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Anakin Skywalker

May 12, 2012 | By Errex More

One of the figures I was actually anticipating from the first wave of figures in the 2012 Star Wars Vintage Collection by Hasbro is this version of young Anakin Skywalker (VC80) in his padawan garb. I never got the chance to buy the figure released in 2000 that came with a hard plastic cloak, so getting an updated version to coincide with the 3d release of the film was a chance I would not miss.

The sculpted clothes are very good at replicating the costume seen briefly at the end of the movie, complete with wrinkles and subtle fabric-like texturing. The head sculpt is not necessarily an accurate portrait of Jake Lloyd, although it could be argued that this figure actually represents an older Anakin from some time in between Episode I and Episode II, but more on that later.

Despite being fairly small, this version of anie got the full super-articulated treatment with:

• Ball jointed neck.

• Pegged hinge shoulders.

• Pegged hinge elbows.

•Swivel wrists.

• Swivel waist.

• Swivel hips.

• Pegged hinge knees.

• Pegged hinge ankles.

There are really no issues with any of the joints, although the front and back sections of the tunic are made of pliable rubber and thus interfere with sitting poses.

There is not a lot of paint applications on Anakin. The clothes are molded in a tan plastic that matches very well the color of the fabric used for the skirt, with a few touches of a lighter hue for the inner tunic that is glimpsed at his sleeves and neckline. A darker brown was used for the leather gear, namely the boots and belt. The hair and eyebrows were applied in a similar, but slightly different hue.

Unfortunately, Hasbro keeps making the ankle joints in the color of the surrounding plastic rather than the color of the footgear, which I personally find very distracting, but since that’s just how things are, I ‘m not deducing points on that account.

Now, I mentioned that this is probably a representation of Anakin sometime after The Phantom Menace and that is because of the accessory selection packaged with him.

Young Anakin comes with a blue-bladed lightsaber, a deactivated lightsaber hilt, a training helmet and training remote, none of which actually appeared in Episode I, although all of these accessories are standard in Padawan training.

With that in mind, it is much easier for me to think of this as a sort of an Expanded Universe Anakin figure rather than a less-than-stellar portrait of Movie Anakin.

All of the accessories are nicely detailed: the lightsaber hilts are painted bright silver with a band of gold near the emitter, the training helmet has a gray and white geometric pattern that looks just like the ones seen in Episode II and the sphere remote looks just like the one used by Ben Kenobi aboard the Millennium Falcon to train Luke. This last accessory comes mounted on a removable base, which would allow for some re-use down the road.

In the end this Anakin Skywalker figure turned out to be as good as I expected and I would not mind to see this mold used again as the basis for more padawan youngling figures in the future.