Figures That Make Me Happy:  Luke Skywalker (Ceremonial Outfit)

Preface: Sorry that this entry is coming one business day late. On Thursday I experienced something hugely upsetting within the context of being a collector, so much so that it was actually an existential threat to my continuation in the hobby. I was in no mood to sit down and write an entry for last Friday. A third party, who has now completely lost my trust, currently has over a thousand dollars worth of my collectibles. I'm appalled over what happened, but I don't want to document it yet, lest I agitate this third party before some of my most cherished possessions are back in my hands. Once returned, I will provide a full accounting of what happened. For now, lets get on to happier things.





So far I've been featuring figures that can still integrate in displays populated with modern figures. For the first time, I'm highlighting a figure that is thoroughly obsolete, but I'm projecting back to how I felt when I acquired it. I guess this one is technically a figure that made me happy (although the fact that it cracked the line up still makes me happy). This won't be the last such figure featured in this series. It would be easy for me to say that I'm so enamored with the 1997 POTF2 Luke Skywalker (Ceremonial Outfit) because it was the first new Luke since the Kenner days, but that's far from the truth.

The very first year of POTF2 featured a never-before-made Luke Skywalker. Though 1995's pilot Luke Skywalker is subtitled "X-Wing Fighter Gear", that designation is inaccurate. That sculpt was actually the very first Snowspeeder Luke in history. Then in 1996, we got the first ever Dagobah Luke. So by the time 1997 rolled around, new Lukes weren't new. We had already had two, but those two were really wardrobe variants of existing figures. 1995's Snowspeeder Luke is a spin on the X-Wing Luke, and 1996's Dagobah Luke is a Bespin Luke minus the jacket. The POTF2 Ceremonial Luke was the first entirely new Luke costume in the lineup since 1985's Stormtrooper Luke. That was a pretty big deal to me, and the callout on the bubble was exquisite marketing to drive home the point:


I know that callout is a bit confusing, but I firmly believe it was in reference to the costume and not the portrait. Here's the thing about Yavin Luke: I never really thought about it as a kid. So many of these entries have been about figures that I wished were in the vintage Kenner line as it was going on, but Yavin Luke never really crossed my mind as a want. The ceremony at the end of A New Hope was really an epilogue to the action. It wasn't something I thought about recreating with my action figures when I was a wee lad. But when this figure came out in 1997, I didn't know I was waiting for it my whole life.

As a postscript, the Star Wars Holiday Special was completely out of my mind as a kid. I didn't give it a second though until years later. Had I been more conscious of that effort back in the day, perhaps I would have wanted a Yavin Luke to serve as a Faithful Wookiee Luke.

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