Hasbro
Released February 2004
Reviewed by Adam Pawlus
Photography by Michael Sullenger
Reviewed on April 14, 2004
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Finally, an action figure of Luke's first appearance from Return of the Jedi. Hasbro made a fairly wise decision to recolor the Jabba's Palace Luke to make Holographic Luke Skywalker, although it seemed to come out fairly quickly after. While that first Luke was all over the place in terms of quality, this one is even more erratic in terms of paint decoration, with some of the samples I've spotted thus far best being described as "unacceptable" and a few as "fantastic."

This figure is packaged with a base and lightsaber.

Sculpt/Articulation/Gimmicks/Paint

It's Luke, but he's transclucent, pearlescent, and even a little glittery.

When I first saw this figure I flashed back to a number of weird Eastern European bootleg figures from the vintage line that I used to see all the time. The paint on some samples is phenomenal, while on others, well, not.



While the eyes are pretty much the same as the regular figure, Holographic Luke's similarities pretty much end there. The light brown highlights in his hair probably should have been dropped, because on one of the samples I've seen they were applied fairly haphazardly, with light brown outlining his hairline in some cases. Why is there a light brown on his forehead, you might ask yourself. This unfortunate problem is that a lot of figures have this odd light brown highlight problem mucking up the face, but there are some really good samples out there too. The trick is to be able to examine a few figures and select the best one(s), but given the 2004 distribution thus far this may prove quite difficult. The color of the face is a little odd looking, but if properly lit from behind it looks really cool. The problem is the figure will most likely not be properly lit, and if Hasbro included a small light-up stand or an R2-D2 that projects light onto Luke, it might have turned out looking just a little bit cooler.

Articulation on Luke is the same as the figure on which he was based with joints at the neck, shoulders, elbows, wrists, knees, hips, waist, and at the top of the boots. The figure actually feels a little more solid than my sample of the Jabba's Palace Luke, with his limbs staying in place with what seems to be a stronger peg assembly.

There's not much too this figure save for a little paint here and there, as he's molded mostly in color and doesn't need the added decoration to look his holographic-est. While Darth Sidious still holds my vote for the best holographic figure to date, Luke isn't bad, it's just that his facial features tend to melt into his face due to the plastic used. I mean, look at his mug shot... his nose and mouth aren't exactly well-defined in this kind of plastic. It holds together well, but the look varies wildly.

Accessories

This set includes a base and a lightsaber.

The base is nothing new, so you know what to expect from the gunmetal grey rectangle with the Star Wars logo stamped on it. Like before, if you string these together, sometimes the ones on the end pop up. It's weird. And, really, not something that should be happening.

The lightsaber is the same as the previous Luke figure, which is a repaint of an Obi-Wan Kenobi lightsaber. Since Luke as a holograph never once had an ignited lightsaber, the question is, "why include one?" Odds are Hasbro thought of this and said "why not?" and this would give kids an extra weapon to futz with. A lightsaber to stick to his belt probably would have been a lot better, but you can't have everything when you reuse molds in a line to the extent that they're doing with Star Wars these days.

Packaging

For 2004, the late-2003 revision is still being employed. More of the same, folks.

Availability

Figure distribution in 2004 is random and spotty, so sometimes a figure will show up and then abruptly vanish, only to show up across town in a few months.

Fin

Short of placing it in a diorama, there's really not much fun to do with this figure. The unnecessary weapon is a nice bonus but ultimately not necessary for a great collection. He really could have benefitted from better accessories or something to help light him up, like a figure of R2-D2 with a light in it. He doesn't seem to offer the value of Jabba's Palace Luke since this figure uses the same mold and has fewer paint ops and accessories, but it doesn't seem like a bad deal for a basic figure. Sure, it could be better, but most figures could be and if you take it for what it is, it's pretty good. Still... a light source would have been nice.

Our regular sample was obtained from Entertainment Earth in March 2004.