LUKE SKYWALKER Throne Room Duel
Saga Collection 1
Item No.: Asst. 84851 No. 84977
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: #0317
Includes: Lightsaber, Death Star base
Action Feature: Push button for slashing action
Retail: $5.99
Availability: Summer 2003
Appearances: Return of the Jedi

Image: Adam Pawlus' table.

Bio: Captured and taken to the second Death Star, Luke is manipulated by the Emperor into a lightsaber duel with his own father, Darth Vader. The two battle fiercely with their lightsabers, but then Luke chooses to yield the fight rather than destroy his father. Enraged, the Emperor turns to eliminate the young Jedi, and with him the galaxy's last hope. (Taken from the figure's cardback.)

Commentary: There's no shortage of Luke Skywalker figures, and interestingly, there's also no shortage of bad ones. Every few years, Hasbro cranks out a real lemon like this one, designed entirely around his action feature. It almost doesn't matter if the figure has a good sculpt or not, because the odd hunchback pose makes it useless for any use other than as a "push the button and fight" action. The figure's head sculpt is so awful that it barely qualifies as He-Man. This particular Luke was released roughly around the time of the He-Man relaunch, so naturally, that got thrown around a little by fans as a nickname for this extremely angry and barbaric looking version of our Jedi hero. The costume, aside from a glove variant (see below) was fairly authentic. Heck, Luke even had elbow joints, which is nice. The problem is that you simply cannot get past the face and unusual pose. All the engineering and gimmicks in the world can't make up for ugly, and this figure has ugly in excess.

Collector's Notes: In 2003, this figure was released in two significant versions. The first (shown here) has the glove on the wrong hand-- Luke got his right hand chopped off, and this figure has the glove on the left hand. Later releases in 2003 had the corrected hand, as did the 2005 release in the Rebellion vs. Empire Battle Pack. It's worth noting the Battle Pack release lacked the nifty slash-away base. The figure is notable for being one of very few Luke figures based on the end-of-the-movie costume from the Death Star where the outfit is fairly-- but not totally-- authentic. Despite fans begging for an improved version of this figure for years (even before its release), Hasbro has yet to deliver.

--Adam Pawlus

Day 807: July 21, 2008