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

Original Review:  Chris - 02/19/2011 01:44 AM

It’s a repack, but the original offering was pretty strong.  This time a Jedi robe is added and extra paint apps are added to bring out the detail.  The mold of the arms limits the range of motion which is the only fault.  9 out of 10.

Updated Review:  Chris - 06/19/2018 07:05 AM

Well, what a difference a decade makes.  When this figure was first released in the Legacy Collection minus the robe and the extra paint application to the inner tunic, it was pretty special.  It featured one of the first applications of ball jointed hips on a basic line figure.  Now that ball jointed hips are the norm, this figure raises the action figure existential question:  what good is articulation if it can’t be meaningfully engaged?  That’s admittedly harsh.  You can manage some dynamic poses with this figure, but it’s not easy to work with.  The hips operate as if they have two “stops”.  One is a narrow neutral pose and the other is rotated out fairly far out from the body.  Trying to pose the figure in something other than one of those two extremes is challenging, because any pressure on the leg will cause it to revert to the closest of those two “stops.”  This is also an example of a figure that would greatly benefit from the upper thigh swivel.  The hips effectively rotate on a semicircle.  A thigh swivel would allow the lower leg to compensate for that rotation.  As this figure lacks that point of articulation, the most dynamic poses look unnatural. 

Time also hasn’t been kind to the upper body.  The flared upper tabbard impedes the rotation of the shoulders toward the figure’s mid-line.  This actually might be an evergreen issue due to the aesthetic of the Jedi costume and not an age issue.  I’m not sure it would be solved today.  The standard swivel wrists are also a noticeable negative on a Jedi figure in the current landscape.  This is exacerbated by the fact that the grip of the hands has been sculpted in an angle.  This means the two handed weapon grip poses are preordained.  In some poses, the angle of the hand grips become opposing (i.e. forming a “V”) making a two handed grip impossible.  Ball jointed wrists would solve this issue today, but there is another hurdle.  The hands are attached directly to the end of the flared sleeve.  That type of sculpting would impeded the ball jointed wrist unless the end of the forearm were sculpted to protrude form the tunic sleeve.  This figure can achieve some decent poses, but it can’t achieve all the ones you might want. 

This figure would benefit from a round of modern articulation that we’ve become accustomed to in our Jedi figures, but the priority is so low that it can’t be measured by modern science.  I can’t see Hasbro ever revisiting an Episode II Obi-Wan.  If they did update this figure before getting a definitive Episode IV Obi-Wan, I might go mental.

Updated Review#2:  Bret - 08/16/2022 07:05 AM

2022 release: $13.99

Thankfully, Chris can probably be saved from going mental due to a technicality.  Sure, this is an update, and it came before a definitive Episode IV Obi-Wan, but the only meaningful update is a slightly better face due to PhotoReal.  The figure sculpt is unchanged, and none of the negatives that Chris pointed out in his previous review were addressed.  In fact, the figure still lacks an unlit hilt, even though it has a peg hole in the belt.  As Chris stated, this was released originally in the Legacy Collection, so the years haven’t been kind to this major character in his iconic outfit from AOTC.

The standard male human Jedi buck is in desperate need of an update.  Hasbro has re-released (with PhotoReal) this Obi-Wan as well as VC35 Mace Windu.  Both figures are decent, but lack what we expect out of Hasbro in 2022.  It’s not a bad looking figure, and given its age, it’s still okay for display. 

As I mentioned in yesterday’s VC102 Ahsoka review, the bar has been raised significantly over the past 2 years.  It’s hard to give these decade-old figures solid grades unless they are backgrounders.  It’s difficult to accept the release of a main character like this in a sculpt that dates back to 2009.  While I kept Ahsoka at a 7, I feel compelled to reduce this grade from a 7 to a 6.  This Obi-Wan isn’t a terrible figure by any stretch, but it can, (and must!), be much better.