Well, it's nice to know some things are consistant. Hasbro can still NOT please everybody. I, like many of you was disappointed after seeing the convention pics about this line. I thought the thought of prequel characters on vintage style cards was awesome but the thought of so many repacks was a little off-putting. Now that I have these figures I have changed my tune and I hope many of you will to.
Here are I my final opinions on wave 1:
Dengar - I thought the 2004 saga version was as near to definitive as we would ever need, articulation be damned. Well the new version is almost perfect. The only negatives are his stance is a little too wide and the codpiece of his armour neither attaches nor stays on well but the paint job is spectacular.
Leia (Hoth Outfit) - A superb upgrade. The articulation is great even without ankles and she holds her gun really well (which is sometimes a rarity). While most of her deco is fabulous she is a little heavy on the makeup which can disguise how great he portrait is. If you look at her face from profile you will see that it is a pretty darn good Carrie Fisher likeness. That nose of her's is hard to acheive and keep feminine, just ask sideshow.
Han Solo (Echo Base outfit) - While I agree that a Bespin Han is long overdue, this one is a welcome addition for me. It's not often we get classic trilogy characters in ways we never have before and this was one of many ways Hasbro is trying to get some freshness into the first wave of vintage (even if it is a kitbash). The coat is awesome and I really love the face portrait, but it falls short on likeness solely because of the hair sculpt. It's too short on the sides when it should be covering the tops of his ears. The only other complaint I have is that the coat and elbow articulation prevents Han from holding the welding mask over his face.
Luke Skywalker (Bespin fatigues) - My favorite figure of this wave. I admit to having a soft spot for any Bespin Luke because it was my "go to" figure as a kid but this new version is 99% perfect. The likeness is astounding at this scale and the articulation is so well hidden by the aesthetics of the scult that it blows my mind. A newly sculpted sidearm that this time actually fits nicely in his hand a lightsaber hilt that attaches to his belt renders the ball jointed hips just icing on the cake. On the subject of the hips, they provide the only negative to this figure. It's a step forward and a half step back as Luke can no longer bend 90 degrees at the waist.
At-at commander - Great figure and should be the new imperial officer go to body from here on out. The uniform color is a little too light and I have mixed feeling on the generic nature of the figure. Also we just had a very good General Veers (whom the actual vintage figure was meant to be) back in 2006. Still this is probably another case of Hasbro trying to please some and failing to please others.
See-Threepio (C-3PO) - I was baffled by this figure initially. Photography from the trade shows was not doing it any favors and I could not see how a departure from vac-metalization was anything akin to a good idea. Boy was I wrong. This one is my new favorite Threepio ever. I'm not sure why the decided to add the removeable panel things but they are pretty neat and for the most part, stay on well. My only complaints are that if they had gone further and made all the limbs removable it would be a great vintage counterpart. Also the one leg that is removeable below the knee joint is, I think, the wrong leg to be screen accurate for the escape from Bespin scene but this stuff does tend to happen sometimes because Kenner had a nasty habit of flipping the photes on the actual vintage cards leading to a lot of confusion of the details.
I'll get to the rest in a little while but for now, I gotta go.
