Original review by Chris, 10/25/14

Once again my tagline for the 30th Anniversary Collection surfaces:  great figures, terrible head sculpts.  Hasbro has consistently struggled with recreating a decent likeness of Mark Hamill with many more misses than hits, but this may be their worst effort ever.  I’ve often said that if you remove the head from the figure and told someone that it was Star Wars character, there’s only a 50/50 chance that they would guess correctly that it’s Luke Skywalker.  When removed from the context of the figure, there is nothing that identifies this head sculpt as Luke Skywalker.  Even the vintage Kenner heads had a better suggestion of the character.  For some reason Hasbro occasionally thinks the “blonde farmboy” has dark brown hair, and this is one of the examples.  Their is a bizarre wash over the head that may have been an attempt at highlights, but it’s almost grotesque looking.  It looks more like “Luke” had cooking grease dumped on his head.  The windswept hair notwithstanding. the head still bears no resemblance to Mr. Hamill.  It’s a weird combination of Gary Busey’s teeth on Jackie Earle Haley’s head. 

The issues with the figure don’t end at the melon, although the rest of the figure looks decent.  It’s a good representation of the “farmboy” costume.  The ball jointed elbows and shoulders allow for an acceptable amount of posing of the arms in case you want to place Luke in a saber duel with a training remote.  The problem is that this is yet another 30th Anniversary Collection figure that features no lower body articulation except for swivel hips.  I think a lot of fans have the misconception that 2007 was the start of the super articulation era.  It was true of some of the figures, but this wave alone had two figures without knee or ankle articulation.  The Imperial Academy Biggs Darklighter was the other.  The reason for the reduced articulation on the figure is obvious, and we’ll get to that in a moment, but it’s still a disappointment.  We were, and in many ways still are, waiting for the definitive Tatooine Luke Skywalker. 

All of these gripes are the equivalent of a super model with webbed feet.  Most collectors are not going to notice.  The reason almost everyone bought this figure was for the huge moisture vaporator accessory.  The cost of this pack-in is surely the reason why Hasbro had to reduce the articulation of the figure itself.  The vaproators were prevalent throughout Tatooine, so even if you are not setting up a Lars homestead display, it can be used to spice up the exterior of your cantina display.  There are two vaporators in the scene where Luke sells his Landspeeder to Wioslea alone.  The accessory is not 100% perfect.  My sample came out of the package with an unfortunate lean to one side, but the props themselves were not perfect.  The figure is a weak five, but the vaproator accessory easily promotes this to a 7 out of 10.  You would be justified in buying this just for the accessory.  As a bonus, the figure’s right hand can be easily interchanged with the right “force hand” from the Legacy Collection Ben Kenobi if you wanted to be able to get better dueling poses out of that figure.

Updated Review by Bret, 9/14/19

It’s 2019, and we’re still waiting for a definitive farm boy Luke.  While Spring 2019 seemed to be all about Jabba, Fall 2019 is shaping up to be the seasons of Luke.  Yet, despite, by my count, 6 different Luke figures this season, none of them are farm boy Luke.  This figure has been surpassed by the one that came with the TLC Resurgence of the Jedi battle pack in 2009.  But this figure, as Chris pointed out, is really all about the vaporator accessory.  Definitely worth the price of admission.  It is worth at least 2 of the 7 points in our grade.  Get multiples.  The vaporator was re-issued (with an inferior paint job) in the TLC Disturbance at the Lars Homestead battle pack.  But the point is, farm boy Luke came out with the Kenner Early Bird Kit, and 42 years later we’re still waiting for the definitive version already.