Review: Star Wars Black Series SDCC Exclusive 'Battle on Mustafar' Set featuring Anakin vs Obi-Wan from Revenge of the Sith

“You were the chosen one! It was said that you would destroy the Sith, not join them! Bring balance to the Force, not leave it in darkness!"

Playsets and diorama pieces have been part of the Star Wars action figure line as far back as the 70s and 80s with Kenner’s Death Star and Star Destroyer playsets, and more simplistic kits like the Cantina or the Droid Factory. In the Star Wars Black Series, these sorts of sets are harder due to the scale, but we have had a few releases across the line from some of the Environment stands for the Sequel Trilogy and Rogue One, to the Centrepiece line of posed figures scaled to the 6 inch figures. The best to date have been the Exclusives of Ben Kenobi’s hut with its table and working Leia hologram, to the larger Cantina, along with Pondo Baba and Dr Evazan. For SDCC 2025, Hasbro has gone bigger and bolder with a set celebrating the 20th Anniversary of Revenge of the Sith, and in particular, the iconic Battle on Mustafar between Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. 

The set was released at SDCC 2025, with limited quantities available on Hasbro Pulse after the event and in a couple of batches, with stocks being shipped across late August to collectors. The packaging is a call back to some earlier, and larger SDCC exclusives like the Han Exogorth Set and the Starkiller Centrepiece, both from 2018. The box is enclosed in an outer sleeve and shaped with a square base and then an angled section in line with the window display within. The box is essentially devoid of any significant colouring and instead uses the matt black packaging with an inlaid foil image of Anakin vs Obi-Wan on Mustafar. There is a link to the colour coding of the mainline, with the deep orange assigned to Revenge of the Sith used on the Black Series logo and the other text on both this outer sleeve and on the inner packaging.

The inner box is revealed by sliding the sleeve off to the side. This reveals the actual figures and diorama, posed behind a large window, in an inner tray with Mustafar lava fields backdrop. To one side of this inner box is a short piece of multi-lingual text, giving a brief overview of the duel on one of the side panels.

The box is held closed with a number of circular clear stickers which need to be cut or carefully removed to release the large front flap, which opens hinged from the top of the box to give access to the content. The entire internal Mustafar card segment lifts out, and into this are fastened three individual plastic trays, each containing a part of the set. The first is the figures, the second is the base, and the third is the accessories, which are off to one side. Unlike other sets with a diorama backdrop in cardboard, there has been some thought that has gone into the way the internal parts are packed, and the contents can be removed with virtually no damage to the card diorama, with each of the plastic trays held in place through tabs and taped at the rear and not at the front.

We start with the figures, and both Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin are new figures from the ground up, recreating their look from Mustafar, albeit without the inclusion of any soft goods outer robes that both men wear on their arrival, but not for their duel. 

Obi-Wan is wearing the lighter, more traditional Jedi robes. The main tunic is a two part sleeve around the inner body, cast in beige with a sculpted cloth texture and folds. The lower skirt piece features a sculpted belt, painted in dark browns with silver and gold details. The upper tunic shows Kenobi’s inner robes at the neck with a darker set of robes beneath. The legs are a darker brown, similar to these upper inner robes, and the outfit concludes with a pair of red/brown knee-high boots. Considering the duel on the lava fields, the robes are presented clean with no weathering or wear, which would have been more interesting.

Kenobi features a fitted head sculpt that is windblown and more unkempt than those we’ve seen before, specifically as seen during his fight with Anakin. The likeness is the best yet of Ewan McGregor with facial printing bringing out that realism, particularly in the yes and around Kenobi’s beard,

A second head is also included. This is the neater version of the head and represents Obi-Wan before he arrives on Mustafar. This head is as good as the first, with the same level of detail and facial printing. This is the head that will come with the single release of Kenobi, leaving the ‘battle-worn’ head exclusive to this set. 

Anakin Skywalker follows the same principle as Obi-Wan, but in a darker tone of robes. He includes a sculpted torso of black and brown robes, and over this a partial upper sleeve, with a lower skirt section, both in black colouring. The skirt includes Anakin’s belt in dark brown with silver details, with some similar silver detailing on Anakin’s right covered robotic hand, where his glove is strapped. The way Anakin is packed in the box does lead to the skirt arriving sticking out from the body. This can be resolved, but it takes a bit of gentle heat and some training to get it to sit back flat. 

Anakin’s fitted head is his angry Mustafar Duel head, complete with ruffled hair piece and yellow facial printed Sith eyes. Other facial details include picking out Anakin’s scar over his right eye, as well as the usual mouth and eyebrow colourings. The likeness is again impressive. 

The alternative Anakin head is taken from earlier in the movie, before his transition to Darth Vader. This uses the same facial printing tech but with naturally coloured eyes, but with the scar still in place. The likeness here is equally as impressive, and is the one you will get in the single release, leaving the ‘Sith’ head as exclusive to the box set.

Comparing these new figures to the existing versions, you can see the improvements the Black Series has made over the last decade or so. The bodies are better proportioned, with a crisper finish to the outfits with them now being built from individual parts, rather than single pieces that are then painted. The new articulation format also removes all of the pins in the joints, adding a further aesthetic improvement compared to the original 2014 releases. 

Vs the 2019 Archive Release (right)

Vs the 2022 Archive Release (right)

Use of new 2025 heads on original 2014 era bodies

For those looking at the spare heads and the older bodies, I can confirm that the new heads will sit on the existing bodies as a small upgrade, but there is a difference in ball joint and socket sizing. That means the head ‘sits’ well enough, but does not lock into position. Even if you did widen the socket or shave down the peg, doing so will end up making them sit too low on the shorter neck pegs used on the original 2014 bodies. 

Force gesture hands are few and far between in the Black Series, so we are spoiled to have one for each of Obi-Wan and Anakin included in the set. These are both left hands, swapping at the wrist and leaving the ball joint in the wrist rather than being a plug-in peg. 

Each of our figures comes with their appropriate lightsaber. For Anakin, this is the well-used ‘Vader’ hilt cast in silver with black detailing on the fins. For Obi-Wan, this is a newer piece with a wider emitter and featuring a black ridged grip and some gold detail around the central shaft. Both saber hilts include a plug on the side that connects to a socket on each figure's hilt for a holstered look. 

Both sabers come with a blue translucent blade, Anakin’s being slightly longer than Kenobi’s, and with a slightly slimmer and shaped clip where the blade connects to the hilt.

As well as the standard blades, you also get six ‘swooshing’ blades to reflect blades in motion. There are three per figure, and each set comes with a different connecting socket; one for Obi-Wan’s hilt and one for Anakin’s. These are again cast in translucent blue and are as previously seen with Count Dooku and the newer ROTS Aayla Secura. They do have a weight issue, as the broader the ‘swoosh’, the heavier the blade becomes, which can cause some droop on the hilt, and for the larger piece, it can also start to drag down the arm joints. 

There is a further effects piece to reflect the ‘clash’ of the two combatants' lightsabers. This is similar to the one we saw with Luke Skywalker and his Jedi Training Remote, but it is now in blue and has slots for two sabers to be connected. This allows you to recreate the pose seen on the box and is, for me, more impressive than the ‘Swoosh’ blades, particularly when hit with the right lighting to give it a glowing effect. 

The environmental element of the set comes in four individual pieces, although these come assembled in the box. You do get a basic guidance sheet to confirm how to build if they ever come apart, which includes an illustration of the larger platform and how it connects to the lava base, and how the secondary part connects in at the side. 

The main hover platform sits on its translucent orange and red lava base through four connecting posts. It is cast in hard plastic with a brown base colour and a painted upper platform in silver and grey. Further details include the two protruding slatted platforms, a couple of lumps of cooled lava slag, and a control vein that sits up on one side on two upprights and includes a rotating control level at the top. 

There is then the secondary segment that is made up of a Mustafar Panning Droid which is technically a figure in its own right, complete with articulated arms that can rotate up and down on wide-set ratchets. The droid, like the platform, has a brown base colour with silver burnishing on the arms and on the flat top of the head. 

This droid sits in its own lava stream via a socket on the underside and a hidden plug within the lava. The droid only goes in one way, and when engaged, the left-hand side manipulator arm section also slots into a shaped insert in the lava to hold it level. 

The Panning Droid and its lava base are shaped to fit into the main diorama by way of a circular end to the lava flow that corresponds with a circular cutout under the main lava piece. This is not a secure fixing, but held in place by the weight of the larger piece. Of course, there is the option to place the droid anywhere you want around the main platform.

With our platform assembled, we can now add in our figures of Anakin and Obi-Wan. They connect to the platform by plug-in pegs that are included in the accessory sleeve. There are 8 of these, but you only need 6 if you want to fill every hole on the platform with four sockets on the main platform and two on the Panning Droid. These foot pegs connect to one or both of the figures piece, securing them in place and also allowing for some more dynamic posing, such as having Anakin jumping from the Droid to the platform or Obi-Wan teetering on the side.

Our figures are equipped with 19 points of pinless articulation. This includes the newer format legs without a thigh swivel, with Anakin and Obi-Wan having rotation at the knees, but also having a boot cut rotation built in. The upper arms include butterfly shoulders snugly away behind the tunic, allowing for a wide range of lightsaber positions, including two-handed and striking or defending positions. There is enough movement in the waist, and the dual joint neck helps with giving Kenobi and Skywalker some more expressions. 

Bringing everything together is the beauty of this set, and very much what an environment piece is all about, creating a centre piece for your collection in recreating key scenes from the movies we love. There are loads of options for having our two figures face off on the Lava plains, and you can replicate plenty of them thanks to the figure articulation, supported by the stability of the solid platform and the included foot pegs. 

The elephant in the room is the lack of any light-up options, something that was included with similar-sized Centrepiece releases. That would, of course, have added cost, and Hasbro have left sufficient room and cavities within the Lava pieces to add your own lighting options if you wish.

All in all, this is one of the most impressive large-scale releases in the Black Series to date. The included figures are well executed and re-worked from scratch rather than recycling the two aging bodies from 2013. It is an almost perfect size for display, creating a centrepiece on a shelf without taking up a significant amount of room. It also opens up future potential for similar themed releases, with the Bespin Duel one already on its way later in 2025. 

The box design will take up a lot of room for packaging collectors, and like a lot of the Black Series packaging is a magnet for fingerprints due to its matt finish. 

At £104.99, you are paying around £55 for the base and the packaging, although both figures do have an increased level of accessories than normal. The two figures are incoming as single Galaxy Collection releases for those that are not interested in the larger Mustafar base, but those single releases will exclude the battleworn heads, Force Hands, and ‘Swoosh’ and ‘Clash’ lightsaber effects that remain exclusive to this set.

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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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