Anakin Skywalker, and specifically Hayden Christiansen, is experiencing a renaissance within the Star Wars community.  Back in the day, he wasn’t exactly warmly regarded.  I’m happy to see that he’s back in the good graces of fans, and it’s probably more about the community getting over itself and slipping into a bit of nostalgia if you’re in the PT generation, than it is about anything specifically he’s done to change things.  And that’s perfect, because he didn’t really do anything to deserve the hate in the first place.  The same thing can be said about other Star Wars alum, such as Ahmed Best.  He made a first-time-long-time appearance at Celebration in 2017, and people went nuts.  That seemed to be a springboard for his full return to the GFFA.

So now, we all love Hayden.  Since that Con appearance, He’s credited with lines in The Rise of Skywalker, and the final episode of The Clone Wars.  He was then in multiple episodes of Obi-Wan Kenobi where he filmed some flashbacks to him training with Obi-Wan at the Jedi Temple.  And most recently, he was in several episodes of Ahsoka, where he continued Ahsoka’s training in the World Between Worlds.  He’s everywhere now! 

This version of Anakin was only one screen for one specific scene during Ahsoka’s journey in the WBW.  In a flashback to the planet Teth, we see them take a look back at one of their earliest battles during the Clone Wars.  The planet isn’t named on screen, but LFL did confirm this (somewhere in the background).  The battle is depicted in The Clone Wars feature film (which cost next to nothing to make) as the place where Jedi and the 501st go to rescue Rotta the Hutt, Jabba’s son, from Asajj Ventress (yes, that was really a storyline).  The other scenes from the WBW have Anakin in his ROTS outfit.  As such, the only characters to interact with are Phase I Clones, a Phase I Rex, and the young Padawan Ahsoka. 

A Phase I Clone was included in this same wave, which is a good thing.  I’ll go into more detail on the issues with how Hasbro presented this Clone figure when I do that review shortly.  We don’t have a Phase I Rex, but a weirdly oversized version was just announced by Hasbro, so it’s not a stretch to guess that we’ll see him in TVC soon.  And we do already have a Kid Ahsoka from The Clone Wars, which was VC102.  Interestingly, that version was from later seasons, as her original outfit had changed from the one that was a little too inappropriate in earlier seasons.  The outfit worn by the young actress in Ahsoka is more similar to the later TCW seasons version.  Nevertheless, I didn’t bother shooting anything with this Anakin and VC102 together because, frankly, that figure is now terrible and we need a proper young Ahsoka to go with this Anakin as well as all our TCW dioramas.  All that is to say, this Anakin is currently a bit of a loner for an Ahsoka display, but he’ll work great for any TCW diorama.

In 2012, we got VC92 Anakin Skywalker which was based on his appearance in TCW.  At the time, it was a popular figure, and the sculpting, articulation, and soft goods were all top notch for the time.  In 2020, Hasbro released an update to VC92, which had a few paint tweaks, along with Photo Real.  Photo Real isn’t an exact science, and a lot of its success is definitely built upon the quality of the underlying facial sculpt, but there’s no denying that VC92 suffered because of the change, as you can see HERE.  Gross!

With Ahsoka fairly relevant, Hasbro jumped at the opportunity to update Anakin in his Clone Wars armor with a 2025 version.  It’s got all the most modern bells and whistles, including the new hips and rocker ankles.  The 2012 figure also lacked a ball jointed torso, and, perhaps most frustrating for the time, it didn’t even have a lightsaber hilt peg hole on the belt.  Nonsense!

You would expect the figure’s buck to be amazing, and it is.  The details and sculpting are great, the articulation points work like a dream resulting in tremendous posability, and the paint and colors are fantastic.  One might argue that the upper body armor should have some weathering and/or a little battle damage, but that’s a minor quibble here.  The double soft goods skirt looks great, and allows for full range of motion of the hip joints.  The knees and elbows go just a tick past 90 degrees, which is better than nothing, but still should go farther.  There is finally a peg hole on the belt, so Anakin has a place to hang the unlit hilt. 

The real trick with this figure is the headsculpt.  As a human face, it puts VC92 to absolute shame.  But I’m not convinced that it’s Hayden Christiansen.  And I also feel the hair is too light in its shade of brown.  I think Hayden has darker hair, and they missed the mark on this a bit.  That, to me, is a worse miss than the headsculpt, which I can still manage to offer a little forgiveness due to the scale.  But the hair color should have been different.  Then again, what do I know about such things?  Maybe it’s perfect.  Leave me alone and stop bullying me about my eye thing!

Oh, Anakin is going to be repacked, but with a Tartakovsky Microseries inspired cloak (which I assume is removable) in the upcoming Journey of Anakin Skywalker Special 3-pack.

It’s a great figure.  The likeness isn’t perfect, and to my eyes the hair is a bit too light.  But otherwise, the figure is a major upgrade, smashing VC92 into dust, and is a worthy addition to the modern line.  A strong 9/10.