Original Review by Chris: 10/19/14

I’ll get to the figure in a little bit, but I wouldn’t be true to myself (and this site) if I first didn’t spend a little time griping about post 1983 Star Wars.  I have nothing against Hayden Christensen as an actor.  More astute observers than me have pointed out that he’s a fine actor in things other than the Prequel Trilogy, so the following statement is not a condemnation of the talent.  I can’t stand that Lucas replaced the Sebastian Shaw Anakin spirit with Hayden Christensen.  It simply makes no sense.  Why would the spirits of Ben and Yoda represent themselves at the time of their death, while Anakin Skywalker’s spirit was from his youth?  He was redeemed at the end of Return of the Jedi, so it’s not because it represents the character from when his soul was good.  If it’s because the spirits represent the characters as Jedi, that would have to be the Sith’s greatest recruiting tool.  Turn to the Dark Side when you’re still young and then repent on your deathbed.  Your reward will be eternal youth.  That’s a pretty raw deal for those who never fall from grace.

I was pretty stoked when this figure was first released.  The “spirit” figures struggled to gain a decent translation over the history of the line.  The first iterations were pejoratively referred to as “Old Spice figures” as they were under-articulated hunks of translucent blue plastic that looked like they were carved from a block of America’s favorite pit sticks.  This was an odd choice because the spirits on film were not blue, they were merely glowing versions of the characters at less then full opacity.  The Original Trilogy Colllection Ben Kenobi took the first step forward to getting a spirit figure to look proper.  It was basically a partially translucent version of a living Kenobi with a pearlescent wash.  Hasbro made the skin tones too dark however.  I think this was because it was representing spirit Ben from Dagobah where the diminished opacity allowed the dark background to pass through.  Unfortunately the result looks like an Obi-Wan that spent too much time in the tanning bed.

It appeared that this Anakin Skywalker’s Spirit figure finally got it right.  It maintains the color palette of the character and is not too dark.  In retrospect, however, it looks like an over correction from the Ben Kenobi attempt.  It’s too bright and lustrous.  The translucent soft goods robe is an amazing attempt, but Anakin looks more like he’s wrapped in gold fleece than wearing brown jedi robes.  The inner robes look like a pearly white over purple rather than off white over brown.  This is why I personally find value in these Throwback Reviews.  It forces me to reevaluate my mindset when it comes to “definitive” figures.  Just because I considered something definitive when I tucked it away on a shelf doesn’t mean that it’s still the case.  I now realize that Hasbro did not perfect the “spirit” figure in 2007.  Some combination of the techniques used for the OTC Ben and this TAC Anakin is probably where they need to go.

This figure had to be frustrating to those clamoring for a decent Episode III Anakin Skywalker.  This spirit figure is super articulated with ball joints at the shoulders, elbows, knees and ankles.  For some reason, Hasbro had not yet released a ROTS Anakin with ball jointed elbows at this point.  Adding insult to injury, an Episode III Anakin was later released in the 2008 TAC line and it still had swivel elbows.  We wouldn’t get an Episode III Anakin with ball jointed elbows until 2010’s Vintage Collection.  Hasbro is compelled to make sure all figures have appeal and play value for kids, so Anakin Skywalker’s Spirit comes armed with a light saber.  I really hope he doesn’t need it in the afterlife.  This figure it an easy 8 for me based on the articulation alone.  I’m not in love with the shimmery brightness of the figure, but I can’t bring myself to deduct a full point for it.  Let’s call this a rounded up 8 out of 10.

Updated Review by Bret: 11/06/19

It’s a strange figure, but a commendable effort.  Here’s an example of a figure where fans probably would have been okay with a salt shaker / statue type body.  Maybe not, though, since if they did the same with Obi-Wan, we’d complain that he couldn’t sit like he did on Dagobah.  Perhaps it’s just easy to make fun of because of the included lightsaber.  Weirder still, the blade is detachable, but there’s no peg hole on the belt to plug it in.  The cape is perhaps a little over-engineered.  As Chris said, it’s a great effort, and the material used is pretty awesome, but it might be just a bit of overkill.  It’s great that it could be removed so that you could recreate ghostly lightsaber battles in the afterlife.

But despite the fact that the figure might be an easy target in some respects, I still have to give Hasbro credit.  While Obi-Wan from 2004 definitely maintains some value today, both figures clearly show how pathetic the ghost Yoda is.  We definitely need a new version of that.  But then it would probably be best if we get all three figures to be updated together, perhaps in a special set, so that they are consistently sculpted and painted.  And to Chris’s main point, it should probably be a 4-pack, to include a Sebastian Shaw version as well.  So I’ll say that Hasbro should resculpt this figure, and give it a priority of medium, but the caveat is that it needs to come in the aforementioned set.  Then offer a companion pack with a Vader funeral pyre (indluding a burnt helmet as an ST Easter egg), an all new Ewok Celebration Leia, and throw in the VC Jedi Luke.  All good.