I have a tiny confession to make. I used to be a carded collector. It’s been 15 years since I turned to the light side and started opening all of my toys. But when Hasbro debuted the vintage carded Star Wars Black Series 40th Anniversary line I got all Kylo Ren on it. The pull to keep it minty fresh was strong. Then I smashed some shipping boxes, whined a little, and ripped that bubble off the card.
Now before someone feels the need to defend their collecting habits, know that only I went through all of that to make a Star Wars joke. In fact my analogy paints my loose-fu style as the more evil of the two, comparing opening the package to stabbing your father through the heart with a lightsaber. MOC, loose, custom fodder, buy just to put your kids through college, I love you all. Absolutely no reason to fight about it. You do your thing, I’ll do mine, and we can talk about toys and hunts and companies until the cows come home. And seeing as how Fwoosh is pushing 15 years old, we’ll probably be doing it a lot longer than that.
So…….Princess Leia.
Having established that I open all of my action figures I didn’t feel the need to grab the 40th Anniversary Series 1. I have all of those figures already. Don’t get me wrong, the vintage card is nostalgic as all hell, taking me back to the days of Otasco and when Walmart had a snack bar. My dad spending most of Christmas day putting AT-ATs and TIE Fighters and Ewok Villages and Millennium Falcons together. Staring up at the Shuttle Tydirium on the top shelf that never came home with me. My Dagobah playset from Service Merchandise riding the conveyor belt through the plastic curtains and little Robo just standing there waiting patiently. Mostly.
The urge was great but I held fast. Until Hasbro said that Leia’s head was improved. Oh, then it was on.
If you go back to the Black Series Princess Leia review you’ll see that the face isn’t that great. At the time I was okay with it because I didn’t really have anything to compare. Sure, it was a little chubby cheeked and wide but it was actually an upgrade in the paint department, at least compared to the previous human characters. But then I got the new one. Holy…
Now I was able to get in on the sale on Hasbro Toy Shop during Toy Fair, who have already shipped out their stock. It looks like the mass release of Series 1, along with Vader, will be in March or April. BBTS currently has Leia listed but she’s sold out (for now) on Amazon.
For this review I focus mainly on the head an improvements. The body, dress, and weapons are exactly the same. I did finally realize that the hood from hell could be tucked into the back of the belt, rendering it’s evil dormant for the time being. It just looks better that way.
Video:
Package:
Figure:
Accessories:
Comparison:
First Leia without the dress:
The Rest:
