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Review |
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| Sculpt: |
| Darth Vader, Dark Lord of the Sith, confronts his former master, Jedi Knight Obi-Wan Kenobi, in STAR WARS: A NEW HOPE. The two engage in a lightsaber duel aboard the Death Star, and Kenobi sacrifices himself to Vader's blade in order to facilitate the escape of Luke Skywalker, Princess Leia, and the smugglers Han Solo and Chewbacca. Vader is amazed when Kenobi's body disappears, leaving only his cloak and lightsaber behind. The figure is a retooled version of the Vader from the REVENGE OF THE SITH line's Evolutions: Anakin Skywalker to Darth Vader set from 2005. The figure was initially retooled for inclusion in the Thirtieth Anniversary Collection's Commorative Tin Set for EPISODE IV: A NEW HOPE, with Sebastian Shaw's EPISODE VI: RETURN OF THE JEDI head replaced by a retooled Hayden Christensen head from 2005's ROTS Deluxe "Rebuild Darth Vader!" figure. Although a bit of a "Franken-figure," it's possibly the most accurate ANH-style Darth Vader action figure to date. The Obi-Wan Kenobi cloak/figure stand is all-new: 9 out of 10. |
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| Paint: |
| Darth Vader is molded in bright mauve and -- gotcha! HE'S BLACK! Only his exposed head, underneath his helmet, is molded in pale flesh. There are dark purple circles around his eyes, and dark reddish-brown paint apps to his scars. His eyes are white, with blue irises and black pupils and eyelashes. A light purple wash accentuates his pallor. His helmet pieces, torso, arms, legs, and pelvis are all molded in black. There are glossy black paint decos to the helmet's eye-lenses, and silver decos to the nosepiece, and to either side of the breath screen. Each shoulder has a dark silver paint app, and the torso has this same color at the pectoral armor. The control panel at his thorax has silver, red, and green decos. His gloves and boots have glossy black paint apps. His belt has silver, green, and red decos. His cape and lower robes are black softgoods. His lightasber is molded in translucent red, with silver and black paint apps. Ob-Wan's cloak is molded in brown, with a gray wash over it. The scupled-in lightsaber has silver and black paint apps: 9/10. |
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| Articulation: |
| Vader's shoulders, elbows, knees, and ankles are all ball-jointed. His neck, wrists and hips have standard, planer-cut joints. He can hold his lightsaber with both hands, but it looks awkward. Otherwise, about as super-articulated a Vader as we ever really need: 9/10. |
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| Accessories: |
| Darth Vader comes with a removable helmet/dome, ignited lightsaber, Obi-Wan's cloak-and-lightsaber figure stand, and a character-specific collectible coin. Vader's right foot pegs to the cloak/figure stand: 8.5/10. |
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| Packaging: |
| The new 30th Anniversary Collection card uses stylized "painted" imagery of the characters on the individual cards, with the new STAR WARS logo in stark white and cut in on an angle. It's a design that initially had collectors divided: you either loved the new look or hated it! The film each figure comes from is at the bottom right edge of the card, while the character's number in the collection is on the blister insert. Darth Vader is figure number 16, from A NEW HOPE. The cardback features a screen shot of the Vader/Kenobi duel from ANH, and has text that explains the character's role in it and a "Character Profile": 8.5/10 |
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| Availability: |
| As of this writing, the figure has been appearing at retail for over seven months, and is readily available from both retail and various online sources: 8.5/10. |
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| Conclusion: |
| While Darth Vader is argueably the most iconic of all STAR WARS characters, his representations from ANH have been fairly lacking throughout the modern lines. It's great to finally see a well-articulated ANH Vader, but I'd still like to see one with Sebastian Shaw's head underneath the helmet. It's a bit of a stretch to think Vader stayed looking pretty much the same under the helmet from ROTS to ANH, and then rapidly aged in the three years between ANH and THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK: 8.8/10. |
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