Everyone loves a good battle pack.  If they contained new or new-ish figures, they were usually a hit.  If they contained recycled, repacked, or even inferior figures, probably not so much.  Battle Packs were a great way to build your Jedi/Clone armies back when that was a big thing to do.  Occasionally Hasbro would throw in a clunker, like they did back in 2005 with the horrible Rebel vs. Empire set, that repackaged 5 terrible old sculpts, including that nonsense Death Star Luke.  But we also got some real gems, like the Scramble on Yavin.  The line evolved over time, starting with 5 figures, then down to 3 or 4 and a large accessory or set piece, and then down to just 4 figures.  It’s typical of Hasbro to do this as time goes by. Evolutions started out as a big deal with 3 all new premium figures and a load of accessories that gave you several display options.  Eventually this was whittled down to 3 simple figures, often some or all being repaints/retools, and lacking meaningful accessories.  But I digress…

In 2008, we got one of the clunkers, a Legacy Collection (Blue) Training on the Falcon Battle Pack, which contained weak/repacked/repainted versions of Obi-Wan, Luke, C-3PO, and R2-D2.  Well, the droids weren’t so bad.  It wasn’t a great seller, and I actually feel like they hung around long enough in some cases where they were then lapped by this set.  Although it contained the same 4 characters, the figures in this set were significant upgrades over the Falcon pack.  This was a really good pack when it came out in the 2009 Legacy Collection (Red).  Most importantly, it contained a new farmboy Luke.

Tatooine Luke Skywalker figures are one of those things that sticks in collectors’ craws.  It’s one of the most iconic looks from the entire saga, and yet justice has not yet been done. Many of the figures have been downright terrible, but even the good ones fall very far short of the mark.  This figure is pretty much the best figure made so far of Luke, but it’s got plenty of issues.  First off, and maybe this is just my eyes playing games, but the coloring is all wrong here.  The robes appear more drab and gray than the dirty white that I think they should be.  Same for the pants and boot wraps.  They should be more of a tan/yellow than a gray.  But what do I know?  According to Ishihara, not much.  Anyway, the sculpt is decent, but not great.  It’s super-articulated, which was became the norm around this time, but is the first fully SA farmboy luke since the weird VOTC one that had a removable soft goods shirt.  The sculpting around the articulation, however, leaves a lot to be desired.  The ball jointed hips have a limited range of motion due to the plastic lower tunic, and they have a tendency cause the legs to be awkwardly tight together while at “rest.”  The elbow joints are quite chunky.  Even though we would define them as ball joints, the look like very angular hinges.  The face sculpt is actually pretty good, with a passable likeness to young Mark Hamill.  The hair, like the clothes, is colored too dark.  We know Luke to be blonde at this stage in his life, while this hair is a dark brown.  Luke comes with a fully lit saber, which is appropriate for this scene, in which he plays around with it for the first time.  He is unable to perform a meaningful THWG, not that he really knew what he was doing at the time, anyway.

Obi-Wan Kenobi is excellent, but it is a repack (with slight coloring variation) of the TLC (blue) BD34 Obi-Wan Kenobi.  The figure is very well sculpted, especially the face, which has a really great likeness to Alec Guinness.  The removable cloak is, as usual, a bit bulky, but still workable.  Underneath, we see Obi-Wan as he was when he was watching the hologram from Leia.  He can be posed in a variety of positions, although the soft goods skirt, lacking a split, is a bit limiting.  Still, this is superior to a plastic lower tunic.  The main issue with this figure is the right hand.  It is sculpted in a “Jedi wave”, and limits the ability of the figure to perform a THWG.  Although not necessary for the scene depicted in this battle pack, it really hurts the figure if you wanted to use it as a dueling Obi-Wan for a death star showdown with Vader.  In fact, it’s so upsetting, we even assigned value to the 5POA figure that was packed in the TLJ line.  This is devastating.  Even in the mind trick scene at Mos Eisley, Obi-Wan is using his left hand in an “A-OK” sign to gesture.  It’s just a miss for the figure.

As for the droids, R2-D2 is another nice figure,  It’s a repaint of a popular astromech mold from the ROTS sneak preview figure in 2005.  While current astromech molds have improved (notably, the BAD mold with the side holes filled in, as done for 2017’s TLJ’s R2-D2).  It’s still a solid figure, though, and is better than the VOTC mold which was re-used for the aforementioned Falcon BP.  C-3PO utilized what was probably the best mold available at the time, and what might be considered the best C-3PO mold still to this day.  The figure that originally debuted in the TAC line with the ball jointed knees was a huge advancement in C-3PO technology.  Since then, it was re-used many times over, including here in this set.  Hasbro opted for an odd paint job.  The figure is very shiny, which is perhaps appropriate since he was given an oil bath the evening before, but by the time he is seen in Obi-Wan’s home, he had gotten dirty again, mostly from falling down into the sand during the Tusken attack. C-3PO sports some strange black shmears on his body, which look more like he spent a day as a chimney sweep than he does after falling into some sand and dirt.  While it’s a good figure, I have not decided whether or not this better than the VC06 C-3PO.  That’s got a lot more articulation, and the sculpt is more detailed, but the random removable panels and the slightly animated look make it very hard to properly place that figure in a specific scene.  I tend to give the nod to the VC figure, but this one is still useful.

Finally, the set also includes a repack of the table accessory that came with the aforementioned BD34 Obi-Wan Kenobi.  However, the Leia hologram accessory is different.  The BD34 hologram was Leia standing straight up, as she was when she was recording her message.  A similar, but differently sculpted version of this hologram Leia first came with the POTF2 Commtech R2-D2.  That figure was awesome at the time, and is still okay, but has been rendered obsolete.  This set, however, comes with a Leia hologram that his hunched over, as she was when she was both starting and ending the recording.  The sculpt even has some horizontal lines etched into it, to simulate an imperfect recording.  The table itself is pretty great, and has some knicknacks on it, as well as a peg that supports the hologram.

So, Luke is good, but frustratingly far from perfect.  It’s the best farmboy Luke today, but we need a better one ASAP.  Obi-Wan is good, but frustratingly close to perfect.  If he had a new right hand, a saber hilt, and maybe some more modern Jedi-Level articulation (ball jointed wrists, waist, hips, etc.), he could be definitive.  C-3PO is good, and is only subjectively inferior to VC06.  R2-D2 was the best one offered at the time, but is surpassed by the BAD/no holes sculpt.  The table is a cool accessory, with an all new hologram of Leia.  Overall, it’s a very nice set, and still holds decent value for your displays today.