The Star Wars Black Series Archive line is an avenue for older and more sought after figures to be re-released in the Black Series line and has now reached its 3rd wave. The 2021 Archive wave is also part of the celebration of the 50th Anniversary of Lucasfilm and it contains the winner of the Fan's Choice for Archive re-release, Commander Cody, as well as Grand Admiral Thrawn and Luke & Han from Hoth.
The Archive Series moves away from window boxes to a blister card format. The shaped backing card carries the same Black Series logo and uses a black base colour with a grey panel behind the figure window. The character name sits down the left hand side and in line with the Lucasfilm celebration this has changed from grey to gold, and the Lucasfilm 50th Anniversary logo sits at the top left of the card.
The Gregory Titus artwork is added as an insert to the blister and is a new image of Luke Skywalker from Hoth - the original 2015 release only carried a small piece of artwork of Luke's head The back of the card carries the same image of Luke and a short piece of background text.
"While on patrol, Luke and his tauntaun are attacked by a vicious wampa. The creature hangs Luke upside down in its cave, but Luke uses the Force to escape"
The first two Archive waves followed on from the figure detail with some archive information about the original release of the figure and included an original release year and an image of the original packaging. This has now sadly been removed and replaced with the Lucasfilm 50th Anniversary timeline that plots the Star Wars Movie & TV properties from 1971 to 2021 - although it doesn't mention the Mandalorian? Under this is short piece of info about the anniversary.
"Commemorate the first 50 years of Lucasfilm with figures inspired by the original Star Wars trilogy"
This hybrid of Archive and Anniversary Exclusive is OK - but really needed to go one way or the other. I would have preferred a traditional Archive release with the background info, or a special card series just for this 2021 anniversary.
3.5
Luke arrives in the lighter beige Hoth fatigues/uniform that he was wearing when he is attacked by the Wampa in The Empire Strikes Back. The face sculpt and applied face print technology does capture the look of Mark Hamill, but is a little heavy on the eyes and eyebrows and that does throw off the overall look.
The face itself is the only art of the head visible as Luke is sculpted in the padded head gear from Hoth with peaked cap and side communications aerial. The scarf piece hangs from the right hand side of the head as a soft goods felt strip - it is long enough to go across the face, but cant be executed as such and it lacks any texture of definition.
The uniform is presented really well with the padded coat carrying the rank badges of the Alliance picked out in colour segments. The belt wraps the padded jacket and is coloured in a leather brown with silver clasp and hooks & fixings. The trousers are a grey tone and the boots back beige with a lighter strapping. Each element of the outfit is coloured in the base colour with no application of weathering or washes to demonstrate wear & tear.
This is the same figure, as is the case with the Archive releases, as was released back in 2015 alongside the original Hoth Wampa. The figures do differ in so much the 2021 version is more aligned pre-Wampa attack so has no blood effect or facial damage and the soft goods scarf is attached to hang down in a normal standing position.
The earlier version has the facial damage and was packed upside down in the box to recreate the Wampa cave - with the scarf attached in a reverse position which hangs down really well when Luke is inverted, but when he is stood up normally it looks a little odd.
The left hand side rank badge on the newer figure is missing the yellow, therefore the older version is more accurate as far as I can tell vs screen shots.
4.0
Luke is armed with a DL-44 blaster, the same as was included in the original release and with earlier Luke figures like Bespin Luke and X-Wing Luke. It is a bigger cast than the one include with Han but includes the same details - painted brown grip and silver nozzle.
It fits into Luke's right hand where a trigger finger engages into the trigger. When not in use it fits securely into the holster on the belt where a strap comes over the top to hold it in place and plugs into the body of the holster - this all works fine and while fiddly to get into place it does slot in neatly and hold in place.
Luke also has his lightsaber, again the same as the original release and not he smaller version that came in with Rey and The Force Awakens. Considering the size the detail captured is good including the defined fins on the grip and the control buttons.
The blue translucent blade is straight and true and clicks in and out of the hilt without any issues. The lightsaber fits into either hand or can be wielded two handed thanks to the arm articulation.
When not in use the loop at the end of the lightsaber hilt corresponds to the hook on Luke's belt and allows the lightsaber to be hung on the belt. This is not a tight fit and it will fall off if knocked or moved.
4.0
Luke Hoth has a total of 16 points of articulation which on paper is standard. It should be noted that the treatment of the wrists on Luke are not the usual pegged wrist with a pivot, but instead the hands are sculpted as a part of the lower arm then plugged in just under the elbow meaning the hands will only rotate on one axis.
Head : ball joint head with pivot
Body : ball joint waist
Arms : ball joint shoulder, single joint rotating elbow, wrist rotation
Legs : ball joint hips, thigh swivel, double joint knees, ankle rocker
Aside from the wrist joint, the other articulation all works well enough and Luke can stand, kneel or sit and take up a number of action poses included one and two handed lightsaber poses. If you want him too, Luke can also ride and hold the reigns of the Black Series Tauntaun, although we are yet to see Luke's particular mount get a release.
Each joint on Luke is tight and secure and he stands perfectly well without support in a number of poses.
4.0
Considering the early press for the Archive Luke Skywalker Hoth figure I was expecting this to be a very low scoring review indeed. Instead, it was Han who disappointed and for me Luke is a perfect example of an Archive re-release with tweaks to create a better looking figure.
The face print is not the best the Black Series has seen so far, but it is a huge improvement ont he 2015 release and looks like Mark Hammil - a likeness Hasbro have not been able to consistently capture on all their Luke figures. The outfit was a pretty good body sculpt at the time and is recreated the same way.
We could say that the outfit needs some snow weathering, and that the scarf section doesn't work and could be re-done like the Hoth Rebel Soldier. We could even go down the route of two face plates to give us a before and after Wampa attack choice. This of course is taken us well outside the remit of the Archive series.
I have made my feelings clear on the packaging for the entirety of this wave, it is trying too hard to meet two criteria and doesn't do either justice. The Archive side is missing that history of the figure and original packaging images and dates, while the Lucasfilm 50th Anniversary is just not celebrated enough.
There is enough here for the £20 price point to warrant picking up Luke, regardless of having the original figure and I do hope that we might just get a new Tauntaun release to accompany this figure in due course. As it stands I score the Archive release of Luke Skywalker (Hoth) a total of 4.0
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...
action figures, reviews, review, articulation, star wars, luke skywalker, hoth, black series, archive, lucasfilm, 50th anniversary