While brief, the interaction between Princess Leia and Grand Moff Tarkin is very well-known due to the cold nature of the Imperial man himself contrasting that of the somewhat more emotive and human side of the Rebels' leader. And of course, who can forget the eventual demise of every living being on Alderaan thanks to the unexpected might of the Death Star. Of course, Tarkin died at the end of A New Hope while Leia got to live on throughout the rest of the Original Trilogy, they both had their actor likenesses used in Rogue One, both of which looked pretty fake and almost like a lead balloon courtesy from the House of Mouse's use of nostalgia to project over cynicism against the company's handling of Star Wars. Anyways, let's review these two figures.
Let's first cover Princess Leia, who is in a comic appearance that still has a live-action look because it'd fit in better with the standard Black Series line. This figure is a retool of the Hoth version of the character, giving her the same jumpsuit she had on the snow planet. The comic is that of the titular series where Leia would go on her own adventures after the events of ANH. The gloves and boots are retooled, while a cape originally used by her mother, Padme, is now in a darker shade to match the gloves. This works well for a combat suit that Leia would use while going against the Empire, as she has proven to fight against bad guys very well like her male counterparts (something Disney seems to forget). The knees are pinned and double-jointed because this figure is an older buck compared to recent releases. She also comes with a cool belt/harness that includes a holster meant for her signature gun. While there could be a wash to make the details stand out more, the sculpt is at least good. The cape does make her head sit up high, though it depends on the angles on top of her being a petite character.
Her head sculpt is done very well like with most recent Leia figures. It's nice to see how much we've progressed in terms of likenesses ever since we had the previous version of her with a so-so take on resembling Carrie Fisher. Her articulation consists of a ball-jointed neck, shoulders that swivel as well as move in and out, elbows that bend and swivel as with many female Hasbro figures/Black Series in general, the wrists swivel but the right hand can hinge up and down while the left hand can hinge in and out. She has a diaphragm joint, hips that are on ball joints, thigh swivels, double-jointed knees, boot swivels, and ankle pivots. Her guns can be held with varying degrees of success in her hands, though the flexibility of the right hand and the lack of a trigger finger in the left hand makes it difficult to have her hold them right.
The cape is removable if you remove the head, a task easier compared to the Black Series Padme figure I covered earlier. And comparing her to the ANH version, you can definitely see how much more adventurous of a character she became when we transitioned from that movie to The Empire Strikes Back.
And here she is with some other Black Series figures to represent a post-Return of the Jedi display that I'm going for as I wanted to homage to the EU better than Disney could. Granted, this Leia is based on the appearance of an intermediate outfit she had before Empire, but I never read the Marvel relaunch comics from 2015 so I am pretending this is Leia after the Empire is over. If you got this figure for a cheap price because Star Wars stuff has been warming shelves and is getting mostly cheaper to get thanks to Disney's mismanagement, I recommend it. I got her for $10! Oh, and remember when I said she looked too petite? It's still better than the height she had as Slave Leia, so I hope Hasbro makes a new version of her, though IDK if either she'll be made because of Disney's PC nature or because of the name change being Huttslayer (they stopped calling it Slave 1).
Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Up next, we have Grand Moff Tarkin, who is seen here with his signature gray military outfit with a mini skirt and baggy thighs to contrast the black boots. He has a badge on his chest as well as a belt of some sort, His proportions are kind of weird. Admittedly, this outfit may result in some weird looks to the anatomy of anyone wearing it, but maybe his hands look a little too skinny or his hands are a little too big. The rest of the anatomy seems generally fine for the most part, though once again, no paint for the outfit even though it doesn't need a wash as much as Leia does.
The head sculpt is not as strong as the likeness that the Leia figure has, in fact, it looks rather similar to the appearance he had in Rogue One with the fake CGI design that reminds me of how artificial Disney made Star Wars feel (a weird phrase to say but you may get what I mean). In fact, he looks a bit stylized with the side profile! Anyways, the articulation is the same as Leia's more or less. The interrogation droid is at least nicely detailed and has some non-articulated tools. That still doesn't make up for his lack of guns despite having trigger-finger hands.
For a size comparison, here he is in-between Darth Vader and a Stormtrooper. The height appears to be the same for both of them. That being said, I don't think a character like Tarkin, iconic as he is, doesn't justify the original price tag he went for. I got him for $10 like with Leia, and he is worth that price much more than he normally would be
Final ranking: ⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
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