Star Wars Vintage Collection Return of the Jedi

I only have a handful of Star Wars figures, but Hasbro has been doing a great job lately with these figs that I had to pick up some from the Return of the Jedi wave. What drew me in was the added articulation that Jedi Knight Luke had. I wanted to check him out and ended up getting a Gamorrean Guard, Admiral Ackbar and R2D2 also! Onto the pics!

First up, Jedi Knight Luke Skywalker!

One of the things that has kept me from having a larger Star Wars action figure collection is the line’s lack of articulation, particularly at the hips. If I can’t pose Luke doing some cool lightsaber moves then I won’t be bothered with picking one up. Recently I’ve noticed some figs in the Vintage Collection line seem to have ball hips (the Sandtrooper I believe, but please do correct me if I’m wrong!), and when I saw this Luke at Walmart while on a DCUC 14 hunt, I decided check out how his articulation works.

I have to say that I was pleasantly surprised. I loved the fact that he can now strike some fighting stances, and the added wrist hinges just add to his poseability. I don’t even mind the flesh hand lookin’ a tad big in some angles, as long as he can swing that lightsaber around I’m happy!

I also like his headsculpt, he’s a decent likeness in person, but in the pics I took that sculpt really looks like him!

He has a green lightsaber, handcuffs and a turned-off lightsaber.

If Hasbro starts adding this type of articulation on the other characters, I just might give in and buy some more! I want a super-poseable Vader!

Next we got R2D2!

Because I was so happy with Jedi Luke, I went ahead and picked up some others from the wave as well.

Artoo here sports his Jabba drink-server look. Everything comes off so he can be displayed as plain old Artoo.

He’s smaller than the R2 I got last year from a “Resurgence of the Jedi” Battle Pack.

Aside from the drink tray stuff, he also comes with Luke’s lightsaber, which you can put in the hole in his dome, re-enacting the scene where he throws Luke his lightsaber. The hole can also be covered by another part which when raised looks like he’s scanning the area. The lightsaber/cover is raised when you push his “third leg” up. Push the cover/saber down and his leg pops back out again.

There’s also a panel that opens up on his chest and a part flips out, I don’t quite remember if this is a small arm, or that interface thingie he uses. I need to rewatch Return of the Jedi!

The good thing about this figure is you get two versions of R2D2 in one figure, you get a Jabba servant Artoo and a regular one. He’s pretty much my default Artoo right now.

Next up, always a favorite, Admiral Ackbar!

I love the old Admiral, he was such a recognizable character in Jedi even though he only had a couple of scenes! A Squid-head Admiral leading the Rebel attack was just plain cool! And of course there’s the “It’s a trap!” phenomenon!

The first thing I noticed when I took him out of the package is how good his head’s range of movement is. It’s on a ball joint that just moves freely around his neck, perfect for adding some character to Ackbar. He’s got an awesome headsculpt as well!

I wasn’t too thrilled with his hip articulation, which is pretty much the standard “t-hip” articulation that most Star Wars figures have. I just found his leg positioning a bit awkward in some angles. He can, however, do a sitting pose pretty well. This made me think how wonderful it would be to get him with his command chair!

The Admiral comes with a “pointer -thingie” and his console from the movie, which if I remember correctly, connects to his chair. He holds them both really well.

Again, his wonderful headsculpt really sold him for me.

Last but not the least, the handsome Gamorrean Guard!

Let’s face it folks, that head sculpt is just a winner! That sculpt is so sweet I just had to get him.

GG comes with 2 axes and a staff, and his helmet comes off. He’s got that soft goods furry skirt, which reminded me of Grizzlor. I was curious how it would look out of the package, and it did look too fuzzy and high-waisted at first. I found a fix at the Fwoosh and Rebelscum, where you could soak the fur skirt and make it a little bit more manageable. You can also turn the fur skirt around his waist until you get a proper angle that you like. I found this out later on, after I had taken the pics, so in the last pic of the review you can see how that looks.

Man, Hasbro is doing a great job with these headsculpts, that’s a lot of detail for such a small figure! The paintwork looks good as well!

Even though some of his articulation is limited, especially at the shoulders and hips, he can still strike some decent poses.

The pic below shows what the fur skirt looked like after I soaked it, formed it, and put the belt on top of the skirt. It still kinda puffs out at the sides a little but I just use his arms to keep ’em down. I think he looks way better now!

Well that’s it! Obviously I don’t have a big collection of Star Wars figs so I can’t really compare most of the figures with an older version. For the most part I’ve been staying away from Star Wars partly due to the articulation, and partly because I feel like the line’s been going on for a while, it would be kinda hard to catch up. But if they keep doing a good job with the updated sculpts, and if they do start doing some super-poseable versions of some of the characters, then I might start picking them up!

I would also like to add that even though I didn’t  take pics of them, I do like the old Vintage Kenner packaging these have.  I pretty much ripped them out of the package when I got home, but I have been looking at the Kenner cards and have found them to be quite nice. I just wished they didn’t have to be higher-priced than the regular Star Wars figs ( I got these during a Walmart $6.97 Vintage Collection Star Wars sale).

Thanks for looking and I hope you all enjoyed the pics!