmet; I wonder if that played a part in them changing it. It's just a little creepy.

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They tampoed the wrong logo on his shoulder??? LAME! C'mon, even if Hasbro is doing bad right now, shouldn't Chris or someone else at Lucas Licensing have caught that? They don't even look that similar.

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I like Luke better than you do, JT, but I feel your pain on the scarf issue. They could easily have put a hole in his head and added a separate scarf, like they did in the late 2003 version. As it is, he does look really good riding the Tauntaun, so that's how I'll display him. I'd like Hasbro to re-release the Tauntaun-riding Luke and Han figures with alternate heads - Luke with the scarf down, and Han with his hood up, since the current ones are only good for very short moments in the film. I appreciate the accuracy, but I would also appreciate flexibility here.

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How do you feel about the shoulders and long neck on him then?

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The Clone Wars Anakin is really good - it's odd that they're only now starting in this direction, after four years of animated-style figures. But it does open new display options, so that's cool. I really like his wrists; they're ball-jointed but not bulky. I'd like to see more figures, especially Jedi, with this range of motion.

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I've passed up that figure thus far due to the face, in pictures it doesn't look so good, kinda... I dunno, "blorpy". Any better in person?

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All that aside, this wave's Darth Vader is a stunning figure. From the amazing, from-the-ground-up sculpting to the exceptional articulation, this is my favorite Vader they've ever done. The poseability and look of this one is just fantastic. The only thing missing is the ability to hang a lightsaber from his belt. I really want them to do a similar Vader for the other movies; we'll see how the Emperor's Wrath version is. If anyone is on the fence on this one - or, hell, even decided against getting this one - you need to reconsider. "Badass" is probably the word that best describes this one.

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I'm still waiting to see in person, it looks interesting but also not quite the home run I was hoping for - the helmet isn't from ANH at all, and the cape's peg-head attachment kills any chance of me buying this Vader above minimum retail. And that's disappointing to hear about the belt not having a way to hold the saber.

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Originally Posted by JediTricks

How do you feel about the shoulders and long neck on him then?

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I think, overall, he looks fine. The shoulders are kind of bulky, but they don't bug me too much in person. I don't see his neck as being too long, though the scarf doesn't sit flush on him, but I dunno if that's neck-related. I'm at my apartment now so I can't check these things, but I wasn't really bothered by anything on him aesthetically, my frustration was all geared toward the lack of scarf options.

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Originally Posted by JediTricks

I've passed up that figure thus far due to the face, in pictures it doesn't look so good, kinda... I dunno, "blorpy". Any better in person?

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I don't know what the hell "blorpy" is supposed to mean, but yeah, sure. :p It doesn't really look much like Hayden, but none of the figures really do. It's a little longer than it should be - it reminds me somewhat of the Evolutions ROTS mold. It's pretty similar to photos, I guess, but I can live with it. They've only finally been able to start sculpting Luke well within the last couple of years, so I guess Anakin is still gonna be a while. :D

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Originally Posted by Mr. JabbaJohnL

Well, hell. The Gamorrean Guard and this Vader are both two of my all-time favorites, so I dunno. Plus I think the Gamorrean will still be more rare than this Vader, given how often they'll be shipping. And you like Jabba-related stuff a whole lot. So I dunno, man. :D

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I got the Vader in this morning and he's pretty good. His neck feels a tiny bit too long to me and it's only a swivel joint, not a ball-joint. Otherwise, I think it's the best looking Darth Vader helmet sculpt to date. I like the sculpted torso better than the every increasingly caved-in chest the that we were getting on the Evolutions mold. They're still making the cape from see-through fabric, though, so I guess we can look forward to at least one more Vader update in the future. My figure has a tendency to lean to his left, almost like his left leg is shorter than his right. But since this is the "action" Vader, I'll just work that into whatever dynamic pose I put him in.

I guess with all the posts on other forums about how this is one of the greatest Star Wars figures ever made, my expectations might have been too high. Although, I prefer to keep my expectations almost unrealistically high with figures like Vader, because I know that we are going to continue to get new versions of the character. For figures like Kithaba and TVC Evazan, that we will likely NEVER see resculpted for any reason (at least not for 10 years or more), then I tend to be more forgiving of flaws.

I do like the fact that his helmet is non-removable. I actually never really cared for the 2-piece and then 3-piece removable helmets, because it was just too many tiny pieces of plastic to keep track of. Plus, I didn't like the shrunken Anakin heads underneath those helmets. My favorite removable helmet Vader will remain the original Evolutions mold with the single piece removable helmet. It has the best Sebastian Shaw face sculpt underneath the helmet and it doesn't feel like a chore to put the helmet on or take it off.

EDIT: I just double-checked and Vader's left leg is noticeably shorter than his right leg by at least a millimeter or more.