Sculpt--3.5/5
Ah, Hoth Han Solo. As a child, the vintage Hoth Han Solo was my favorite figure and I carried it along with me to many places. So I guess you could say I've been waiting for a new version of Hoth Han with his hood up for a long time, and since I never got my hands on the POTF2 Han Solo/Tauntaun beast-pack, the announcement of this new Hoth Han got me very excited. That is, until I saw his super wide stance. "Ugh!", I thought, "that is like, so 1995!" Well, I figured I should reserve judgment for when I actually had the figure in my hands, and now that time has come--and I find myself saying the exact same thing. These wide stances are fine and dandy for action-posed Jedi, but it just feels so inappropriate here. Okay, so it's not as bad as POTF2 Lobot, but Han didn't exactly go ape-nuts when he wielded Luke's lightsaber. So why did Hasbro sculpt his legs like this? There's actually a pretty good reason--so he could ride a tauntaun (provided you have one). He sits a little strangely and leans back a bit, but all in all he looks pretty good riding a tauntaun. However, I think they should have experimented with some leg articulation instead of giving us this wide stance. I'm sure that's a whole 'nother issue (cost) but I digress.

Now that I've got that off my chest, lets talk about the rest of the figure. I'm pretty impressed with the detailing. His jacket is appropriately big and puffy looking and his badge and commlink are nice and defined. His belt and holster look great, with good details like the little cylinders and pouches on his belt. Macrobinoculars are sculpted to his left side and cannot be removed. It would've been cool if you could take it off and have Han use them. Han's gloves look nice but his hands look really oversized to me. Or maybe his face is too small...well, whatever it is, something is off a bit. The headsculpt is a pretty good likeness of Harrison Ford, but the expression of his face seems a bit...off. This is one instance where I think an open-mouthed expression would work--nothing too over the top, maybe just showing some teeth or a slightly opened mouth since he was a'huffing and a'puffing in this scene. The "fur" part of his hood is sculpted well, but the paint job isn't very convincing. Han doesn't quite look right when he's not wearing his face mask, since the visor of his cap is missing. I think they shouldn't have made the visor a part of his face mask accessory; Han just looks weird without it (but then again, his goggles should be on his forehead when his mask is off as well). My advice is to keep the mask on; he just looks much cooler.

Articulation--4/5
Han has ten points of articulation: neck, shoulders, bicep-cuts (both arms), wrist-cuts (both arms), waist, and hips. His arm articulation is excellent, making him capable of holding Luke's lightsaber with both hands--a feat most Jedi/Sith figures can't do. You can also make some decent shooting poses and Han can grab the reins of a tauntaun as if they were made for him. The leg articulation is basic. I think this figure would have been a good choice to try something new...something like ball-jointed hips since his jacket-bottom hides the hip joints. Oh well, hopefully someday they'll try this.

Features--2.5/5
Han features a lightsaber slashing motion exactly like Bespin Duel Luke or Vader. There is a huge button on Han's butt just below his belt which, when pushed, causes his upper body to rotate a quarter-turn counter-clockwise. I'm kind of tired of this particular feature (well I never did really like it), but at least it works well unlike other action features.

Accessories--4/5
You get Luke Skywalker's lightsaber, Han's blaster pistol, a sensor pack and Han's removable face mask. A pretty good list of items, though 75% of them have been seen before. Luke's lightsaber is the same one found with Secret Ceremony Anakin Skywalker--it looks just like Luke and Anakin's metal lightsaber hilts except it's plastic and the blade isn't removable. Han's blaster is the same one from Endor Raid Han Solo and it's a nicely detailed version of Han's blaster. The sensor pack was first seen with K-3PO and it is also a nice accessory. The one new accessory is Han's face mask. Actually it's his face mask, goggles and the visor of his cap, which in reality should be three separate things. The face mask fits over Han's face quite snuggly and Han looks great wearing it.

Paint--4/5
The paint job is well done with not a lot of slop. The little buttons on his belt and the little squares on his badge are very nice and don't bleed. Han's eyes and eyebrows are very clean and well defined. My only complaint with the paint job is the fur of his hood. They painted white and yellow lines to try to make it look like fur, but the lines are too defined! It just doesn't look convincing to me. It's too fake--too orderly. I think they should have went with a paint wash or dry brush effect.

Overall--3.5/5
Overall I like this figure when he's wearing his mask and riding a tauntaun, but without the mask, he isn't as accurate as he could be. This isn't the ultimate Hoth Han Solo I was hoping for, but it is an improvement over the original POTF2 version though not by much. Perhaps I will search out the old Han/tauntaun beast-pack after all. If you're not as anal as I am, you're going to love this figure. Oh yeah, don't think that I forgot about the whole blue coat/brown coat issue! I firmly believe his coat is actually brown, but because of the vintage figure, I also like it in blue. Rest assured, I will be buying the brown version when it is available! (For those that don't know, Hasbro will be releasing this figure in a brown coat instead of blue since they couldn't figure out which color is more accurate.)