Who would have thought the Stormtrooper in wave 3 would be outclassed by one of his casemates?  While the demand tilts toward the Stormtrooper, the Luke Skywalker figure is the better offering, but its not without its faults.  Well perhaps a singular fault.  The head sculpt and the corresponding paint applications are the weakness of this figure.  I don’t think the sculpt particularly looks like Mark Hamill.  As our Spanish contingent has pointed it out, the head has a vague Mick Jagger resemblance.  This is further complicated by frequent overspray of the hair which lands on my sample’s cheek and left nostril.  Missing by that wide of a margin is almost unforgivable.

From the neck down, the figure is a masterwork.  I wrote that the Stormtrooper figure’s weakness is the missing point of rotational articulation on the legs.  The Bespin fatigues Luke Skwalker compensates for the loss of this articulation due to the double hinged knees with an upper thigh swivel.  With that, the poses that the figure can achieve seem endless.  Sometimes ball jointed elbows suffer from poor range of motion.  On this figure, the end of the upper arm is sculpted at an angle.  This leaves room for the lower arm to articulate upward and achieve at least a ninety degree bend if not more. Adding in ball jointed wrists and the upper body has every bit the posing options of the lower body.  This figure is ready to duel a counterpart Darth Vader figure.  Sadly, we’re still two waves away from any Darth Vader offering at the time of this review.

The last area of consideration is the detailing on the figure.  I can’t profess to be an expert on this particular piece of wardrobe, but it seems pretty straight forward.  The many cargo pockets are nicely sculpted with the appropriate attention to detail as are the familiar Rebel Empire Strikes Back boots.  The entire ensemble is given a dirty wash to highlight the details of the sculpt including the embedded fabric pattern.  The functioning light saber clip is a bonus feature that allows you to accurate pose the figure as Luke when he was first scouting Cloud City upon his arrival, but the accessory it too light for gravity to allow it to hang naturally from the clip.  In certain poses, the hilt will protrude away from the figure.  Given the location of the item this can give an unfortunate phallic appearance, but I trust our readership to be mature enough not to comment on that any further than I have done here.

The head is a weakness in my opinion on an otherwise stellar figure.  9 out of 10.

9/10 Bantha Skulls