Here’s another Saga Collection figure that is more or less a retool and repaint of a previous version.  The Saga line’s Luke Skywalker (Jabba’s Palace) figure - which itself was repainted almost immediately as a Hologram version - is basically re-used here, with a few tweaks.  However, unlike many of the TSC figures that we’ve reviewed which are either straight repacks or slight repaints, the accessories that come with this figure make once made it worth the price of admission.

Luke has a lot of articulation, but most of it is of the swivel variety, so while it was good for the time, it quickly became dated.  He’s got swivel everything except for the ball-jointed knees - but lacks ankles of any kind.  The knees, in theory, should be helpful for getting Luke to sit on a speederbike, but the hip joints and their angles preclude this. For the purposes of our action photography, this figure could not meaningfully recreate any scene in which Luke is actually sitting on a speeder bike. 

For anything other than sitting, this is a pretty decent figure. The load of accessories that are included allow you to put together a really nice looking Endor Luke.  You get a great looking poncho, that not only is made of a material that helps it conform fairly well to the figure’s body, it is also dyed in a very convincing camouflage pattern.  You also get a well fitting helmet, a removable belt that keeps the poncho together, and a silver tipped blaster that slips nicely into the holster, and also into Luke’s gloved hand.  There’s also a lightsaber, although it is of the older “straight blade” variety, lacking the more modern “flare” at the base.  The deal is rounded out with the Saga collection figure base.

But all of that just hides what is otherwise a substandard, if not actually bad, figure.  Of course, it’s fairly moot because Hasbro improved upon it fairly significantly with a super-articulated Luke Skywalker in the 2009 TLC (Red) Battle of Endor Battle Pack.  Both figures suffer from the rather bulbous joints.  There’s no doubt that Hasbro could up the ante pretty easily by using the VC23 Luke Skywalker (which now includes FACE!) as a base figure, and with just a little bit of retooling, they can get the rest of the ROTJ Luke’s out there, including this one.

Not bad, and certainly not terrible enough to be tossed aside as obsolete, but dated and easily surpassed but the TLC battle pack version.  It should be rendered obsolete by a retool/repaint of VC23, if Hasbro wanted to give that a shot.  This gets a 6/10.