Hasbro Star Wars Luke Skywalker 100th Figure

-


At the heart of the original Star Wars trilogy, amidst the epic battles between the evil Galactic Empire and Rebel Alliance, is the journey Luke Skywalker makes from his humble Tatooine farm boy roots to hero of the Alliance and, more importantly, to becoming a Jedi Knight. In classic mythological and storytelling terms, Luke's role is that of the Hero on a Noble Quest, propelled into action by a captive Princess' call for help, helped along by a wise mentor and a motley crew of friends, and, along the way, confront and ultimately redeem his father, the fallen Jedi-turned-Sith Lord Darth Vader.

Knowing all this, I thought it was quite proper that Hasbro chose Luke Skywalker as its 100th 12-inch scale Action Collection figure. Yes, Han Solo is the more contemporary character in the Classic Trilogy, getting some of the best lines -- and the Princess' heart -- in the films A New Hope, The Empire Strikes Back, and Return of the Jedi, but just as the current prequels are Anakin Skywalker/Darth Vader's story, the Classic Trilogy is Luke's.

Even though I am a big fan of the Star Wars franchise, I made a conscious decision early on to limit my Star Wars collection to the 3.75-inch "action figures" and their accessories for both financial and space limitations. With figures selling (back in 1978) at $1.99 and basic vehicles selling for $15.00 (the Millennium Falcon vehicle set me back the then-exorbitant amount of $29.99), I knew I had to avoid being a completist as far as collecting went. Thus I didn't go for buying the larger 12-inch action figures until very recently.

As I might have mentioned in my review of the Hasbro Power of the Jedi Sith Lords 2-pack, my large-size action figure (a term invented by Hasbro way back in the early 1960s as a marketing tool to sell the original GI Joe; it was coined because no self-respecting male child would be caught dead playing with dolls!) collection is very small compared to my 200 or so 3.75-inch figures from all the Kenner/Hasbro lines starting from 1978 to the present. In addition to the Darth Vader and Darth Maul Sith Lords, I also own Princess Leia in Ceremonial Gown, Anakin Skywalker (as seen in the very end of the original version of Return of the Jedi), and Luke Skywalker (as seen in A New Hope.)

Hasbro, knowing full well who its main audience is, made this "commemorative figure" incredibly difficult to resist. (Maybe the marketing division found a Jedi Holocron and learned how to use the mind trick?) The package is very attractive, sporting the blacks, greens, and gold of its 2000-2002 Power of the Jedi line and offering a wonderfully sculpted likeness of Luke Skywalker wearing his Tatooine moisture farmer outfit -- complete with poncho and boots -- and grasping a long barreled blaster rifle. That in itself is impressive and would have pleased most collectors.

But, as so many TV sales pitches would put it, "wait, there's more!" Not only does young Skywalker come with his basic outfit and the long laser rifle that failed to survive that run-in with a Tusken Raider's gaffi stick, but also he is literally surrounded by all kinds of accessories:

Binoculars
Lightsaber
Medallion
Hand-held blaster
Blast shield helmet
Training remote with stand
Imperial blaster
Stormtrooper Comlink
Goggles
Grappling hook/cord
Desert hat (from scenes filmed for A New Hope but deleted, you can see the outfit on the publicity shot on the back cover of the package)
Stormtrooper belt
X-wing outfit
Flight helmet
Data cylinders
Life support unit
Flares
Gear harness
Flak vest
Flight boots

All of the extras are authentically detailed, down to the weathered scuff marks on Luke's Rebel-issue X-wing flight helmet, remaining true to the Star Wars movies' trademark "worn and used" look that was so atypical of science fiction films, in which most ships looked scrubbed clean and futuristic.

Hasbro recommends this toy for children ages 4 and up. There are plenty of small parts that could pose a choking hazard, so it's not safe for children under 3. However, given the price of this figure ($50.00 when it first appeared in toy stores in 2000) and the unique "commemorative figure" status -- not to mention its value as a collectible -- I really think this action figure is best appreciated by older kids or adult collectors who like to show off their figures as neat displayable conversation pieces.




Recommended: Yes

Amount Paid (US$): 50.00
Type of Toy: Action Figure
Age Range of Child: Kids to Teens

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

How many movies have been made based on Stephen King's 'It'?

-
Image
How many movies have been made based on Stephen King's It ? It  has been adapted twice for filmed audio-visual media. The first filmed version of  It was a TV limited series; the second was a duology of theatrically-released movies.  The first adaptation of Stephen King’s 1986 doorstop of a novel was a 1990 adaptation made as a two-part ABC miniseries for television. Among the cast members: Tim Reid, Harry Anderson, Annette O’Toole, John Ritter, and Richard Thomas. The miniseries also featured Tim Curry as the evil Pennywise the Clown. Adapted for television by director Tommy Lee Wallace and Lawrence D. Cohen (who also adapted King’s  Carrie  for director Brian De Palma in 1976),  It  was okay but a watered-down take on the scary novel about a group of friends who must face off against a monstrous entity known as “It” twice. Once as kids in 1960, then again as adults in 1990. (Like  11,22.63,  the TV version of It avoids the year ...
Read more

Talking About 'Band of Brothers' (HBO Miniseries): Why were there no black soldiers in the Band of Brothers TV miniseries?

-
Image
Band of Brothers,  sadly, reflects one of the sad realities of American society in the 1940s - racial segregation in the armed forces. Although there  were  a few all-Negro (as blacks were referred to in those days) units in the U.S. Army and the Army Air Forces that served with distinction in the European Theater of Operations, most black servicemen were assigned to non-combat units in Supply of Services and other support forces. Most of these soldiers were truck drivers, anti-aircraft gunners, barrage balloon handlers, engineers, stevedores, clerks, cooks, corpsmen, and so on. Only late in the war (fall of 1944 and winter/spring 1945) did large numbers of black infantrymen see combat against German forces, and even then they served in all-black units commanded by white officers. © 2001 Home Box Office, Dreamworks SKG, and Play-Tone Pictures The 101st Airborne Division was an all-American unit made up of individuals from many different groups - Easy Company’...
Read more

'The Boy in Striped Pajamas' movie review

-
Image
(C) 2008 Miramax, Heyday Films, BBC Films Writer-director Mark Herman’s 2008 film “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” is a faithful but (necessarily) condensed adaptation of John Boyne’s 2007 novel about a German boy, Bruno (Asa Butterfield), who befriends Shmuel (Jack Scanlon), an eight-year-old inmate in a Nazi concentration camp during World War II.  Like Boyne’s novel, the film is not a definitive history of the Holocaust. It’s not as graphic or historically accurate as Steven Spielberg’s 1993 classic “Schindler’s List,” nor was it intended to be. (Indeed, Herman says in the behind-the-scenes featurette “Friendship Beyond the Fence” that he doesn’t consider “The Boy in the Striped Pajamas” to be a “Holocaust film.”) Set in the early 1940s at the height of Nazi Germany’s power, the film follows Bruno on a journey that takes him and his family from Berlin to German-occupied Poland. His father Ralf (David Thewlis) is a newly-promoted SS officer with a new posting: commandant...
Read more