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Saga 2002 #29 Luke Skywalker (Bespin Duel) Review

Luke finally gets an updated version in his Bespin outfit, complete with battle damage. Throw in some great accessories and you've got a winner! Read on for the review and 10 photos!

Luke Skywalker

Bespin Duel

"As Luke battles Darth Vader in Cloud City, he rebuffs Vader's attempts to make him submit to the dark side. Wounded by Vader, Luke heroically chooses to plummet to almost certain death rather than yield to the dark side. Managing to grab hold of a weathervane, he struggles to hang on until his Rebel friends can rescue him." --Excerpt from the card back

Sculpt--4.5/5
This is an excellent rendition of a battle-damaged Bespin Luke. Luke's outfit is nicely sculpted with plenty of wrinkles and folds, and even has appropriately ripped pockets. The proportions aren't totally correct; for one thing, his legs seem a bit too long. It's not a big deal though, and I'm probably just being anal.

The headsculpt still doesn't look quite like Mark Hamill, but it's a good headsculpt nonetheless. Luke's mouth is slightly open to make him look tired and worn out.

Articulation--4/5
Luke has twelve points of articulation: neck, shoulders, bicep-cuts on both arms, wrists, waist, hips, and knees. Technically, Luke has fourteen points, since the knees actually have two points each; they are hinged and they swivel. These knees are great, and work well on the figure, making a number of poses possible. The bicep-cuts and wrist joints are great for various lightsaber poses, but I kind of wish the right bicep-cut was cut at an angle. That way, you'd be able to straighten it out a bit and also have the ninety degree bend. The waist articulation is a bit different because of Luke's action feature. Instead of a normal joint, it's more like a ratchet and can only be stopped at certain intervals. This is unfortunate but at least you can still make use of his waist articulation.

Features--2/5
Luke's primary feature is his lightsaber-slashing action. There is a huge button sticking out of Luke's back, just below his belt. When the button is pushed, Luke's upper body rotates a quarter-turn counter-clockwise. The feature only looks effective when Luke holds the lightsaber with one hand. Personally, I don't like the feature, not only because there's a huge button sticking out of his back end, but because it ruins the waist articulation a bit.

Luke also has a removable hand. There are three versions of this feature. The first was a bloody stump with the magnet peg in the wrist. The second version is non-bloody and the magnet peg is in the hand. The third version has no magnet and utilizes a good ol' plastic peg.

Accessories--5/5
Truly one of the reasons why this figure is so cool is because of the included accessories. You get Luke's blue lightsaber, blaster pistol, a Bacta tourniquet, and the Bespin weathervane. The Bespin weathervane is just awesome. It is excellently detailed with little lights and antennae. Even the suction cup is detailed! The suction cup can be placed on the side of the weathervane, or on top of it so you could hang it from a window or under a shelf or other flat surface. This is just a great way to display and play with the figure. I kind of would have preferred the part of the Bespin gantry that Luke jumps from, but just the inclusion of this accessory is extremely cool. The only downside to this accessory is its soft plastic, which will warp and bend far too easily.

The Bacta tourniquet is very well detailed and fits snugly on Luke's stump. It's even got nicely painted buttons on its control box. Luke's blaster pistol turned out to be a lot bigger than I thought it would be. I kind of prefer the size of the pistol that comes with Bespin Capture Han Solo. Anyway, the blaster fits in Luke's holster, just not as well as Han Solo's. Only the barrel is inserted in the holster, which makes it seem easy to break it off accidentally. Luke's lightsaber has a metal hilt, even though he has no Force-attract feature. The hilt is just like Bespin Vader's (just painted slightly different) so it was probably just a cost cutting technique. Another theory is that Hasbro tried to kill two birds with one stone, hoping that the magnet within the hand would be powerful enough to also attract the lightsaber.

Paint--5/5
I love the paint ops on this figure. Luke's outfit has a paint wash which really brings out all the details and wrinkles. It also makes him appropriately dirty-looking and helps complete his "beat-up" look. Luke's face is also nicely battered, completing the battle-damaged look of the figure. All the accessories are equally painted well. The Bacta tourniquet has nicely painted buttons and tubing, the weathervane has red and yellow lights, and the blaster has a silver muzzle.

Overall--4.5/5
The figure isn't perfect, but it is a definite must buy. The inclusion of excellent accessories, awesome articulation, and a great sculpt make this figure one of the best Star Wars figures ever.

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