Editor’s Note:  The original review by Chris, and the first updated review by Bret have been taken from the gallery of the TBS Phase 1 #5 Luke Skywalker, on which this figure is largely based

Original Review:  Chris 8/06/2013 08:12 PM

[Review references the TBS Phase I #5 Luke Skywalker]. Proving that it’s possible to take a step forward and a step backward at the same time, Hasbro goes back to the well on the Yavin Ceremony Luke Skywalker.  First, times they are a changing.  The Vintage Collection was a lesson in boutique quality at Walmart prices.  We were treated to stellar accessories and intricate paint details on seemingly every figure.  From silver accents on vibro-axes to the silver tibana gas canister on the DC-15 rifles, Hasbro managed to squeeze detail into even the smallest areas.  And those accessories in the Vintage Collection almost never made us utter the dreaded r-word “rubbery”.  Where the Vintage Collection looked for opportunities to dazzle, the Black Series looks for opportunities to cut corners from the cards to the accessories to the paint apps.  To the casual observer, this won’t be noticed.  If obligations to a labor of love web site cause you to closely examine each figure, it will stand out.  I don’t mean to over state this.  By no means is this a jarring change in direction.  It’s subtle, but I feel Hasbro may gradually nudge us into a new paradigm for the collector line (assuming it continues).

This figure is mostly the 30th Anniversary figure.  It’s as if the figure underwent the equivalent of a negative remastering with tones all becoming a shade brighter which looks better than the darker TAC figure. You’ll notice there is no comparison shot to that figure.  That’s because I was so unhappy with it that I heavily modified the stock figure.  That figure featured an anemic skin tone and a terrible head sculpt complete with a Dutch boy haircut.  On the one I modified, I replaced the original head with the head from the Legacy Collection medical robes Luke Skywalker.  The head on the Black Series figure is even better than my modification.  It’s a very good likeness to an Episode IV Mark Hamill.  The complexion of the figure is also more natural.  The figure now includes the scene correct sporting blaster and features a full holster.  The previous figure basically had a plastic loop which accepted the muzzle of the incorrect BlasTech DL-44 blaster.  These items make a marked improvement, and this is absolutely an upgrade you should buy if you want a Yavin Ceremony Luke Skywalker in your collection. 

Update:  I did not notice this until I read Paul Harrison’s review on Jedi Temple Archives.  The torso of the figure is new with a more lifelike appearance to the folds of the shirt.  Also the legs are slightly retooled to have a wider stance.

Where it takes a step backwards is in those subtle quality areas mentioned above.  The sporting blaster returns to the era of rubbery accessories.  It can be bent into a completed oval with the muzzle touching the grip.  Whereas the previous figure had the buckle of the leg strap painted silver, the new holster is unpainted.  The previous figure had the regular wardrobe belt as part of the sculpt and the holster belt was a floating piece on top.  It added a layer of richness and realism.  On the current version, the floating holster belt is deleted.  Instead the holster belt is part of the sculpt where the regular belt was on the previous incarnation.  In a vacuum, these minor steps backward are nothing more than a footnote.  Suspecting this will be part of a larger trend, it’s a bit worrisome. 

As the previous figure this was based on did not have ankle joints, the Black Series Yavin Ceremony Luke is likewise ankle-less.  I usually do not deduct points for the lack of an ankle if the character does not need to be placed in action poses. You could argue that this version of Luke Skywalker just needs to stand there and receive his commendation and therefore the ankles are not critical.  I argue that all Luke Skywalker figures are intrinsically action oriented, therefore I’m taking a point away.  I would rate this figure 8 out of 10 if it were super articulated with the improved head sculpt and skin tone balancing out the rubbery blaster and minimal paint apps, but it gets lowered to a 7 due to it not being super articulated.

Updated Review:  Bret - 10/26/2018 07:05 AM

[Review references the TBS Phase I #5 Luke Skywalker] Chris made some great points about the direction of the collector line once he was reviewing this figure.  While I agree that there is little argument against this figure being superior to the base TAC 30-12 release (shown in the NEW comparison shot, because I don’t destroy my figures by customizing them like I’m some kind of ANIMAL!), the fact that it came out 5 years later during an era of true super-articulation being the standard means that we should have gotten a couple of significant upgrades to the figure besides the headsculpt.  That headsculpt alone is worth the price of admission if you are looking for the best Yavin Ceremony Luke Skywalker figure, but there’s a downside.  Instead of the apparently superfluous retooling of the torso, Hasbro should have given us, at a bare minimum, ball-jointed ankles.  More appropriate for a Luke Skywalker figure would have been ball-jointed hips as well. 

After photographing this figure, I was inclined to raise the score, but I stand with Chris on this last point about the lack of ankle articulation.  That makes it something less than super-articulated, and while that may be forgivable for certain characters that we might all agree don’t need the advanced articulation, this is Luke Skywalker.  LUKE SKYWALKER!  How is he supposed to murder his away across the galaxy without ankles?  And while you might want think about looking past this because all he does is “stand there” and take his medal, you’ll notice that shot in the gallery of Luke “walking” past the Alliance troops at the ceremony.  Getting the figure to maintain that position without ankles long enough to snap the photo was a worse experience than watching a Giants game.  Among the items that were corrected / improved, Luke comes with the correct lightsaber and a more defined Yavin campaign medal.  While the blaster is new and is the correct one for this figure, the paint details were lacking.  And not just on the blaster, but all over the figure

If it weren’t for the now overwritten images that Chris had taken for the original gallery, I would not have even remembered that Luke wears this outfit during the Boba Fett cartoon from the Holiday Special.  Those last 3 images are inspired by that great bit of television history.  So the figure can be a little more action-oriented than you might think.  Now if we could just get a two-seater OT-era Y-Wing…

Again, it’s a good figure.  The improved headsculpt and much better uniform coloring are just enough to make this close enough to definitive, despite the flaws.  Chris pointed out some of the shortcuts that Hasbro took with the figure to shave fractional pennies off the production costs, and because of that, we’re left with something that feels undeserving of being given the title of “collector grade.”  But to his point, The Black Series was indeed ushering in a new era of corner-cutting. 

If you’re in the market for a Yavin Ceremony Luke, get this one and not the TAC version.  Otherwise your friends (if you have any) will think you’re a loser.

We’re calling it close for missing the ankles, but there’s just about no momentum behind a resculpt.  But if Hasbro ever did, they should add “Jedi Level Articulation” (JLA), and add back the paint touches.  Currently, you can grab this figure for moderately low prices on eBay.  You need it for your Yavin ceremony diorama.

Updated Review:  Bret - 11/07/2019 07:05 AM

[This update is based on the VC151 figure pictured in the gallery above.]. This is a strange figure.  In 2007, Hasbro released it in the TAC line.  At the time, it was a solid figure.  It wasn’t perfect, but it was good.  The biggest problem was the fact that it lacked articulated ankles.  I see comments all the time that ankles aren’t a big deal, but this makes zero sense to me.  Without ankles, the knees and hips are rendered nearly useless.  So what would be the point?  Another issue was that the figure came with the wrong accessories.  Luke came with the incorrect blaster, as well as Darth Vader’s lightsaber hilt.  And finally, the head sculpt wasn’t great.  Hasbro had always had difficulty getting Mark Hamill’s likeness, so it wasn’t particularly egregious, but it wasn’t very good either.

In 2013, Hasbro decided to release this figure, with some updates in the early part of the Black Series line.  One of the three issues was corrected outright:  the blaster and hilt were now the appropriate weapons.  That was big.  Hasbro also took another stab at the face, with an all new headsculpt.  Again, it wasn’t really Mark Hamill, but it was a definite improvement over the original.  For good measure, Hasbro tweaked the torso (the black shirt was different, for some reason), and also changed the belt style.  All of it added up to an improvement, although some it was just barely incremental.  But again, Hasbro left the figure with no ankles. All that effort, and you would think this glaring problem would be fixed, but it was ignored.  Most of us assumed this would be the definitive version of the character.  By 2013 standards, it was pretty close to perfect (if you accepted improved head sculpt as definitive), except for the ankles.  Surely Hasbro wouldn’t bother revisiting the figure just to fix that.

Fast forward to 2019, and sure enough, Hasbro took another swing at ol’ Yavin Luke.  The good news for some collectors was that this character would finally get a TVC card.  It’s definitely cool, but the photo quality, sadly, is pretty poor.  Not Hasbro’s fault (I assume), but still a little disappointing.  But it’s probably better than a CGI photo, or a artist’s rendering.  But obviously, the ankles would be fixed, so against all odds, we’d finally get that perfect version of this character.  Right?  Nope.  Hasbro made more changes to the figure.  At this point, the one we most expect is the application of PhotoReal.  Hasbro took the surprising step of creating a third all new headsculpt.  Again, it’s a big improvement over figure #2.  We probably thought that one was okay, but this one is so much better.  So that would be it, right?  The expected new head, and the unexpected same missing ankles, right?  Hasbro did something else that was rather strange.  They gave Luke 2 new forearms and hands.  Why?  I’m not sure.  The hands are a little better, but I can’t say I was complaining about the previous ones.  These hands don’t even have ball jointed wrists, so I’m pretty confused as to why the forearms are retooled.

The accessories are basically the same as the second release.  The blaster fits snugly in the holster, or in either of Luke’s hands.  The lightsaber hilt plugs into the hole in the belt, while the figure can easily grip it in either hand.  There’s no blade, and I’m also fairly certain that Luke isn’t wearing the hilt in the film version of the medal ceremony, so it’s kind of superfluous.  It’s not bad that he has it, but it has almost no “play” value, and is not screen inaccurate.  The medal seems possibly new (I can’t keep track of all the different medals released over time), but it’s not a gamechanger.  It fits nicely over his neck.

Overall, this is an improvement over the previous versions, and except for the head, the other “upgrades” are minor, and maybe a little confusing.  The lack of ankles is a terrible choice, because surely we’ll never get this figure released again, right?  Okay, so we’ll probably get another version in 2023 that includes a movable mouth that allows Luke to smile, but he probably won’t come with ankles then, either. 

I would probably have given this figure a 9 if it had ankles, or a 10 if they retooled the legs completely and gave Luke ball jointed hips (and.included a fully lit lightsaber, just for fun).  It’s an excellent figure with a frustratingly flawed lack of ankles (FOR THE THIRD TIME!).  It gets an 8.