Several of my Haslab Gunships arrived today, and all of them arrived in nearly pristine shipping boxes, so it’s a good day.  I’ve anticipated their arrival and was able to get a bunch of photography done of figures from the current waves, but then I ran out of steam as far as writing their corresponding reviews.  I happen to have a particularly heavy load at work this week and next, so I wasn’t balancing things too well.  Not only that, the Giants season ended last week when they lost their QB for the year.  But that’s okay, because “Knicks in 5” will cover such wounds for many years to come.

Anyway, in the interest of expediency, I decided this Anakin was a good candidate for an easy review to churn out.  In fact, I was going to simply write the following:

This figure is stupid.  0/10.

I felt that “stupid” wasn’t the right word, but the word I had in mind isn’t socially acceptable anymore, so it didn’t quite have the punch I wanted.  And as I’m contractually obligated to write reviews that are more than 5 words, I decided to elaborate.  Just a little.

Back in 1984, Kenner didn’t possess the technology to make a figure that looked like a Jedi Spirit.  So they just made a regular figure of Anakin as a Force Ghost.  Kenner also didn’t have the technology to make up a nice filmout for the cardback either.  I have no idea why they didn’t just use a frame from the film, I guess I assume the quality was terrible and you couldn’t make out the character beyond a glowing blue mess. The cardback image for the POTF figure had a sort of ghostly blue fog around what was some kind of hand-drawn version of Sebastian Shaw.  It’s pretty awful.  But it was 1984, so it was what it was.  We were idiots, and we didn’t know any better.

Then in 1999, after the line relaunched and Episode I was upon us, Hasbro created a sub line of POTF2 figures called “Flashback”, which contained a pack-in gimmick that was a small image within a plastic frame that you could “flip” between the character’s appearance in the OT and his/her appearance in TPM.  Characters such as C-3PO, Aunt Beru, and Anakin Skywalker were selected for this run.  With that, Hasbro decided to revisit the Kenner POTF Anakin, which included the pack-in that flipped between ROTJ Force Ghost Anakin and a young TPM Anakin from Tatooine.  Hasbro opted to update the sculpt to then-modern standards, but still make the figure resemble a non-ghost version - even though they did already release Force Ghost figures that Kenner could not engineer - including the original mold the flashback figure was based on. 

And now, here we are in 2026, and Hasbro has once again opted to recreate Kenner mistakes/shortcomings by bringing us another sculpting update to the non-ghost Sebastian Shaw figure.  I have long begged Hasbro to stop doubling down on Kenner errors.  We should have these corrected, not immortalized.  There are enough mistakes made in the modern line without generating them on purpose.  Shaw never appeared in corporeal form.  Kenner couldn’t figure it out.  Hasbro knew better in 1999, but they did what they did at a time when there were more figures available than we knew what to do with.  In 2026, resources are too precious to waste on such nonsense.  Clearly, this is an attempt to reuse the Shaw tooling that debuted in the recent Jedi Spirits pack.  I understand that Habro is trying to recoup tooling costs by re-issuing/re-tooling/re-painting figures.  They could probably have made several human backgrounder Jedi for the Battle of Geonosis halo, rather than do this. And to add insult to injury, they reproduced that horrifically awful cardback from the POTF days. 

Now, I understand that the dwindling collector base is in trouble.  And this is an attempt by Hasbro to fulfill the “dream” of updating all the Kenner figures.  This is a very specific and narrow focus of which I do not participate, but I would guess that this ain’t it.  This shouldn’t be on an ROTJ card, and so it probably misses that mark.  But even then, I still don’t understand why we need to recreate nonsense, rather than update to proper modern standard.  Otherwise we might as well just do the Retro line, and call it a day.  The recent VC362 Hammerhead figure illustrates my point.  Collectors were up in arms because the dimensions of the card were deluxe rather than mainline.  But nobody seemed to have a problem with the figure being a modern version of Momaw Nadon, rather than the blue pajama wearing version that was later released in the Creature Cantina pack (which is another set I disliked).  Do collectors want a truly updated version of the Kenner figure, or do they want this type of carrying forward of mistakes?

I guess I just don’t get it.  And that makes it even less interesting to me.

Now, I will offer this:  If Hasbro wants to do kitsch, then they should stick to convention exclusives, or some other narrow expression.  I said as much regarding the recent Anakin/Ventress pack.  While I don’t like the cartoon deco, I’m okay with it being a convention exclusive.  This Anakin “ghost” figure is part of the regular main line, which can probably found at brick and mortar.  That’s just a horrible call.  If you want to party like it’s 1999 (or 1984) than this is for you.  But if you want the line to move the line forward with whatever meager resources it has at its disposal, then screw this guy.  And screw the “Kenner” X-Wing while we’re at it.  It’s all garbage.

I am not for the mawkish, and I have no truck for the sentimental. If something is true, it’s not sentimental. And I say in truth, this figure is beyond stupid.  - Norm MacDonald.