BIGGS DARKLIGHTER Tosche Station
30th Anniversary Collection Basic Figures
Item No.: Asst. 87500 No. 87276
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: #3017
Includes: Cape, coin, blaster
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $6.99
Availability: Spring 2007
Appearances: n/a

Bio: Biggs and Luke aspire to enter the Imperial Space Academy together, but only Biggs realizes his dream. At the academy, Biggs discovers the cruelty and oppression of the Empire and decides to join the Rebellion, confiding his secret to Luke during a trip home. (Taken from the figure's cardback.)

Image: Adam Pawlus' TV tray.

Commentary: Very few characters hold the legendary status of Biggs Darklighter. Kids who read the original Star Wars storybook knew who he was, as did those who checked out the radio dramas, comic books, novelization, or some of the other retellings of the original movie. As such, there was a legend of people who actually saw footage of the character, who had been completely deleted from the film in this costume and almost excised all together save for a couple of lines during the Death Star run. And now, 30 years after George Lucas deemed him unnecessary in the film's story, the world has access to their very own Academy-costumed Biggs Darklighter action figure. On one hand, this is intensely exciting-- people have been customizing their own Biggs figures for years, and he's been on the wish list of many a collector since the modern relaunch due to him being a very well known character despite his status. After all, you aren't a hardcore Star Wars fan if you aren't aware of the significance of the Biggs scenes, and I daresay the saga couldn't be more than a passing fancy to you if you don't bother to go research these deleted scenes after hearing about them, especially in the digital age. Anyway, enough of that-- so how did the figure turn out?

About as well as one should expect. Hasbro didn't go all-out here. The figure has very basic legs, only articulated at the hips. Aside from that, they did a fine job sculpting the figure. The jacket is a separate piece, the arms have ball jointed shoulders and elbows plus standard wrists, he's got a ball jointed head, and there's a torso joint. It's about as good as one should hope for, given the limited-yet-wide appeal of the figure. It's very much a figure aimed squarely at older fans, but that doesn't mean kids won't enjoy having a figure of Luke's best friend. I mean, Darth Vader has a whole squad of troopers, ships, droids, and more-- and what does Luke have? An X-wing? This is a start. The one area the figure falls a little flat is in the deco, specifically, the deco Hasbro didn't intend this figure to have. For whatever reason it appears that the black cape has a habit of staining the figure with a shadowy blue color where the cape touched the figure in the packaging process. I don't know how or if it will effect the toy in the long term, but it seems that when the figure was cooling after being assembled and painted that the cape certainly caused some problems. If you have the figure standing around with his cape on, you might not even notice the discoloration due to it being (wait for it) covered by the cape. Aside from this, the figure's paint is definitely decent. The face is painted well enough (he has the ol' cookie duster, after all) and his jacket seems to have all the right markings. Hasbro could have gone the extra mile to work in some added texture and detail into the pants like they've done on some other recent figures, but Biggs doesn't exactly command that kind of attention to unnecessary detail like another figure might. (Say, any of the Cantina aliens.) The figure can sit, he has a working holster, he looks good, and he has his cape-- except for the discoloration issues, the figure is pretty much everything you could've hoped for, and if you waited 30 years for it, he's certainly worth snagging even though he isn't quite perfect.

Collector's Notes: This figure seemed to come and go in a hurry, so unless Hasbro surprises us by putting more into rotation it's a safe bet we've seen the end of him. There could always be new versions of the figure, though-- Hasbro did a 12-inch figure of Biggs in his pilot gear and two unique versions of him in his pilot gear for the 3 3/4-inch line. There has also been at least two Action Fleet Biggs figures from Galoob.

Day 612: January 8, 2008