Original Review by Chris 11/13/14

This figure is of course from the Star Wars horror movie cross over line.  This is the obvious combination of Luke Skywalker and Stephen King’s Carrie.  I heard that a kid up in Waukesha stared this figure in the eyes for five straight minutes on a dare and that night his hair turned entirely white and he forgot how to speak English and now communicates only in Tagalog.  John Zaffis was called in to investigate and the figure is now housed at the Paranormal and Demonology Research Society of New England.  I am more afraid of this figure than I am of clowns and I once walked seven blocks out of my way to avoid a regional Bozo who was attending the grand opening of a Star market.  I’m pretty sure this figure cursed me with vicious beer farts as I was photographing it.  At least that’s what I’m telling my wife.  I hope she buys it.

This is one of the most terrifying head sculpts Hasbro has ever loosed on the public.  This is the second Luke Skywalker head sculpt in the 30th Anniversary Collection that bears zero resemblance to Mark Hamill.  It’s not even a vague suggestion of the actor.  Removed from the context of the figure, you would never guess this head represents Luke Skywalker.  Once again we see Hasbro operating under the delusion that Luke has chestnut brown hair and on top of that, they gave him a Dutch boy pumpkin pie haircut.  I would like to take a moment to personally thank Harland Williams for coining the phrase “pumpkin pie haircut” which has no known definition, yet we all know what it means.  If the head issue ended with the hair, we could live with it, but it only gets worse.  The head is ghostly white and has a vacant serial killer stare.  This disconcerting gaze is magnified by being another figure in the 30th Anniversary Collection without eyebrows.  If this figure went on a murder spree, none of its neighbors would be saying “we never saw it coming” during news interviews.  They would all just nod knowingly. 

The horrific head sculpt highlights how important the head is on a figure.  A spot on likeness can elevate a lesser figure to “display worthy” status and a terrible likeness can destroy an otherwise decent figure.  That is the case we have here.  Below the neck the figure is decent, but not great most noticeably lacking ankle articulation.  The detailing is wonderful with subtle fabric bunching captured in the jacket and pants that add a level of realism. The rank insignia on the chest is applied too haphazardly on my sample, however.  The included sidearm blaster is inaccurate.  Luke carried a sporting blaster during this scene and not the DL-44 heavy blaster.  Including a removable lightsaber hilt, but no lit lightsaber is one of the cruelest things Hasbro could have ever done to kids.  Fortunately Hasbro corrected almost ever single one of the issues on this figure with a retooled release in the Black Series.  That means there are only two reasons to own this 30th Anniversary Collection release.  One is for the coin and the other is to scare the life out of small children.  4 out of 10.

Updated Review by Bret, 9/7/19

As of this writing, the Vintage Collection VC151 Luke Skywalker (Yavin) is imminent.  Just as the Black Series figure was an incremental improvement over this figure, VC151 promises to be merely another incremental improvement.  The figure still will lake ball-jointed ankles, which is a bummer.  Nevertheless, this figure is already marginally inferior to the Black Series release, so it will fall to third place in a short period of time.  But that’s not to say it is completely outdated and should be tossed into the trash.  Since the improvements of the two newer figures are minor, this one can still keep a place in your collection.  It’s not a bad figure.  It could be better, and for whatever reason, even 12 years later Hasbro still won’t have closed the book on it with a definitive release.  Perhaps a few years from now, we can get a Luke with ankles.  But frankly, I’d rather Hasbro give us a proper Han Solo (Yavin) figure, with the right shirt. 

Chris hated the figure, and supported that hate with a solid review.  But since 2014, we’ve updated our grading scale, and a 4/10 would be the baseline for a 5POA figure.  Despite its many flaws, this figure is way better than a 5POA figure.  I’d give it a 6, but we’ll compromise, and settle on a 5.