I’m not sure how I’m even functioning well enough to do this review, as I was barely able to peel myself off the couch this evening following the gut punch / crotch kick / horror show that was today’s Giants game.  I have to keep telling myself that they were going nowhere this season anyway, so a game like this is meaningless in the grand scheme of things.  Nevertheless, he we are.  The Jets are 0-7, so there’s always that to fall back on.

As you all probably know, I’m generally not a fan of redos when there’s so many important debuts still to make.  But my exceptions are keeping the main characters and iconic army builders updated as technology evolves, and then hitting up the egregiously bad figures that are plaguing our displays.  This second part is pretty subjective, as everyone’s standard for such a thing could vary wildly.  I would put the existing Jedi spirit figures in this category of egregiously bad.  Not only are all the figures questionable at best, if you take the best versions of each of the 3, they make no sense when displayed together for the Endor scene.

A set of “matching” Jedi Spirit figures has been long overdue, and Hasbro finally delivered - 18 years after the most recent effort was released. 

Anakin Skywalker

Anakin’s spirit has a convoluted history, of course.  The first release was from 1998, as part of the POTF2 (Phase 3) Jedi Spirits Cinema Scene.  The 3 figures were essentially statues cast in a translucent plastic and had no paint apps to speak of.  My set has a “dusting” of white paint on the figures.  I was never sure if this was intentional, or if I got a bad set.  But otherwise, the the mini-statues are just solid, and the limited articulation (heads and arms) seem to be glued in place and I never wanted to test out potential movement for fear of breakage.

As for the sculpt, in 1998, there was only one option.  Obviously that POTF2 figure sported the portrait of Sebastian Shaw.  That same year, Hasbro released a single carded figure in the Flashback line of a non-spirit version of Sebastian Shaw’s Anakin, in anticipation of the introduction of Anakin as a child in the upcoming Episode I.  In 2007, Hasbro released TAC 30-45 Anakin Skywalker’s Spirit.  It was a huge advance as compared to the POTF2 figure.  It was super-articulated, had a translucent, but colorful, paint job, and had a soft goods robe made of an etherial gold fabric.  Hasbro seized on the controversy surrounding the continuously tweaked OT, and gave that figure a Hayden Christensen portrait. 

In this Special Set, Anakin is the star.  First, it seems to use a partly new sculpt for the body (perhaps using a few parts from existing figures).  The forearms, hands, legs, and soft plastic skirt appear to be cast in a translucent blue plastic.  Those parts look to be painted in a way that fades from the blue into the light brown coloring of the robes.  The rest of the parts are cast in solid colors.  It’s an interesting effect, almost as if the central part of the character is more “present”, while the limbs fade into a more ghostly blue.  For articulation, the figure has a wide range of JLA, and the soft plastic skirt has slits down the sides to allow the legs to move freely.  The soft goods robe is of a light mesh that is quite similar to that used in the aforementioned TAC Anakin, but this time the cut is much more realistic, instead of the billowing nonsense that we used to get for Jedi robes.  This time, instead of gold, the robe is a ghostly blue.

The big news here is that Anakin comes with swappable portraits.  The figure comes with an all new Hayden Christensen portrait, as well as an all new Sebastian Shaw portrait (for the first time in 27 years!).  I’m not entirely sure why, but Hasbro opted for a new thing here.  Instead of the head being swappable at the neck peg (which is actually still possible), the neck itself, including the “v-shaped” undershirt that is visible where the tunic crosses the chest.  I guess the two different actors that appear in the film had a slightly different neckline/shirt pattern?  Not something I ever noticed, and I’m not sure why Hasbro would go to that much effort for this particular detail.  Remember, this is the same company that did THIS.

Anyway, the figure design is quite nice, a lot of attention was given to this figure, and the alternate heads are a real treat.  The figure looks great, does its job, and goes the extra mile.  I can’t think of a reason to give it less than a perfect score.  10/10

Yoda

Spirit Yoda is a figure that Hasbro never bothered to update since the POTF2 Jedi Spirits Cinema Scene, and it was in desperate need of an update so it could at least match the most recent TAC Anakin Spirit in styling.  For this release, Hasbro used the best OT Yoda available, which was originally available in the VC Cave of Evil Special Set - later re-released in the basic line as VC218.  While it lacks ball-jointed elbows (it’s got swivels!), it otherwise has standard pre-2023 articulation.  Yoda is cast in the same method as Anakin, with the limbs partially painted in colors that fade into the body.  Yoda comes with his gimer stick, which is also painted in ghostly colors.

Yoda’s other accessories are somewhat questionable.  He comes with a mesh robe, just like Anakin.  But unlike blue, this one is golden - just like the TAC Anakin.  It’s an odd choice, because it means it doesn’t match the other figures in the set.  I’m not sure why Hasbro went this route, perhaps because they thought it looked better when contrasted with the darker undergarments sported by Yoda.  The removable belt and necklace are much darker in coloring than the cane, but are still coated in a shimmering blue. 

Because Yoda’s sculpt isn’t up to the most modern standards, and due to the odd choice of gold coloring for the robe, I knocked a couple of points off this figure.  But it’s still pretty good.  8/10. 

Obi-Wan Kenobi

Obi-Wan as a spirit was first released as a Frito-Lay mail away figure in 1997.  It’s debatable as to what the source might be, as it could be his appearance on Hoth (ESB), Dagobah (ESB/ROTJ), or Endor (ROTJ).  A slightly re-tooled version was part of the 1998 Cinema Scene.  In 2004, Hasbro revisited this figure, and gave us a very nice Spirit of Obi-Wan from the Original Trilogy Collection.  This one was sourced to ESB Dagobah.  It sported a colorful ghostly appearance, but was fully plastic.  By the time the aforementioned TAC Anakin was released, the two figures were wildly different.  Joined with the 1998 Yoda, the triplets were a complete mess.

This time, Hasbro used VC373 Obi-Wan Kenobi as the base.  Like the other figures in the set, Hasbro did a nice job of using some translucent plastic parts that add paint to fade into the rest of the body.  You’d think Hasbro could have used this body for Anakin, but they made the effort to have them be distinct sculpts.

Obi-Wan comes with the same type of mesh blue robe as Anakin, which leaves Yoda’s gold version as the odd one out. There are no additional accessories.  We gave VC373 a 9/10 for some minor nitpicks, which don’t really impact this figure in the same way.  However, it will keep that 9/10 score.

The Set

Overall, the set gets an excellent 9.  It probably could have had a shot at a perfect 10 if Yoda’s robe was the same blue as Anakin’s and Obi-Wan’s. 

There are two main wins with this set.  The first is the Sebastian Shaw optional headsculpt for Anakin.  The second is that (aside from Yoda’s golden robe) the figures match very well.  They absolutely annihilate all previous Jedi Spirit figure attempts.  This is an upgrade that I’m happy to have.