Here’s another repack in the Saga Collection.  I really didn’t remember how many repacks were in the line.  Thanks, Chris, for making me do this!  In return, I declare that you shall do the 037 Sandtrooper review.

This is a terrible figure.  It’s a repack from the ROTS line, and while the lines were still coinciding with feature film releases, it was to be expected that Hasbro would experiment with kid friendly gimmicks, especially with main characters.  Such was the case in 2005.  But by the time TSC was launched, this figure should have been retired.

This Anakin, on a very basic level, isn’t a terrible looking figure, for what it was meant to be.  The face sculpt isn’t bad, on a 2005-ish level.  The overall sculpt is okay, but cannot possibly overcome one tremendous problem.  There’s an action feature built in.  When you squeeze the legs, Anakin swivels violently from left to right from the waist up.  The arms have very loose joints, and the idea is allow Anakin to swing his lightsaber in an unstoppable attack.

To Hasbro’s credit, the activation mechanism is completely invisible.  Unlike action features that came with older figures, there’s is no button or lever ruining the aesthetic.  The legs, when squeezed together, create the swinging upper body effect.  That’s not bad.  In exchange for this, however, there is no lower body articulation to speak of. 

That credit is lost, however, as Hasbro ruined the aesthetic of the figure with the exposed pins at the shoulders and elbows.  By design, these joints are very loose, but I’m not sure why we needed the pins.  Apparently Hasbro was performing early experiments that they would carry forward on their Sixer craps later.  Well done!  Enjoy those exposed joint pins, you Sixers fools!

Probably because of the violent nature of the action feature, Hasbro opted for a lightsaber that is attached to Anakin’s right hand, otherwise it would likely fly off and someone would lose an eye, ending the fun and games right then and there.  To mitigate this nonsense, there is a switch out non-saber hand, which can be used when Anakin isn’t acting like the Tasmanian Devil, as well as an unlit hilt which completes the passive look.  The figure also comes with a Jedi robe, which is oversized, as was typical for the day.

As I was photographing this figure, I was relieved that it was no longer useful since we have the outstanding VC13.  In a moment of panic, I realized that the Vintage Collection figure was specific to representing Anakin after his fall, due to the yellow Sith eyes.  Slipping back into panic, I was then relieved once again that we do have the 2007 Evolutions “Anakin to Vader” ROTS figure, which is pretty good, although not perfect.  Besides swivel elbows, that figure egregiously seems to be “missing” a lit lightsaber, but you could share the one that came with the AOTC Anakin in the same pack. 

Due to the prevalence of Anakin lightsabers throughout the line since 2005, the inclusion of a lit saber with this TSC figure is not enough to save it from the dreaded “obsolete” status.  Consider it crushed by the Evolutions figure, with room to be crushed again by an even better figure in the future.  There is no reason to own this version, other than for “collect-them-all” purposes. It scores a 3.  It’s got bad articulation, and the action feature concept is a non-starter.  If Hasbro was going to put out an ROTS Anakin in 2006, it should have attempted a new sculpt rather than rehashing this one.

Oh yeah, it was part of the Ultimate Galactic Hunt.  So if you were like me, you were a sucker and bought multiples.