The latest wave of the Star Wars Black Series 6-inch figures includes Anakin Skywalker (Episode III), a Clone Trooper (Episode II), and a re-release of the Stormtrooper and Boba Fett from earlier waves. Let’s take a closer look at the two new figures of the wave!
Anakin Skywalker
Anakin comes with an alternate “Darth Vader” head sculpt and his lightsaber. I love to get alternate head sculpts, and the idea of an angry Anakin head to swap out with the more heroic look makes a lot of sense to me.
The execution of the head sculpt is a little lacking in two ways: it sits a little too high on the neck and the eye paint is pretty horrible.
It looks fine from a distance, but up close you can see the error. The lightsaber has the removable blade and can clip onto the belt like Obi-Wan’s.
The hilt is pretty rubbery, which can make posing somewhat a challenge.
The articulation follows the usual Star Wars Black Series scheme with:
- Hinged neck
- Ball/socket head and waist
- Swivel/hinged shoulder, hips, wrists, ankles, and elbows
- Double-hinged knees
- Swivel thighs
The hips are slightly limited by their design so that Anakin can’t can’t quite get into high kicks or splits.
The arm articulation allows for slightly better saber-holding poses than Obi-Wan, but it’s not perfect. The thickness of the chest sculpt (which is accurate) makes it hard for the figures to reach across to get all of the wild saber poses you want.
The sculpt is pretty great. I like the likeness and the proportions are really good. I especially like the texture of varied materials in Anakin’s robes.
Paint is a little weak with the aforementioned eyes issue and the bland, flesh-colored plastic.
Overall, he’s a decent Anakin Skywalker figure. The one thing I feel he’s missing, just like Obi-Wan, is the hooded cloak.
Clone Trooper
This Clone Trooper is the Episode II version and comes with the standard long rifle and a shorter rifle. Both sculpts are nice and sharp. The longer rifle is solid plastic while the shorter one is a little gummier, but still holds it’s shape.
The only thing I felt was missing is the Episode III Clone Trooper helmet, but I can see why they might hold that off for another release to save some money in their budget.
The clone has similar articulation to the Stormtroopers with:
- Ball/Socket waist and head
- Hinged neck
- Swivel/Hinged wrists, hips, shoulders, and feet
- Double-hinged elbows and knees
- Swivel biceps and thighs
The articulation is a little limited in the shoulders by the armor. The arms can’t raise very high.
The hips are also a little limited by the hip armor. The pointed tops of the armor run into the codpiece and keep the legs from getting into a sitting position. Although, after a day in my hot garage, the hip armor would bend a little to allow more movement.
The paint is pretty minimal and decent. The black tampo on the eye mask doesn’t quite cover the sculpt, but is pretty darn close.
I have zero issues with the sculpt, it looks perfectly clone-ish to me, though, admittedly, I have not studied these designs as much as I have the original trilogy characters.
The Clone Trooper is a nice figure and a good version of this character. I’m glad they started out with a clean clone before jumping into all the different rank symbols.
The scale for both of these figures looks pretty good. Anakin is a little taller than Obi (btw, my Obi-Wan has a larger custom head by Glassman, so he is a little taller than the factory version).
