Since its inception, the Bandai 1/12 model kit range of Star Wars figures has concentrated on armoured and masked characters from the various Star Wars movies, and one of the big questions was always could they translate the kits to a human or alien face?
The answer appears to be yes, with the announcement of this two new kits allowing you to build Luke Skywalker and Han Solo in their Stormtrooper armour from A New Hope.
Now granted a lot of this is a re-use of the existing Stormtrooper kit, but it will add in the new head sculpts as well as removable helmets. The attention to detail also remains on point with Bandai pointing out specifically that Luke is 0.5cm shorter than Han.
The head detail is pre-coloured using what they are calling a Triaxial Jet Finish. This appears to be a couple of skin tones onto the plastic rather than a flat tone. The heads do look a tad glossy, but the beauty of these kits has always been the aftermarket painting and weathering that collectors can add as much or as little as they feel comfortable.
The Han Solo kit will arrive in April 2018, with Luke following in May. Both kits are still going to fall within the licence agreement that Bandai cannot directly sell these outside of Japan. That will mean import cost on top of the RRP, so expect to initially be paying £25 - £30 a set while the price stabilises.