The first wave of The Legacy Collection was an interesting.  The first 3 figures were 3 of the main heroes, and unlike the bizarre choice to launch TVC with VC01 Dengar, this made perfect sense.  However, the outfits were from a not widely known deleted ROTJ scene.  Despite many flaws, they were still decent (not great) for 2008.  The deleted sandstorm scene occurs after the team departs the sarlaac pit and the smoldering remains of the Khetanna (just a few weeks away!).  Luke, at first, is helping Lando support a wounded Chewbacca as the approach the rendezvous point.  (Which, again, included the Falcon, Luke’s X-Wing, and a Y-Wing.). Luke is wearing the goggles and the shmata.  Once everyone reaches the Falcon, Luke, Han, and Leia have a sidebar conversation.  Luke pulls the shmata off his head, and lowers the goggles to his neck.  This conversation, by the way, is some of the worst dialogue in Star Wars, and that’s saying a lot.  Thankfully, none of this made the cut.  Anyway, when Luke heads off to his X-Wing, he is seen putting a black glove on his damaged hand.  Damaged, we might add, by Taym Dren Garen, who has now rocketed to the top of our Sail Barge Combatant Missing in Action Figure list.  Then he climbs the ladder to the cockpit, and then pushes it away.  In an early script of ROTJ, Luke lands on Dagobah, and then is forced to spend the rest of his life in the cockpit when he realized he can’t get down.  Also, I wonder if one of the reasons for cutting the scene was that there was no explanation for how R2 got into the droid socket.  We can chalk that up to his leg jets, I guess.  Of course, Luke was basically a full fledged Jedi at this point, so he probably could have just levitated R2 in place, and could have easily jumped himself in and out of the cockpit. 

We recently reviewed BD1 Han Solo, and many of those same flaws apply to this figure.  The joints are poorly hidden and negatively impact the aesthetic.  The waist is strangely narrow, the face is of dubious accuracy, and the belt is a bit awkward.  The accessories are what makes this figure worthwhile. The shawl and goggles cover up many of the flaws, and the figure works well enough in a sandstorm scene.  If you remove those accessories, and attempt to use the figure as a Jedi Luke, you’ll be sorely disappointed.  Interestingly, Hasbro didn’t bother giving Luke his Jedi shmata vest, which he was wearing through the first couple of acts of the film. And he’s wearing the glove, so technically the figure, with the sandstorm accessories, is only good for the few seconds after he put the glove on, before he entered the X-Wing.  You wonder why Luke just didn’t put it on earlier, like when they were cruising on the skiff after the battle.  Whatever.  He’s wearing his DS2 outfit underneath the accessories, so it’s a somewhat major anachronism.

Bottom line, this figure is cool for the sandstorm stuff and for joining the other figures from the scene, but it serves no other purpose in your Tatooine scenes.  Like Sandstorm Han Solo, this figure gets a 6 for the accessories, but is otherwise obsolete.

Credit:  Carded sample provided by Randy S

Build-A-Droid 

Luke Skywalker (First Release) contains the right leg for the astromech R4-D6, which could be seen rolling in the background of the Yavin Hangar while Luke and Han had their snippy farewell. Source:  A New Hope.

OR

Luke Skywalker (Carry Forward 1) contains the head ad third leg for the astromech R5-A2.  This droid can be spotted rolling through Mos Eisley around the time Luke and Obi-Wan are stopped by the sandtrooper checkpoint, but don’t find the droids they are looking for. Source:  A New Hope.

Verdict: No Action. 

Like the Sandstorm BD1 Han Solo, this figure serves an acceptable purpose as (deleted) scene specific look for Luke.  If you keep the accessories on, he works fine enough standing with the other sandstorm figures.  However, Hasbro has developed a definitive DS2 Luke Skywalker with VC23 from The Vintage Collection.  That one has rendered this base figure obsolete.  If Hasbro wanted to develop more variations of ROTJ Luke, they would start with the VC23 mold and go from there.  This figure need not be revisited, but if you’re looking to complete the sandstorm scene, it’s worth picking up.

Verdict Guide:
Re-sculpt = The figure is not definitive, and a new version should be developed.
Re-issue = This version is definitive (or close enough), and shows sufficient secondary market demand to warrant a straight repack.
No Action = This release does not require new attention.