Sideshow’s recent acquisition of the Star Wars license for 12" and Premium Format figures has proven to be the biggest hit they may have ever seen. The 12" line specifically has given people something they have never seen before, highly detailed figures with accurate costumes and accessories, and some of the best sculpting to ever grace these characters.
Today I’m reviewing the third figure announced in Sideshow’s 12" line, Obi-Wan Kenobi fresh from Revenge of the Sith. While being the third announced, he is actually the sixth to come out, following Luke Skywalker, Anakin Skywalker, Kit Fisto, Mace Windu, and Han Solo. Following hot on Obi-Wan’s heels and hitting soon (and in some places now) is his old master Qui-Gon, with much much more goodness from Sideshow still to come.
On to the Review.
Packaging:
Sideshow may have designed the BEST 12" packaging ever. It is definitely the best I have ever seen and I’m sure many will agree. Instead of the common wide box with single front flap held in place with velcro that tends to pull and rip off, the Star Wars box design features a thinner width and thicker depth. With two separate compartments for the figure and the accessories that fold to face each other, a flap between them and one to close on the other side using magnets, you have an amazing box that looks good both open and closed, functions well and holds everything wonderfully. Inside, the figures/accessories are in plastic trays with a top tray to cover them and keep them in place. To top it off there are no twist ties and very little tape holding the trays together, so it’s extremely easy to remove and put things back. These boxes are so good, guys like me who are quick to chuck the packaging are instead putting these away safely for keeping.
Sculpting:
The main area of sculpting on this figure is of course the head. Capturing an actor’s likeness is never an easy thing and in the world of digital scanning even pros like Gentle Giant can still miss the bar. Obi-Wan was sculpted by Andy Bergholtz; and despite whatever you may think from pictures it is about as spot on to an Ewan McGregor Obi-Wan as you can get. Many fans were upset at early images, but this truly is a piece that has to be in hand to really appreciate. Photos just cannot capture all the details and colors. The sculpt is there and solid, and not marred by tragic paint apps such as the dark brown lips of the production Anakin. He also features the standard sculpted set of hands, but those and other things will be covered in the accessories section.
Paint:
Though the early prototype sported much more detailed paint that brought out the likeness even more, the production piece comes out with a somewhat simpler paint job by comparison. Despite a lot of complaints in comparison to the prototype, the production paint is still very top notch. And in my limited experience with the company, looks like some of best paint work I’ve seen on their 12" figures. Compared to Anakin (who I had to repaint myself because there was so much wrong) Obi-Wan is about as near perfect as you can get. Even someone picky like myself finds that what flaws are there can certainly be lived with. His hair is a touch dark, though in some lights it can become lighter. The figure can vary though from person to person. I’ve seen pics where the slight grey highlights on the mustache are much more prominent and a little too obvious. Luckily mine seems to be fairly clean. There’s little to no slop. Some areas are slightly raw where they didn’t quite paint far enough, but otherwise it’s quite good.
Outfit/Accessories:
Obi-Wan’s outfit is comprised of an undershirt and pants, tunic and surcoat with cummerbund, leather belt, boots, and topped off with a large Jedi cloak. Despite the color in pictures, the tunic/surcoat is in fact an off white almost yellow color accurate to how it looked in the movie. Many pictures show it being white but that’s just the light. The pants and undershirt are a bit stiff and this can require some use of the "water treatment" as found on Rebel Scum, but some basic futzing out of the box can get the desired look easily enough. Generally you will want to redress the figure out of the box anyway because the people who put these together aren’t looking to make them perfect, so they will sometimes come with outfits scrunched or mushed in odd ways. Be sure to go over the whole outfit and fiddle till it meets your expectations.
The leather belt is one of the more fun parts of the costume, using actual strips of leather to emulate the style of the movie instead of a simple sculpted belt. It gives a much more realistic feel and style and just looks really nice even in this scale. It features various opening pouches, some solid with rigid openings and closings, and one rubbery that opens freely. There are also food capsules pinned in various spots, and a buckle on the front. The belt is removable by a connection on the back, but be careful since it’s not a solid snap or anything, just simple pegs into the leather. The best part of the belt for me is that the Covertec Clip is accurately recreated in 1/6th scale. These little black clips, normally used for cell phones, were adopted for lightsaber clips in the Prequels, and Sideshow managed to make them not only look great but also function. The lightsaber hilt has the clip on the side to slide in to the port on the belt and fit.
As for accessories, well there’s no shortage of those with 2 sets of hands, a pair of binoculars, and the standard Jedi toys of communicator, re-breather, holo-projector, and ignited/unignited lightsabers. The hands consist of left and right saber grip hands, a right pistol grip hand, and a left Force wielding hand. These are common hands reused through most of the normal Jedi, and while somewhat plain, do the job. It wouldn’t be bad to see more unique hands, or at least more 
sensible hands. The pistol grip hand for most Jedi is pretty useless as they just don’t use pistols. Obi-Wan has two uses depending on which version of the figure you got. The Sideshow Exclusive Obi-Wan comes with Grevious’ blaster, which was used to kill the droid general in the movie. The regular edition doesn’t have this blaster so the hand may seem pointless, however it can be used to replicate his "mustache" fiddling from the movie, or as another saber holding hand for more saber fighting position. I’d really like to see another Force wield hand added, preferably a right with the two finger point style. The regular force hand works ok, but in the end it’s more or less just a relaxed looking hand and doesn’t necessarily evoke "I’m using the force on you" when you see it.
The smaller accessories like the communicator, re-breather, and holo-projector are nicely done and look good, but really are more often left in the package for safekeeping. You can store them in the pouches on his belt but they are small so be careful or you may lose them. The binoculars are a new piece we haven’t seen before. I’m not entirely sure where he used them in any of the movies but nonetheless they are nice. The lightsabers are still where the money is as far as accessories go.
They’re the most important part of a Jedi’s gear. He comes with an ignited saber with light blue blade, and an unignited hilt for wearing on the belt or holding in those times of rest. Both are nicely sculpted and painted and look great both in size and detail. Last but not least he comes with the basic Sideshow figure stand with the Star Wars logo printed on it. Nothing fancy but it does its job of holding the figure if you want it to be secure on the shelf, though with proper posing he can stand fine on his own.
Articulation/Body:
This figure, like pretty much all Sideshow 12" figures, uses the standard Sideshow body. While it is a tad out of date especially compared to some of the bodies that are popping up nowadays, it does have the more important points of articulation and can still do the job of being posed and looking good. While it can be on the skinny side for normal clothed characters, the Jedi feature enough layers that the size of the body is actually quite good, allowing the clothing to look right and not too puffed out. He features the standard 12" figure ball neck at the base of the neck, though it is a bit limited as apparently word is that his neck assembly was done backwards. People are reporting that he can’t bend his neck forward but can back.
There’s also ball shoulders with forward/backward pins in the torso to allow the shoulders to be brought forward and closer together, bicep cuts, double elbows, forearm cuts, wrist hinge with pin on the end for the. Then the ab joint waist cut, ball hips, cut thighs, double knees, and hinge/rotating ankles. You’re not going to get much play with the ankles due to the fact that the boots are so stiff, so that area is pretty much moot for articulation. The hip design functions but isn’t pretty; and if you hold the figure there, or if they are wearing normal pants, you’ll notice some bad gaps in the hip/body area that’s a bit unsightly. I’ve heard some complaints of loose joints. While the joints on mine seem tight (in the elbows almost too much so), his shoulders have a bit of an odd reflex action that I haven’t experienced before where they want to go back to a previous position when I try to pose them… odd glitch and considering that this is a commonly used body you’d think they be free of these things.
Value:
These figures range from $50 to $60 depending on uniqueness of character and accessories. Certain characters with more unique parts will be higher priced, but most of the human Jedi run the $50 range because they can reuse so much. At this price they are really worth every penny. You get an amazingly detailed figure with wonderful costuming and accessories and a great likeness of the character, all packed into one of the best boxes in the business. Considering the competition of Hasbro’s $20 range figures which show their price well (meaning they suck mostly), and the high end Japanese figures like Medicom (which most aren’t even proper 12" 
scale), Sideshow’s got a great new market for these things. But if you want to get the good prices, PRE-ORDER as soon as possible. These things go fast; the exclusives so fast you won’t even know they existed if you don’t get the newsletter and know about the pre-order a week ahead of time. You can find the regular versions at online retailers even after they have sold out from Sideshow. My Obi-Wan came from our Sponsor AFX, cost the same as Sideshow directly, and shipped sooner than many other folks’ direct orders from Sideshow (though that can be hit or miss). There are stores out there that also sell them at a slightly lower price. So if you missed, or simply don’t care about the exclusives, look around and you may be able to find it for a few dollars cheaper.
If Fwoosh Ruled the World:
A new base body. The larger properties like Star Wars and Lord of the Rings bring with them the inherent collector groups, who can have some high standards. And while Sideshow’s meeting and exceeding most of those in a lot of areas, the base body is often falling short with many fans clamoring for an upgrade. Considering the use they get out of this single body type, it seems obvious just how easy it would be for them to upgrade and cover the cost considering the vast amount of uses the new body would have. Hopefully in time they can mange to do so.
Where to Buy:
Direct from Sideshow or from one of the many online retailers out there, I can personally recommend Action Figure Express as they supplied me with my new Obi-Wan and did so nice and prompt.