Randomly tossed in with the AOTC-themed final wave of TLC (Blue), was this Anakin Skywalker concept figure based on artwork for Revenge of the Sith.  I would imagine that Lucas spent a lot of effort trying to determine the correct look for Anakin in Episode III.  He needed to have a darkness about him that would foreshadow his fall and transformation into Darth Vader, without being too on the nose.  That seems to be what was accomplished with the version of Anakin that made the final cut of the film.  This particular concept is very similar to Vader, just without the mask and all the mechanical and electronic accoutrements. 

The drawing looks like it captures Anakin after his fall.  He’s full on Goth, along with a cape.  He’s even got a red lightsaber, which of course we don’t see him use in ROTS.  The figure captures what might potentially have been the moments before he became more machine than man. 

The figure does a nice job of bringing the artwork to plastic form.  Anakin has full super-articulated (for the day), which gives him plenty of posing options.  One hindrance to the range of motion is the hard plastic cape.  It’s sculpted well and looks great, including the unusual shoulder/clasp area.  But it does reduce the movement of the hips.  Since the cape is removable, you can make use of all the possibility should you choose to display it that way.  Personally, since it’s just a concept figure, I have no problem with the cape being the way it is.  The figure looks pretty cool with it.  One small nitpick I have is the sculpting technique Hasbro used for the ball jointed knees.  The joints are completely hidden when in a neutral pose, but when engaged, they definitely look awkward.  Not a big deal for this type of non-film figure, though.

The sculpting of the clothing captures a lot of details and variations in the fabrics.  The paint isn’t just straight black, and the dark grays that are added throughout the figure help give it some great depth.  The headsculpt is interesting because it’s clearly meant to be Hayden Christiansen, but the drawing looks a lot more generic.  Obviously Hayden was already cast as Anakin long before this concept art was created, so it was always going to be Hayden.  It makes sense that Hasbro went in this direction, to make the figure more compatible with others from the ROTS film, but it would have been interesting to see Hasbro’s take on the face that was drawn in the concept art.

The figure comes with an unlit hilt that plugs into the hole on the belt.  It also comes with a fully lit saber.  Interestingly, the blade is blue (as it was in ROTS, even after Anakin’s fall.  Again, I think Hasbro took a practical liberty with that choice, opting against the red depicted in the artwork.  No real problem here, since it blends better with reality of the film.  I guess it would have been interesting to see the non-Hayden head along with the red lightsaber, but it still works well as Hasbro made it.

Solid figure, and a nice addition to the ever increasing pool of concept offerings from Hasbro.  Unless I’m forgetting something (which is entirely possible), I believe that the three lined up in the last image in the gallery are the only ones from Revenge of the Sith.  I thought about adding the Plo Koon with the double bladed gauntlet, but that accessory was the only thing carried forward from a concept drawing, on an otherwise film accurate figure.  Anyway, 8/10.  It gets a bonus point because it’s cool to remember a time when something like this was even possible.

Build-A-Droid 

Anakin Skywalker (Concept) contains the right arm for HK-47.  This murderous and snarky droid terrorized meatbags during the Old Republic Era.  Source:  Knights of the Old Republic.