Sculpt—4/5
You gotta give props to Hasbro for making a burnt, paraplegic version of Anakin Skywalker. And I've got to admit that I like the end product...at least most of it. Burnt (or battle damaged) Anakin looks pretty messed up with his tattered clothes and his burnt up face. The headsculpt is perhaps what I like most about this figure--Anakin looks seriously pissed off. Besides the great expression, Anakin's head also sports the huge gashes on the top and back, matching up well with what he looks like in the original trilogy. Also worth mentioning is Anakin's mechanical arm which has some nice detail sculpted into it.

The interchangeable unburnt head and arms are a bit on the weak side though, with a headsculpt that looks nothing like Hayden Christensen. It kind of reminds me of Kurt Russell...but maybe it's the hair. I can see what they were trying to do with this figure, but getting that sweaty-hair-in-your-face look is kind of hard. The arms are a bit average as well with nothing particularly good or bad about them, though the right hand looks a bit small. The removable robe that covers up Anakin's burned-up look is decently sculpted but it doesn't fit well on the figure which in the end makes it look bad. By itself though, I kind of like it. It has nice simple folds and a large sculpted hood that looks decently realistic.

Articulation--2/5
Anakin features seven points of articulation: ball-jointed neck, standard shoulders, hips, and twisting boot-tops. This is pretty pathetic. No waist joint? Why not, Hasbro? There's no action feature to get in the way. And a wrist joint or an elbow joint for Anakin's burnt right arm would have been great for posing Anakin trying to crawl up the sandy lava bank. Wrist joints on his unburnt arms would have been cool too since his lightsaber poses are very limited as is.

Features--2/5
As mentioned earlier, the feature here is the interchangeable arms and head. Magically go from unburnt Anakin to burnt and crippled Anakin! I do like the fact that his legs are removable, but the rest is just okay and the end result isn't very convincing. One of the biggest problems is the cloak; it doesn't quite fit over Anakin's body as well as it should and thus, it leaves obvious gaps around the shoulders and down the sides.

Accessories--3/5
You get the extra unburnt head and arms as well as the Jedi cloak and a lightsaber. The lightsaber is sculpted very well, with well-defined details on the hilt. The blade is not removable. The extra arms and head aren't the greatest, and the head is extremely pale in color which makes me like it even less. I think I've already talked enough about what I like and dislike about these parts so let's move on, shall we? A Mustafar base might have been nice to include.

Paint--3.5/5
Burnt Anakin looks good, but he isn't perfect. Hasbro did a good job of finding that fine line between acceptable and grotesque, and for the most part burnt Ani looks burnt, but not so burnt that parents will start complaining. A subtle paint wash gives him that dirty burnt look and also helps bring out the details of the sculpt. There's blue under Anakin's eyes somewhat similar to Anakin #28's raccoon eyes, but on this figure the effect works well and adds to the angry look in his eyes. If there's one area that I'm disappointed in it's the mechanical arm. It's simply painted gold and it has not weathering of any kind. If you watch the movie, you'll notice that his arm looks pretty burnt up, but on this figure it looks shiny and new. They could have at least painted the black accents like on the prototype.

Packaging--4/5
I'm really digging the ROTS packaging. I love the color palettes that Lucasfilm's marketing department chose, and I think that the orange Star Wars logo is a nice change of pace from the silver and gold iterations of the past. The shape of the cards also takes a dramatic step away from the rectangular cards we've gotten in the past. A large Vader helmet looms at the top of the card, looking down at the raging lava below. In the dome of Vader's helmet you can see an image of Obi-Wan and Anakin dueling it out and crossing lightsabers. The bubble covers most of the card and goes right up to the bottom edges of the card. The sides of the bubble are taped to the back of the card which makes it slightly hard to get the figure out of the package in a hurry, but MOC'ers will have nothing to worry about. After opening a couple of figures, I was beginning to miss the old packages that I could just tear into without having to worry about sticky tape. There's also a nice layered effect with the use of two cardboard inserts within the bubble featuring the Star Wars logo and a photo of the character. The cardbacks are likewise well designed with perhaps the best cardback layout design I've seen in years. There a nice photo of the character from the movie, a short description of the character, a photo of the actual toy, and nice cross-sell imagery to get you excited for the other toys in the line. Considering how much less space there is on these cards makes the design all the more successful.

Overall--3/5
This is an average figure, but I think there's something cool about owning a burnt up Anakin figure. Is it a great action figure? No. Can it do a lot of stuff? No, but it looks cool and it might end up being the only way to get a burnt version of Anakin. So if you want a burnt Anakin then don't hesitate to pick this one up; if you can do without a burnt Anakin then you won't be missing anything.

--Photos and review by Garett Yoshimura
garett@carrotnetwork.com