Tuesday, January 21, 2025

Star Wars The Black Series Force Spirits 3-pack review

The ending to Return of the Jedi serves as not just the best way to wrap up the original Trilogy, but a symbolic conclusion for George Lucas's two trilogies. Seeing three characters who were chronologically introduced in The Phantom Menace become Force Ghosts also added some great finality to Lucas's story, especially with Anakin Skywalker's path from child slave to fallen hero and redeemed villain as he brought balance to the Force. For anyone who isn't invested in anything that isn't a movie or despise Disney's mess of a sequel trilogy, then the Victory Celebration is the perfect way of saying everyone lived happily ever after. The Force Ghosts rarely get merchandise to go with any ROTJ ending displays, but the Black Series versions came at the perfect anniversary to fill in that gap. Let's see if they're worth the ludicrous price Hasbro charged fans for. 


To my surprise, these figures are kept in the classic blister cards that were common for Star Wars figures made during the run of the Original Trilogy. Title on the top, toy on the left, character from a screenshot on the right, silver trim, and Kenner logo are signature details that make these stand out from other toy lines at the time. While this is neat, it does feel like you are buying more cardboard than plastic at this rate. Yoda's empty space is amusing, though.


Let's go in order from left to right, starting with the chosen one himself, Anakin Skywalker. His tunic is the more traditional Jedi beige to contrast the darker colors he wore in the Prequel trilogy, and the robes are made out of a thin material to represent the ghostly appearance in addition to adding a layer of metallic flake across the opaque parts of the toy and casting his lower limbs in clear plastic. His inner shirt is painted a similar color, too. The effect mostly works, but I think the density of the blue tint varies from which version of ROTJ you're watching, and I'm not referring to replacing Sebastian Shaw with Hayden Christensen (but we'll talk about that later). The robes were still brown in the movie, just put in the ghostly blue filter, but the picture quality has varied from when each re-release came out that began with the face swap up to the more recent version of ROTJ in home media. Sometimes, the filter had a heavier filter, and other times it didn't. Still, the cheap materials we have don't exactly match the appearance they had in the film since the robe is more transparent than the Force Ghost filter itself! As for the tooling, the head, torso, and skirt are new when the arms and legs are reused from Mace Windu. Ironic how he shares parts in the afterlife with the one Jedi Master who didn't trust him and was also involved part of a conflicted choice between helping him or Palpatine.


His head sculpt makes for a good likeness to Hayden Christensen, especially with the hair and the slight smile that I feel may be reused for a future version of the character. Probably for a Revenge of the Sith version that will double as part of his cameo in the Ahsoka series, assuming Hasbro will do what they did with ROTJ Chewbacca and have him available in plastic free packaging AND nostalgic blister card. Anakin's articulation consists of a double ball neck, shoulder rotation, outward arm movement, rotation at the elbows, single-jointed elbows, wrist rotation, inward wrist curls, a lower torso joint that works like a diaphragm joint, ball jointed hips, thigh swivels, double-jointed knees, hinged ankles, and pivots to boot. The skirt makes it hard to pose Anakin (and Obi-Wan, though both aren't going to fight as ghosts anyhow).


Here he is next to his Revenge of the Sith counterpart. While this makes sense for a way of showcasing what Anakin could have been like if he didn't fall to the dark side, it is making me excited in seeing a 2.0 version of the character as part of the 20th anniversary for Revenge of the Sith. Ghost Anakin comes with no lightsabers, and the robes are technically an accessory (but it's too generous to call it one); one missed opportunity, however, was the lack of a Sebastian Shaw Anakin head. Obviously, Hayden Anakin is the definitive version in G-canon, and it's something Disney continued with when they replaced the EU with their own dollar store continuity, but I know there are still OT fanboys who would screech like animals for not making the alternate head. The price you're paying for it already high, and with the reuse of parts throughout the set, anything would be appreciative. I'm sure there will be alternate heads in the aftermarket, but good luck dropping even more cash than you already have with this set if you want a pre-special edition Anakin!


Up next, here we have Yoda. This is a reuse of the Dagobah Training version of the character, which gives the character a much better scale. The transparency of his cloak really stands out since his inner others are much darker by comparison. Not only that, but the belt is supposed to be wrapped around the cloak rather than hidden away. Still, figure continues the theme of coating the body with a pearly shimmer to represent his ghost form, and everything is given this thin yet effective layer down to the necklace.


His head sculpt captures the look of the puppet used for the last 2/3rds of the Original Trilogy, and apart from the paint on the lips, this manages to be Hasbro's best OT-era Yoda head. His articulation is mostly comparable to Anakin's, but the knees are single joints and he appears to lack hinges for the wrists and ankle pivots. He does, however, have a waist swivel. He is the only character to have an accessory, this time in the form of a cane. 


For a comparison, and a tease for a future review, here he is in-between the ESB 40th anniversary Yoda and Clones of the Republic Yoda. The scale is much better this time around, and the knees can actually bend unlike the original, though had Hasbro used the original Force Ghost Yoda that likely tied in with The Last Jedi, maybe the price of the set would be slightly easier to justify, but only slightly. I should mention that neither head from the COTR Yoda is the same as the one used for Force Ghost Yoda. 


For anyone thinking Obi-Wan and Anakin share parts, that is not the case. Removing the robes, Obi-Wan was shorter is slightly shorter than Anakin, their Jedi tunics are sculpted differently, and Anakin is a lighter shade of beige than Obi-Wan being slightly yellower. He is a reuse of the original Ben Kenobi figure we got earlier in the Black Series line, specifically the Cantina Showdown 3-pack consisting of the diorama and two other patrons you'd probably recognize from the brief fight where Kenobi cuts an arm off. The head sculpt makes sense for that version, but Hasbro could have made an alternate head sculpt where he is smiling like in the ending. 


You could put their hoods over their heads if you want, but the effect is more like wearing plastic over the head to stay dry under the rain...albeit with cheap cloaks with see-through materials.


So, what else would this set have to offer? That's pretty much it. You get the three Force Ghosts and nostalgic packaging to drive collectors crazy. Other than Yoda's cane and the robes, we don't get alternate heads, nor do we have lightsabers that some versions of the characters came with in prior lines. Maybe if Hasbro still did Power of the Force waves, we could have at least have the lightsabers included.


One thing that is a huge missed opportunity on Hasbro's part is including a bridge for the Jedi to be displayed on. It's one thing to not have the final toys match the stock images, but to have the bridge showcased in the same black background stock images where the figures themselves are photographed WOULD make you think it's included with the set. Admittedly, I appreciate Hasbro saying that the bridge is not included with a disclaimer at the bottom, but wouldn't it be meaningful to have a bridge included to justify the price tag? It doesn't have to look as organic as the one used in the photo, but for $80, what we end up with is lackluster.


Overall, you should not buy these three at $80. Hasbro Pulse currently discounted him at $55, though other sites and listings can go as low as $30. I've seen more value for money from the other 3-packs I'm about to review later down the line, those examples being the Force Unleashed set and the Duel of the Fates set. Even if the lack of accessories wasn't an issue, reusing older figures would have at least saved Hasbro money with Obi-Wan and Yoda. As it stands, the price we'd normally pay for this set of two and a half reused figures with cheap robes is not something easy to stomach, and nostalgic packaging won't save the day.


Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

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