The Dagobah cave scene is like a Washington Post political cartoon.  As long as we don’t have to provide additional commentary, we all just act like we know what it fully means and make generic comments like “brilliant”.  I have never been a fan of scene specific figures unless those figures can also serve a general purpose as well.  The Black Series Bespin confrontation Darth Vader is a good example.  It is geared toward a few frames of film as Solo vainly unloads a flurry of blaster bolts on Vader, but by virtue of an interchangeable hand, it can be used as a generic Darth Vader.  This Dagobah Darth Vader is not so versatile.  It is for the scene of Luke’s failure in the cave and nothing else. 

Despite not being fan of scene specific figures, I bought this figure when it was released because of the miserable compulsions of a collector.  I kept it at my desk at work because I became mesmerized by it. The figure is translucent to give it the appearance of an apparition.  This is a bit of an artistic interpretation by Hasbro as the on screen phantom Vader seems fully opaque.  The result, however, is fairly compelling.  The way the figure captures the light really does give it a ghostly appearance which makes it one of the best display pieces in the line.  I think the light play the figure achieves is just luck and not something engineered by Hasbro.  The combination of the thickness of the plastic and reduced opacity resulted in as close to a shimmering effect as has ever been achieved in a Star Wars action figure. 

Luke gives into his fear and aggression in the cave and beheads the ghostly Vader.  Oh wait, maybe the cave scene makes sense after all.  Back on track, the figure has a removable head to replicate this scene, but Hasbro didn’t stop there.  The face plate can be removed to reveal Luke’s face beneath the mask.  The vacant expression of that likeness is captured brilliantly in the sculpt and paint applications.  It’s is perhaps my favorite aspect of this figure.  The removable face plate has an issue however.  Hasbro attempted to cast it in a red plastic to duplicate the eye lenses, but rather than a deep red, the plastic is a hot pink.  This is a less than ideal look for a Sith Lord, phantom or not.

The articulation of the figure is dated as you might expect for a figure that is 14 years old at the time of this review.  The legs feature no articulation save for the swivel hips.  The arms utilize swivel forearms, upper arms and shoulders, but don’t combine to produce any meaningful dueling poses.  While I love the aesthetics of this figure, the articulation could use an update, and as luck would have it, a new “Yoda’s Test” Darth Vader is coming shortly in the Black Series, but that figure lacks the translucence of this POTJ release.  Because of that, this figure will still have a place in my collection.  5 out of 10.