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Review |
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| Sculpt: |
| The dreaded Dark Lord of the Sith, Darth Vader, as seen in THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK. In the world of Vintage Kenner figures, the exact same sculpt was used for all the vintage lines. With this figure, Kenner is attempting to preserve the vintage Kenner "feel" while giving us our $10 worth. As such, it's got a decent amount of detail on it, and it certainly looks as good as any past Vader figures from the modern lines. There are a lot of softgoods details on this figure, as both his cape and lower Sith robes are cloth. 8.5 out of 10. |
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| Paint: |
| Let's see, it's a Darth Vader figure, so the main color on it would be ... fuchsia? No, this sucker's black, deep and dark! There are some paint details, though. The lenses of his breath mask are dark redish-brown, in keeping with TESB costume. There are the usual silver accents at the mask's nosepiece and mouthpieces. There are metallic, charcoal gray accents on his shoulder armor. The detailing on his chest panel features silver, red and blue, with silver and green accents on his belt. Overall, we're looking at a total of six colors used on this figure: 9/10. |
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| Articulation: |
| Hasbro has really knocked themselves out with this Vader's poseability. Both shoulders are ball-jointed, as is the head and both knees. The waist and hips have standard planer-cut joints, and the forearms have planer-cuts where the gaunlets of the gloves end. The elbows have angled planer-cuts that allow it to hold the lightsaber two-handed. Only the right hand can actually hold the lightsaber, however, as the left hand is sculpted to hold the Saga '04 Captain Antilles figure by the throat. While I would have preferred ball-jointed elbows, this is still an impressively articulated figure: 9/10. |
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| Accessories: |
| Vader comes with two versions of his lightsaber -- an ignited version for dueling, and an extinguished version that pegs into the hole in his belt at his left hip. Very nice attention to detail. The softgoods cape is non-removable, and is really nice -- except for the stupid-looking piece of silver cord they used for his "chain." This thing ends up sticking out waaaay too far on Vader's upper chest area. Otherwise, the softgoods cape and lower robes are great: 9/10. |
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| Packaging: |
| The same Vintage OTC clamshell outer case as the rest of the line, with an inner blistercard that reproduces most of the elements from the original Kenner TESB card. The clamshell insert depicts the OTC logo with silver-foil highlights, with the UPC code on the bottom of the insert. The blistercard reverse explains the significance of the OTC, showing a photo of an original, carded 1980 Darth Vader figure (complete with starburst offer for the mail-away "Action Figure Survival Kit" with five proofs-of-purchase seals). It also shows small pictures of all four figures in TESB wave, with a list of all 12 VOTC figures below that: 8.5/10. |
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| Availability: |
| As of this writing, the figure has been appearing at retail for over two months, and is available from most online sources. Case assortments have been, well, bizarre, so you might still be hunting for him at this point: 7/10. |
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| Conclusion: |
| C'mon, you gotta love ol' Darth here! What a great villain, and this is a great version of him. While I'm still not sold on the whistles and bells of the packaging, this figure is just too cool for school, fool. If it were getting better retail distribution, I'd be happier with it, though: 8.5/10. |
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