The Force Awakens

TFABASIC

Luke Skywalker

Info and Stats
Year:  
2015
MSRP:  
$7.99
Grade:  
1/10 Bantha Skulls
 
Review by: Bret
Review date: 12/30/2017

I’m not sure I understand what everyone was complaining about with the TFA line.  There was so much noise about Hasbro dropping the ball because they didn’t make a Luke figure.  Well, here it is.  It came out on Force Friday.  It’s Luke Skywalker.  He’s in TFA packaging.  What the heck is the problem?  People are idiots.

This figure sucks. I’ll tell you a story instead of giving a long review.

Here’s a bit of my recent collecting history for some context as to why I hate this figure.  In short, I was a completist of the super articulated figures.  I drew the line in the sand at TCW figures, because I didn’t like that they were stylized like the cartoon characters, and decided they didn’t fit into my collection.  Later, when Hasbro started slipping in 5POA budget figures, I skipped those completely.  I also passed on the Rebels figures, because that was an egregious combination of cartoon-styled figures and 5POA format.  Also, to note, I had watched only a handful of episodes of The Clone Wars, and none of the Rebels episodes, leaving me with no connection to those characters.

Back in 2015, when I had lost my admin password to Bantha Skull and Chris was still moping about the Giants beating the Patriots for the second time (IT WAS LIKE 3 YEARS IN THE PAST BUT HE WOULDN’T LET IT GO!), I had scooped up a bunch of The Force Awakens figures and toys on Force Friday, mostly for nostalgia reasons.  Even though everything was 5POA, it was apparent that the new characters were going to be woefully underrepresented in the new Walmart Exclusive Black Series line, so I figured it was basically the only way to add stuff into my collection from the new film.  I caved and got a bunch of crap.  I happily skipped Vader and Luke, because what the heck were they even doing there?  I already had numerous SA versions of those characters, and certainly didn’t need that garbage taking up space in my collection.  After my Force Friday haul, I didn’t even open any of it at the time, because I still hadn’t set up my Star Wars room (it’s been a long, drama-filled story - which isn’t over). 

When wave 2 of the TFA basic figures came out, I picked up a couple of them as well, but then pretty much gave up after that.  I just wasn’t inspired.  My collecting was reduced to picking up the infrequent Black Series offerings.  I still classified myself as completist, but re-drew the line at 5POA, and decided to skip a bunch of the follow on waves from TFA. 

When Rogue One had its product launch, I got a little more interested, and picked up most of the toys that day, but I ignored the Rebels stuff again.  I did go out of my way to stay on top of the follow on waves of Rogue One figures, because I loved the movie.  A few months after Rogue One came out, with my interest in the hobby only slightly revitalized, but still on life support, something wonderful happened.

I asked Chris to fire up the Banthacopter, but it was in the shop.  So he launched the Hindenbantha instead, and we got rolling again.  Suddenly, I decided I wanted to help backfill our figure and toy galleries, so I needed to get all the figures from TFA that I had missed.  Fortunately, I was able to find many still on the pegs.  But I continued to draw that line at Rebels cartoony figures. 

One day over the summer, my wife and I were looking for something to watch on Netflix, and saw The Clone Wars was getting pulled.  We went a little crazy and decided to binge the whole series in about 30 days.  I wasn’t really looking forward to it, but figured it would be important to help improve some of the canon knowledge gaps from which I suffered, especially if I was going to be more active on Bantha Skull.  We watched all the episodes, often as many as 4 or 5 per day, and just managed to get them finished before the Netflix deadline.  (Naturally, we noticed that the show was not pulled at the deadline, making the whole effort kind of a waste.)  But to my surprise, we both enjoyed the series, and admittedly, I was very wrong to dismiss the show as a bunch of nonsense.  We then binged Rebels, and caught up in time to watch the final season live.  We really enjoyed that as well, far more than I thought possible, and are looking forward to the last episodes.  So now, in an effort to try to make our TFA and RO galleries (mostly) complete, and because I became a fan of the show, I threw out my self-imposed line in the sand, and decided that I would (reluctantly) add some Rebels figures to my collection.

So my last holdouts for 5POA figures that I refused to buy, were those that I already owned in SA form. I was fine buying TFA and RO characters in 5POA that weren’t made in the SA line.  But there was no way I was going to buy a Darth Vader, or a Luke Skywalker, or any other nonsense like that.  I was firm about it!  Hasbro would not get my money for this - absolutely not! 

Apparently, I wasn’t paying attention on Force Friday.  I must have inadvertently picked up this Luke Skywalker from the TFA line and thrown it in my cart.  I’m angry that I own it.  So now you have to be subjected to my review.  This figure serves no purpose in anyone’s collection. It should never have been made in this format.  It’s stupid.  It’s under-articulated, glossy, weakly sculpted, and it makes me angry that it exists at all, let alone in my house.  That is my review.

You may think this is unfair, and if so, you won’t get any argument from me.  I give this figure a 1.  I give it more credit than the Jyn Erso (Eadu) figure that won’t stand. Beyond that, it’s an abomination just because it exists.  Go on Ebay and find almost any older super-articulated Luke Bespin figure.  You don’t need this crap.

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