Wave 3 almost carried on where Wave 2 left off, but thank fully the Black Series immediate future was secured in Wave 3 by the absolute superb job Hasbro did with their 6" StormTrooper.
Thank fully the decision was made to provide the Stormtrooper as a carry forward into wave 4 and to be ordered as solid cases . This meant that retailers were given some alternative options to meeting the Stormtrooper demand and the potential for the other 3 wave 3 figures peg warming was reduced.
Han Solo, #08, was carried forward in this wave - so the case include 3 new figures.
#09 was the first of these, and the one that potentially saved the line. The Stormtrooper, like Vader, is one of the figures you have to get right in any Star Wars range and Hasbro pulled it out of the bag with this one. The Stormtrooper is perfectly articulated and comes with 2 different weapons and a working holster. The armour is moulded in white plastic so is crisp and shiny and the only downsides of the figure were painted joints at the elbow and knee's which could be sloppy but also, by the nature of this being white paint on black plastic, doesn't match the rest of the armour. The Stormtrooper was a hit, being in significantly short supply for a number of weeks while the collectors and Army Builders went to work.
#10 saw a return to the prequals, Obi Wan Kenobi from Revenge of the Sith. This could have been en epic figure but turned into arguably one of the worst of the range so far. Issues are aplenty with Obi Wan. Firstly his articulation isnt great, so he cant really achieve a natural 2-handed light saber pose. His head is undersized, so much that you cannot display him with the Anakin counterpart (see wave 4) as they look ridiculous. The head also suffered from bad paint apps. The lightsaber was the only accessory included and the blade too light and looked almost clear. Finally Obi was not supplied with a Jedi cloak which does go some way to rescuing the figure - as can be seen by those who have bought custom cloaks online.
#11 was the 2nd Luke of the range so far, Bespin Luke as seen in Empire Strikes Back. Luke is actually a pretty solid release. He didn't appear to suffer from poor paint applications and his articulation was fairly good. Luke however lacked accessories, particularly when you compare him to X-Wing Luke from wave 1. Fans screamed for alternative hands, or a battle damaged head.