Star Wars: The Last Jedi proved to have been very a very divisive installment in the space opera that brought out the best and the worst in its fans. In fact, its effect was such that I wasn’t able to create a movie review due to my strongly mixed feelings about it.
Fortunately, those mixed feelings didn’t extend to the movie’s toys and SH Figuarts may have created one of the most accurate depictions of Luke Skywalker in the 1/12 scale to date.
SH Figuarts Luke Skywalker – The Last Jedi brings to life the embittered and disillusioned hero in glorious 1/12 scale. Released as a P-Bandai Online Exclusive, it is also the second Exclusive SHF that I felt was worth my money.
Sculpt:
TLJ Luke bears an uncanny resemblance to Mark Hamill, possibly the best among all Luke Skywalker figures from across the lines. The figure only has one head with a stern expression on the face, but it was the only expression on Luke’s face for much of the movie so it gets a pass on my. The sculpt quality of the rest of the figure is also above the normal you’d come to expect from SHF. The folds of his jacket and the knitting of his outfit can be seen.
The few accessories that comes with the figure – the compass (open and closed), and the necklace – feature high levels of detail.
Accessories:
This is where the figure takes a hit. It only comes with three accessories two of which, are just open and closed versions of one object. Luke never really used a lightsaber in this version of the character, but that doesn’t really make it OK to just go out with the bare minimum.
Luke has several other accessories in the films (walking stick, bag, and poncho) that it’s really surprising that he doesn’t come with them. What he did come were the Kyber crystal necklace, the compass he got from Battlefront II in both closed and open versions, a pair of hands, and the “up” version of his hood.
What is frustrating is that it’s not like Bandai hasn’t loaded a figure with accessories before – the P-Bandai Attack of the Clones Anakin Skywalker comes to mind – and considering that this release was an Online Exclusive, the number of stuff it came with was just underwhelming.
Articulation:
Like all SH Figuarts, this figure is very articulated. It has a decent amount of articulation that allows you to pose this figure in various ways. The problem, however, is that the design of the figure can sometimes get in the way of movement. The skirt prevents the figure from being able to properly sit with ease. Then the arms can be hindered somewhat by the sculpt of the sleeves. It’s not that big of a deal especially since this version of the character did not see a lot of action, but it can bother some collectors at least.
But these observations are just nit-picking it. In light of who the figure represents, the articulation exceeded what was actually necessary.
Fun-factor:
This figure is fun to pose, and in more creative hands, would have been as meme-worthy as the Bruce Lee and Freddie Mercury figures. The facial features are static, although it should be noted that most Marvel and Hasbro Star Wars figures also have static expressions but are wonderful to play with.
The lack of significant accessories does hurt this figure’s fun factor as the utility of the figure in dioramas and “interplayability” with other figures of the same scale is somewhat hampered by it. It has a necklace no figure can wear, it has a compass whose make is native to Star Wars or generic sci-fi at the most, but nothing else.
But as a Luke figure, it certainly is fun to pose especially when recreating scenes from the movie. Again that will be up to the creativity of the person playing with it, rather than as a fault of the figure itself.
Summary:
SH Figuarts Luke Skywalker – The Last Jedi is another worthy addition to any Star Wars collection. The fine sculpt and the accurate face is more than enough to make this figure a must-have. Its fun factor and awesome face sculpt and printing, decent articulation, and fine details help to overcome extremely low points in accessories. A must have figure.