Editor’s Note:  This review has been updated with our second look at TVC…

Original Review:  Bret - 6/25/10 04:36 PM

No ankle joints and, in an effort to capture the appearance of snow pants, they made Carrie Fisher a tad thick in the thighs.  There, the negatives are out of the way.  Now we can get to the positives.  As has been the pattern with the early results of the Vintage Collection, Hasbro nailed another figure.  Nice crisp details in the pain apps.  Plenty of details captured in the sculpt itself, and aside from a lack of ankles, all the articulation you need. Articulation is nicely tucked away into the sculpt so that it does detract from the aesthetic.  You need at least two of these. One for your Hoth display and you’re going to want one for the cockpit of your BMF once Hasbro gives us that perfect Han Bespin next year.  Because of the aforementioned thickness, I hope Hasbro comes up with a new mold for a future Bespin Escape Leia.

Updated Review

Here’s our second pass, as we take a more modern look at TVC.  WARNING:  This figure is not meant to interact with the Sail Barge.

This is an excellent figure, although in 2018 there is some room for improvement.  The complaints stated above remain, and are exacerbated today.  Almost every premium figure should have ball jointed ankles.  Without them, posability is severely restricted.  The hips are swivel, rather than ball-jointed, so movement could be improved there, as well.  However, given the petite nature of the figure, it may be best to keep the swivel hips, as the alternative would create an obvious and unsightly diaper-effect.  The figure has a too-wide natural stance, and could do with a bit of a narrower look.  Leia’s right hand is a little too small to properly grip the pistol.  She does have a floating index finger, but it doesn’t reach the trigger.  Speaking of hands, it would also be cool if there were an additional set of hands included, so that Leia has gloved and bare hands.  As for accessories, only the blaster is included.  Another accessory, such as an asteroid gas mask, would be nice. 

This Leia works in many dioramas.  Throughout Hoth, on the Falcon, and even landing at Bespin.  Hasbro needs to nail this completely.  It’s an important version of Leia.  Updated articulation, swappable hands, and a gas mask would make this a definitive Leia, so long as the rest of it is as excellent at the 2010 version.  As a bonus, how about a swappable head with differently braided hair?  This would allow the figure to pass as a Bespin Escape Leia (of course the boots would be wrong).  That would be the ultimate Hoth Leia figure.

This figure does command a decent premium on the secondary market.  It would be worth an updated sculpt at some point, although I would put it at a low priority.  This version, admittedly, is still pretty good, and there are so many more figures that need to be made in TVC.

Updated Review (For PhotoReal release): Bret - 6/12/19 07:05 AM

Here is the third review of four figures that Hasbro is re-issuing in TVC with the addition of PhotoReal technology.  We discussed that the VC03 Han Solo was a dubious candidate for PhotoReal, since it wasn’t a prominent version of the character and it already had a pretty decent face.  For VC23 Luke Skywalker, the figure was a great choice, but perhaps the underlying face sculpt wasn’t a good enough rendition of Mark Hamill for the new face paint to shine.  With Leia, I have other concerns.  I think the original release is already a very good figure but had some serious flaws.  This new release seems to correct one of the two major flaws, while the PhotoReal result is questionable.

One of the key problems with the figure was that the outfit was painted in such a way as to make it look way too dirty.  The outfit on screen was white/off-white, and really didn’t seem to be dirty in any way.  The original figure has a dirty wash over the entire outfit, which makes it look out of place.  With this re-release, Hasbro seems to have taken some steps to improve the situation.  It definitely looks cleaner, although Leia should probably have used more bleach in the wash.  That’s a good first step. 

As for the face, I never had a problem with the original, and in fact, I liked it a lot.  While it didn’t look like a miniature Carrie Fisher, it was definitely a strikingly pretty looking face.  The lips may have been overly red, but the paint application was fairly precise, and I believe the result was very satisfying.  Photoreal, in this case, didn’t seem to make that much of an improvement.  Depending on the angle (and distance) at which you look at the figure, it could possibly have a reasonable resemblance to Carrie Fisher, and that’s pretty impressive, but I also believe that the expression is sad now, whereas before it was sharp and alert, with an intensity that was fitting for Leia.  It’s a coin flip based on collector preference.

While these updates were average to above average on the paint front, the figure suffered from a second serious flaw that could not be masked by updated paint applications.  This figure was in desperate need of ankle articulation.  Sadly, it was not a definitive figure, and we now have a marginally incremental improvement, which again puts collectors in a position of asking, “To buy, or not to buy.”  I would say that VC111 Princess Leia (Bespin Outfit) was a definitive figure, and perhaps could have been a better choice for the “upgrade” to Photoreal.  Hasbro opted for two Hoth versions of Han and Leia, and it makes some sense, although Han never appeared in a scene with Leia wearing the exact open coat look that is represented in the figure.  Since I proposed that the near-definitive VC50 Han Solo (Bespin Outfit) was a better candidate for the Photoreal update, it would then make more sense to have teamed him up with Bespin Outfit Leia.

As for the single accessory, the blaster appears, upon close inspection, to be a slightly different sculpt.  It’s barely noticeable, but there’s a ridge on the barrel that is shorter in length this time around, and the detailing on the sides of the blaster are definitely different.  I do not believe this is an issue of the tooling being worn out, or anything.  I think it is actually a new sculpt.  Perhaps the original tooling was lost, because I can’t see a reason for this being made new.  I would wonder what that may have done to the costing of this figure. I wonder if the cost of re-making the blaster ruined the chances for ball jointed ankles.  These are the things that keep me up at night.

And a note about the cardback.  As with the other two figures we’ve reviewed so far, the bubble tray is larger and takes up a bit more room on the card, which reduces the visibility of the image.  It’s much less offensive than it is for the Han cardback, which actually has the new bubble infringing on Han’s head.  The larger tray has a new layout, with the blaster now floating towards the top instead of being in Leia’s left hand.  Again, the name pill is changed for some reason.  Instead of the original “Leia (Hoth Outfit)”, it is now “Princess Leia Organa (Hoth).”  And as with both the other figures, I’m not sure why the effort was made to do these things.

I gave the figure an 8 during our retrospective.  I deducted points for the dirty uniform and the lack of articulation.  While I might feel the paint is a very slight upgrade overall, at this point in 2019, Hasbro should have known that this figure deserved a full re-sculpt.  And if it got that treatment, it would have been a home run because a Bespin Escape Leia would be a few tweaks away.  I’m leaving this at the 8/10.  It’s still a very good figure, but Hasbro should do better.