When I saw the pre-order solicitation pictures for this figure, I didn’t care for the likeness at all but I decided to take a chance and order it in case the final product turned out better than the publicity photos. That does happen sometimes with the face-printed figures as they can be tricky to photograph or sometimes prototypes don’t have the final paint job. Let’s take a look!
My Anakin came in a pretty stomped-on mailer envelope from Amazon. Fortunately the box saved the figure from any damage, though the outside plastic was crushed around his nose.
Anakin comes with his lightsaber with removeable blade and that’s it. I would have liked it if he came with a little more like a force-wielding hand or perhaps his cloak or the loaner sabers he fights Dooku with. The hilt feels a little overlarge to me, especially in this figure’s hand. It looks to me like this is a repaint of the 40th anniversary Vader saber. It has a clip for his belt, but Anakin’s saber in the prequels didn’t hang from that clip and this figure doesn’t have a hook on the belt for the clip anyway. The original Black Series Anakin had a hole in his belt and a peg on the saber to hold it on the belt. This belt appears to be new and does not have the hole. I’m really curious why they went this route and it is baffling to me that this modern figure that is mostly a repaint doesn’t have the same functionality as the base figure from six years ago.
The base figure is the Black Series Episode 3 Anakin with a new belt piece, right forearm, and a new head. The belt looks fine and the skirt has a nice pliable plastic. One odd thing is that the cloth skirt from the original figure is missing. I’m not sure if this a planned thing or an error, but I’ve seen multiple reports of this figure missing his skirt.
The sculpting on the portrait is vexing to me. It is better than the initial preview pictures for sure and I can see Hayden in there, but there is definitely something off, especially when looking straight on at the figure. I think maybe the jaw is a little too wide and his face needs to be slightly longer and leaner. I find that the likeness works a lot better for me when not looking straight on and 3/4 view and the profiles look good to me.
For my taste, The Black Series has been giving imports a run for their money in terms of sculpting, but I think the Figuarts takes it this time.
Articulation is typical of the Black Series line and while mostly passable six years ago, I find it fairly frustrating now. I found myself really missing the butterfly hinges of the more modern Black Series Jedi figures when trying to get Anakin in two handed saber holding poses and the minimal movement at the waist ball joint is not up to current standards. Also, the elbow doesn’t bend to 90 degrees. I got used to better than that from Hasbro’s swivel hinge elbows.
The paint is fine, with little slop and they did add a bit of a drybrush to the boots and wash to the hair. Overall, I won’t say this figure is disappointing because I didn’t really have high hopes going in, but the slipshod saber, missing skirt, dodgy likeness, and stiff posing make for a fairly unimpressive figure.
