Credit:  Carded sample provided by Randy S.

The final scene of The Empire Strikes Back features the main heroes having joined the Alliance Fleet.  The cast is altered slightly as we have Lando joining in place of the captured and frozen Han.  He and Chewie depart in the Falcon to bring back Han, while Luke is on board a medical frigate receiving his prosthetic hand from 2-1B and FX-7.  Leia looks on in silence as the operation is completed and she is joined by Luke as they stare out the window at a view of the spiral of the galaxy. 

In the scene, Leia is wearing a simple white gown which is reminiscent of her iconic outfit in A New Hope.  Hasbro opted to reuse the VOTC Princess Leia figure, with two major differences.  Most importantly, this figure has a new head sculpt, to reflect her unique hairstyle. Hasbro also gave Leia new arms.  This improves the figure as they have ball jointed elbows, instead of swivel.  The forearms also have less fabric sculpted into them, so there is a much less pronounced draping effect when posed horizontal to the ground.  This eliminates the “wing effect” when the arms are posed at rest by her sides.  The rest of the articulation is baseline superarticulation, with a key area missing:  no ankles.  This is too bad, because it would have potentially put this figure in the conversation of definitive.  As it is, you may struggle to get the figure to stand, and of course much of the lower body articulation potential is lost because of the lack of ankles.

The face sculpt is very pretty, although it isn’t exactly a ringer for Carrie Fisher.  The “makeup”, especially on the cheeks, is a little heavy.  The head itself also suffers a bit from “big-headedness.” The soft goods skirt is executed fairly well.  Leia comes with a single accessory, a Stormtrooper E-11 blaster.  She of course never carried a weapon while in this outfit, but maybe she kept the one from her Bespin escape as a trophy and posed with it in the mirror when she was alone in her quarters.  It is worth noting that she looks great performing an outstanding THWG (two handed weapon grip).  There’s really no logical accessory to include with this figure, except perhaps some environmental piece from the medical bay.

It’s a good figure for the brief scene, but ankles, PhotoReal, and a computer terminal or other accessory would make this figure outstanding.  As it is, it’s a 2004 sculpt, so maybe it’s time for an upgrade.  Perhaps a medical frigate window / patient chair with a new Leia and Luke?  Maybe not the most exciting piece, but it could look cool.  This figure gets a pedestrian 6, but it is the best (and only) figure of Leia in this scene, so consider purchasing,

Build-A-Droid 

Princess Leia contains the right leg for U-3PO, who was on board the Tantive IV as it was attacked by Darth Vader’s Star Destroyer.  Source:  A New Hope.