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What’s up, everywookie! It’s DrunkWooky back with another action figure review! Today, I’m taking a look at the Wal Mart Exclusive Star Wars Black Series Luke Skywalker (Jedi Knight) Figure. As of the time of this writing, this figure was no longer listed on Walmart.com, but you can pick one up on the aftermarket. He retailed, if you could find him, for around $21.99. I ordered mine on Walmart.com and picked it up at my friendly local store, which went smoothly.
Link to the dreaded aftermarket:
Packaging
If you’re used to Black Series figures, this is nothing new. Awesome Gregory Titus greyscale art on the bottom right of the window box. The one thing I will say is that Wal Mart shipped this in a simple, form-fitting bubble envelope without any additional protection. As a result, the back and sides are very dented in.
Sculpt
Hasbro has definitely improved their Black Series game since the original release of X-Wing pilot Luke back in the day. Here, we have an older, more stoic, Jedi knight Luke. To my eye, his face is sculpted to look pretty much exactly like Mark Hamill of the mid 80s. However, I wish his expression were doing something more interesting and dynamic. When posing him in action, it’s hard to sell the scene, because his face has that 1,000 yard stare thing going on. If we’re nit-picking, yes this is Luke from the Jabba’s palace sequence and not later in Return of the Jedi, so he is calm, controlled, and playing the situation as planned. But, still, I’d like some expression.
There’s really nothing to complain about in the sculpt of the body. An all-black, austere Jedi costume is tough to make interesting. The one downfall of the all-black is that the joints are more visible than other figures from the line.
Having said that, there’s nice variation between his patent leather boots, black pants, and slightly lighter grey vest. So, they did their best with a simple design. Each of Luke’s hands is sculpted to fit either the lightsaber or blaster very well. You can switch hands, but the trigger finger hand is definitely meant for the blaster. I’d be careful with the lightsaber. Forcing the hilt into his hand might result in breakage at the slim copper part just under the top of the hilt.
Comparing the SH Figuarts ROTJ Luke and Black Series Luke is probably not comparing apples to apples. SH Figuarts Luke is from the final throne room battle, and Black Series is from the Jabba’s Palace sequence. SH Luke is shorter in an almost unnoticeable way and slightly skinnier. Even at the higher price point of SH Figuarts, most of the joints on Luke are about as blatant as Black Series. So, I’m going to chalk this issue up to an all-black color palette.
Accessories
Luke comes with his green ROTJ lightsaber, blaster pistol, soft goods cape, and figure stand. As I always say, these figure stands are appreciated and I wish more were available with regular releases. They seem to only come with the exclusives.
The lightsaber hilt is a worthy representation of Luke’s saber and the blade is removable from the hilt. Again, be careful of the fragile skinny section when placing it in Luke’s hand. The sculpt provides all the necessary details which are augmented by a pretty impressive paint job. They managed to get black, silver, and copper on all the appropriate little details.
The blaster is that long-barreled model from the Jabba’s palace sequence and looks the part. There’s a simple, yet effective silver highlight paint job over the black cast with a well-applied brown grip.
I appreciate a soft goods cape above a plastic cape. It’s more versatile and can be posed far better even without a posing wire. This cape, for instance, does not have a posing wire. This cape is a little lightweight for my tastes and doesn’t draped over Luke quite like I wanted. There were some frayed stitching ends that were pretty clear in photos.
Paint App
Luke’s all-black get up really leaves us with his face and hair for judgment. Hasbro’s face-printing tech really does do an impressive job. This looks just like ROTJ Luke. However, again, he’s staring blankly into space. His eyes are centered, crisp and clear, but very distant. Like I said, it’s not “bad” in the sense that it’s incorrect or defective or doesn’t look like Luke. It’s just that, if I had my druthers, I’d get a different facial expression.
Articulation
Luke has a ball and swivel neck joint, a ball and swivel joint on each shoulder, single swivel elbow joints, wrist joints that swivel on a peg that rotates in the joint, a rotating waist joint, ball jointed hips, bisected, rotating thighs, double swivel kneed joint, and ball and swivel ankle joints.
Luke’s head has complete downward pivot to provide that pensive Jedi Knight look, full 360 degree rotation of the neck, and some fair tilt from side to side for expressiveness. He doesn’t look upwards very much at all because of his shaggy hair in the back. If anybody comes up with away that recurring problem, they deserve a raise and a promotion.
It bugs me that certain figures get a single elbow joint and others get a double in the same line. Hasbro does this in both Legends and Black Series. Luckily, Luke can pull of a full cross-body, two-handed saber hold, but I think his jedi acrobatics could have been greater with a double joint at the elbow.
There was no ab crunch I could detect without disassembling the figure and I somewhat ran out of time to do that. However, the ball hips, rotating thigh, double knees, and ankle joint provide all the normal Black Series range of motion of this day and age.
Price Point/Value
Luke comes with three accessories and a stand. I have nitpicks about the sculpt of the face not being terribly interesting and the loose joints. It’s pretty much on par with other Black Series figures, but not a knock out, stellar success above the rest. If you can find this figure at retail or on the aftermarket loose for close to retail, that price is dead on by my reckoning.
The only thing making this figure a $30, $40, $50 figure is scarcity, collectibility, and the fact that us Star Wars fans find it hard to deal with something existing that we can’t own and possess.
Link to the dreaded aftermarket:
Until next time, DrunkWooky out!
