Sculpt--3.5/5
Princess Leia figures have been constantly improving since the dreaded "monkey-faced" Leia from 1995, and this figure takes the character two steps forward…and one step back. Leia's upper body looks great with all the realistic folds and wrinkles we've come to expect. Below the waist is a soft goods skirt that doesn't quite convey the same level of detail as the upper body, but is useful and well done nonetheless. Her sculpted legs underneath her skirt are a bit lacking in detail, but that doesn't really matter since we won't be looking at them much. So far, so good.

Where things kind of start to get weird is from the neck up. First off, the neck is way too long. It just looks freaky and strange. But worst of all is Leia's headsculpt. It's not a bad headsculpt, it just looks nothing like Carrie Fisher. There is really no semblance at all here. There have been other figures that have a good resemblance to Carrie Fisher, so it's not a stretch to believe that it was possible on this figure as well. As it is, this headsculpt looks cartoony and unrealistic. One last gripe I almost missed: her hood. Her hood is molded separately and is just kind of glued on--it would have been nice if the top of it actually looked like it was connected to her dress but unfortunately that's not the case (at least on my figure).

Articulation--4/5
Leia has 12 points of articulation: ball-jointed neck, ball-jointed shoulders, angled elbow cuts, wrists, waist, hips, and ball-jointed knees. The arm articulation is great; you can straighten the arms out completely if you want, or you can have them bent at various angles. Ball-jointed elbows would have been perfect though. The knees are the only joints I really don't like. I mean, I like that they bend and all, but the swivel point is below the knee instead of above the knee as it is on most other figures with ball-jointed knees. This limits the poses dramatically as the swivel point below the knee basically equates to rotating feet.

Accessories--3/5
You get a standard Imperial blaster rifle. I'm disappointed. We should have gotten her sporting blaster that she uses at the beginning of A New Hope.

Paint--5/5
Really not much to paint here. Clean job on the face complete with rosy cheeks.

Packaging--5/5
One of the big draws about these figures is the reproduction packaging they come in. Anyone who grew up with the vintage figures will no doubt love seeing these. I myself have to admit that there is something kind of magical about holding these in my hands. It's like buying a bit of my childhood without paying hundreds of dollars. To make the package even more special, Hasbro encased them in a nice clamshell case which protects the card and bubble. The cardbacks are done well and show off the original figure in it's packaging and also show the other figures in the series. It's too bad Hasbro couldn't continue the vintage recreation to the cardbacks, but apparently there were legal issues with that. Still, it would have been cool if they had at least mimicked the look of the vintage cardbacks.

Overall--4/5
This is kind of tough. I like this figure's poseability, but the headsculpt just doesn't do it for me. I guess I should be happy that it at least looks feminine. The poorly thought out knee joints are also a negative point, but in the end this is still the Princess Leia figure to own. Hopefully in the future we'll be able to swap this headsculpt with a much better one.

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