You are here: Home » Featured » Luminara Unduli

Luminara Unduli

September 12, 2015 | By Errex More

A good number of the 3.75-inch action figures we are getting from the first few waves in the current Star Wars Black Series are actually designs that were to be released originally for the Star Wars Vintage Collection by Hasbro.

One of these characters is none other than Jedi Master Luminara Unduli, whom had had action figures made of her ever since she appeared in the Geonosis arena scenes from Attack of the Clones.

The philosophy behind most of the figures designed for the Vintage Collection was to provide us with more-or-less definitive versions of the character selected, and it is possible to appreciate this extra effort with Master Luminara, although the end results not always turned out to be as great as intended.

Luminara’s character design calls for the use of a good amount of fabric to replicate the gown she wore in the films. This Jedi Master was attired with an ample skirt and a somewhat tattered cape. The cape can be removed but the skirt is held in place at the waist joint, and cannot be taken out without disassembling the figure.

Both fabric pieces are heavily textured and provide a decent facsimile to the costume used for the film, although I feel both pieces are cut a bit too long for the figure.

The actual sculpt underneath the fabric is quite good, especially in Luminara’s blouse, which displays puffy sleeves and natural-looking folds and creases. Of special note, I like the ornamental carving on her bracelets, which is also replicated at the front of her tabard.

Luminara’s head sculpt is good, although the unusual skin coloring doesn’t really help in establishing any likeness to her on-screen persona. She was given a serene, almost indifferent facial expression and very severe, slicked back haircut, kind of what one would expect to find underneath a nun’s coif.

Speaking of which, Luminara was given a removable headdress shaped not very unlike the coifs worn by ancient Egyptian royalty. The piece sits rather loose over her head, so it is constantly falling over if she raises her arms beyond a certain point.

As you can imagine this limits the kind of poses she can attain despite her excellent articulation design, comprised of:

• Ball jointed neck.

• Pin & disk shoulders.

• Pin & disk elbows.

• Swivel wrist joints.

• Swivel waist.

• Swivel hip joints.

• Pin & disk knees

• Pin & disk ankles.

Although all of the joints work very well in Luminara, the figure is so lithe that the fabric elements of her outfit can actually make it difficult to keep her standing if you don’t use a display base or take time to fold and flatten the material properly against the ground.

The paintjob on this figure is quite reduced, as most of the pieces are molded in the color of plastic they needed to be. The paint operations on the face are nicely done and neatly applied (especially the chin tattoos), while the bracers and her tabard show a fairly complex pattern of metallic paint applications that contrasts well with the overall grim color scheme.

Other than her removable cape and coif, Luminara comes equipped with only one ignited lightsaber with a green blade.

So, in the end, Black Series Luminara is one of those figures that looks quite stunning if left untouched on a shelf, but turns out to be quite frustrating if you plan on doing dynamic poses for a diorama or a photo session.