Review: Star Wars Black Series Anakin Skywalker, The Clone Wars, Lucasfilm 50th Anniversary
- Mephitsu
- May 5, 2022
- 5 min read
To celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Lucasfilm in 2021, a number of Black Series figures were released by Hasbro on special packaging that paid homage to previous Star Wars figures and releases. One such wave was the Clone Wars wave, and this brought us four figures based on The Clone Wars series and packed onto the Clone Trooper Phase 1 helmet cards as seen in 2008 and part of the 3.75-inch line of figures.
Anakin Skywalker, in his Jedi General gear from the show, was one of the four releases and arrived in the Summer of 2021 on the Lucasfilm retro celebratory card. As a 6-inch figure, the cardbacks are larger than they were in 2008 but retained the same shape and styling of the Clone Trooper helmet and inserted the character art and details inside the circular bubble so they run around the packaging just under the figure itself.
The rear of the card is turned over mainly to the Lucasfilm 50th Anniversary timeline that features on all these badged releases, and the 50th Anniversary logo can be found centrally on the rear of the card as well as to the side of the window on the card front.
Anakin utilises the legs and feet from the previously released Revenge of the Sith Anakin and the tweaked Attack of the Clones version. Everything else is new and includes a slightly slimmer profile for Anakin overall. The upper shoulder armour sits on top of a blue/grey tunic and beneath this some darker red robes. The right-hand sports a wrapped long sleeve glove as this is Anakin after his first Dooku encounter, while the left arm is also gloved it is a much simpler design.
Anakin's body is pretty much cast in its base colour with limited paintwork applied throughout. We do get a brown painted belt with a couple of gold highlights, while the brown straps on the right glove are painted over the base black plastic - and this finish is not brilliant with the sandy brown smearing into the black of the glove. The final area of decor is on the left of the two rubbery hinged shoulder pauldrons, with a Republic logo decal in burgundy. There is a small piece of soft goods used to finish off the outfit, stitched in as a red underskirt to the blue robes. This does the job well from a look's perspective, but also still allows a wider range of leg articulation vs a full rubberised skirt piece.
The head sculpt for Anakin is new and is modeled around his Clone Wars appearance, but realised in a real-world setting with the likeness of Hayden Christiansen. The sculpt is a passing likeness rather than being absolutely nailed-on, but the face print tech around the dark ringed eyes and the scar on the side of the face does enhance the look.
The hair is a wilder finish halfway between the short Padawan locks from Attack and the wilder hair seen in Revenge of the Sith. It is part of the head sculpt and is then painted which does mean there are some minor bleeds of paint onto the skin tone around the front, and some unpainted hair sculpt left as a flesh tone around the sides and the ears
Anakin comes with a single accessory, his lightsaber, and this too is carried over from the Revenge of the Sith release and has been used numerous other times as Luke's original lightsaber. The hilt is silver with black painted fins, a gold switch, and red controls. It features a short peg near the emitter that can slot into a small hole on Anakin's belt to allow it to be holstered when not in use.
The blade is a translucent blue piece that has a good connection with the saber hilt and clicks into place. The end of the blade where the connection is made remains quite slim and will start showing signs of stress after just a couple of changes.
The lightsaber fits into either hand, and there is sufficient articulation for two-handed posing. For some reason, both of Anakin's hands do still feature a trigger finger and are obviously designed to hold a blaster rather than a lightsaber. While it is not as noticeable as some figures, the trigger finger does stll look a little out of place sticking up and out from the saber. I would try a bit of heat (hot water) and push it back into place if it bothers you.
Jedi General Anakin has 19 points of articulation and benefits from the new upper torso which features butterfly shoulder joints to aid those two-handed lightsaber positions and a dual jointed neck which means we do away with the visible pivot in the neck that the older Anakin figures suffered terribly with.
The lower legs are carried in from an older form figure circa 2014 and while they do benefit from double-jointed legs - with visible pins - they also bring with them the terribly weak and un-ratcheted ankles from the other two Anakin figures. Weak ankles are about the worse joint I can get on a figure as it destabilises a lot of stances, and Anakin certainly suffers with his ankles and is prone to falling forward from most poses after a short period of time. He is certainly a figure that needs some work doing to tighten the joint (if you wish to go down that route at your own risk) or a stand - and a waist grip stand at that as a pegged foot stand will still struggle to hold the General in place.
After 9-years of the Black Series, this is only our 3rd Anakin Skywalker figure and it's probably about the best of the bunch so far on articulation, even with the weak ankles that all three releases seem to share to a degree. The sculpt and paint are adequate with only a couple of patches of rough paint application, and the team had done a good translation from animated drawn character to put Anakin solidly in a real-world aesthetic.
The Clone Wars look is quite unique for Anakin so it is a solid choice for release, and of course, it fits perfectly with the desire to do the iconic packaging. Fans of the retro cards will be delighted, although there is some debate as to whether Anakin - and indeed Obi-Wan and the Clones from the wave - should have got a repack into the wider Galaxy Collection packaging for those invested in collecting that line boxed.
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About Me : As a child of the 70's and 80's I grew up in a golden age for action figures and in my youth bought and sold myself through collections of Star Wars, G.I. Joe (Action Force) and M.A.S.K. while also dabbling in He-Man, Transformers and Ghostbusters. Roll forward and I am now reliving that Youth with the action figures of today and am a collector and fan of the larger 6-8 inch figures from my favourite movie and TV licences - including the ones mentioned above, but also the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Doctor Who and the Aliens. I launched The Mephitsu Archives in 2015 with a view of creating a UK focused site or these figures where fans can pick up the latest action figure news, read reviews and get information on where to buy their figures and what is currently on store shelves. I hope I am delivering that to you guys...
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