From the latter end of the Saga line into the OTC line, Hasbro’s been putting out a lot of new figures and resculpting quite a few that the fans deemed a necessity to the line. I can’t say that Bespin Leia was ever high on my list, but I know a lot of the others out there in collector-land were wanting a replacement to the “Princess Leia Collection” version of this figure.
Oddly enough, this is actually a figure who didn’t have a regular release in the POTF2 line to see resculpted, yet it’s one of the classic outfits Leia wore… albeit briefly in The Empire Strikes Back.
My bias towards this figure being slightly “boring” is maybe going to sway my opinion on it, so let me warn you ahead of time. I simply just never was into Leia in an outfit like this one, which I feel is pretty uninteresting and bland. She didn’t wear it very long in the film, and for the time she did wear it she did absolutely nothing in it.
Does that translate into a good figure? It can… I think the Senators tend to make decent figures for what they are, but this Leia, I don’t know about. Read on and you’ll see what I mean I guess.
PROS
-Sculpt: 100% new, but not 100% great, the sculpt is still solid and a vast improvement over the “Princess Leia Collection” figure of Leia in her Bespin attire, which featured a softgoods coat and a bit more of a “pose” to her.
The head sculpt’s and improvement over the PLC version from POTF2, but I’m not going to go so far as saying it’s good… It’s just better, and that’s why the figure isn’t ranking great in the sculpt department.
The body’s sculpt though is pretty good, with a nicely detailed coat that hangs/drapes on the figure more realistically than the softgoods of the other version. It’s also generally more true to the outfit Leia wore in the film as well, as the sculpt of the PLC figure really just didn’t capture every detail of the outfit.
Leia’s pose is also nice and neutral. The PLC version was posed somewhat “walking” with her right arm bent. That was ideal for her holding your favorite Bespin Han’s arm while walking to dinner, but really she was a bit awkward to stand up… At least she had Han to lean on.
-Neutral Pose: Pose can mean a lot to action figures, and while you would think that posing Leia in her Bespin Gown is impossible, you’d actually be surprised what Hasbro’s capable. For instance, they actually pre-posed her Leia Collection version of her character so she was sort of “walking” and had a bent arm. I’m not sure that was a bad pose really, as far as pre-posed figures go, but this outfit just doesn’t call for that.
So, fortunately, Hasbro went with a nice, straight up and down, vanilla, neutral pose. Nothing flashy, nothing special, and it fits this outfit since Leia did absolutely NOTHING in these duds. I perhaps could’ve seen slightly bent arms or something, but as it stands it’s a fine choice Hasbro made.
The big question will be if they articulated her right… Not good news here.
-Paint/Deco: My Leia’s paint application is pretty decent overall, and the majority of her figure I’ve seen at stores hold up to my example, or surpass her. The true highlight is the cloak though, as it’s pretty colorful and elaborate for a toy.
The cloak’s design in the film was a wild array of different colors, and looked simply very “Sci-Fi” at the time. It carried over into figure form as nice as Hasbro could by painting plastic instead of using real fabric, as they made a strong attempt to paint the different portions of the patterns on her cloak the various pink, yellow, and blue/purple colors it should be, and she turned out pretty good. Little paint bleeding in these intricate details equates to a nice paintjob on Hasbro’s part. They put some extra effort in there, and it turned out nice.
Beyond the cloak, the figure has painted flesh on the hands and feet that have no bleeding on my sample. The figure’s pretty solid overall, though the burgundy colored areas of the outfit have little detailing to them to speak of.
The head’s got a tinge of paint to it too, of course, and while the sculpt doesn’t do Carrie Fisher justice, the paintjob does the headsculpt justice itself. The applications of the make-up on the figure are nice, and her eyes and eyebrows are even and straight. Leia’s hair also is clean and painted nicely with no bleeding. Everything you could want to highlight a nice sculpt… just not an accurate sculpt to be highlighted.
And what a segway into the…….
CONS
-Head Sculpt: Pretty much the only detracting feature of the overall sculpt, as I noted earlier, is the likeness to Carrie Fisher. Hasbro’s had trouble with nailing the Leia likeness down before, so that’s not a surprise, but they’ve been doing better as of late so it was somewhat of a letdown. Plus, I really don’t expect Leia to see a facelift in this outfit again in the modern line. I’d be surprised if she did at least.
With that said, a lot of people will be less than pleased that their Leia just doesn’t look too much like her. With that said, I’ll leave it at that… Likeness is sometimes subjective, so perhaps you’ll feel differently.
-Articulation: Not swift in the slightest, and that sucks. Let me break it down as to why though, because I can see a lot of people saying you simply can’t articulate this figure. I disagree.
The figure sports damn near an all-time low in articulation totals… Just when you thought Hasbro couldn’t underwhelm you, they truly set the bar a little lower.
OK, enough with the picking there… The articulation count is:
-2 standard shoulder joints
-2 swivel arm joints
-1 standard neck joint
With 5 total points of articulation, I’m less than pleased, and here’s why.
First, Hasbro could’ve easily made the cloak a separate piece you could pop off her. They’ve done removable vests in the past, and after seeing many of their accessories they put out then God knows they have pliable plastic around that they can make a good removable cloak for this figure.
With that said, a pliable “skirt piece” on the lower part of the gown, and Leia could’ve been sporting some leg articulation. Sure it would be minor in the range of motion it had, but Leia could’ve still had it and she could pull of a little bit of a walking pose. The other thing that a removable cloak would’ve allowed is the standard waist articulation that’s missing… Hey, it’s one more point of poseability on an otherwise dull figure.
The last place Hasbro could’ve improved articulation is the arms. With the VERY successful use of ball/socket joints, I think it would’ve been kind of nice had Hasbro included ball/socket elbows on Leia for a wider range of motion in the arms. At the very least, a slight angle/cut arm maybe would’ve allowed for some variety, but the ball/socket joint would’ve been well hidden and allowed her to hold Han’s arm as they roamed off to dinner with Vader.
Is all this necessary? No, but it would’ve made this figure more interesting to me overall, rather than just set-dressing for diorama builders.
-Accessories: What do you get for the girl who does nothing on-screen? Well, Hasbro said you get her the basic “Star Wars” rectangular stand that everyone else comes with, and you give her a grayish tinted Stormtrooper’s blaster.
Myself? I say you give her something she can use to make a diorama builder happy. For instance, JD forum member Muftak built a Cloud City diorama recently that sported the little sculpture from Bespin... Why not include that? Or why not include something unique and a little “EU” like Lobot’s laptop was? That was the type of accessory that set an otherwise boring figure apart and showed some creative effort from Hasbro’s design team.
Or here is an even better idea I think. Would it not have been cool to have seen Leia come with the tupper-wear bin that Chewie was walking around with filled with 3PO’s parts? A solid plastic accessory of 3PO dismantled in the container would’ve been a really cool accessory I think.
Either way the figure’s a scant step away from being a PVC figure from applause, and she comes with no redeeming accessory, so give her something new that makes her stand out and makes people want to pick her up. That 3PO is just off the top of my head as I write this review, and I can honestly say the thought of getting that really seems great to me.
Alas, the creative juices were not flowing at Hasbro when it came to this Leia figure, unfortunately.
-Tipsy Leia: Does your Leia Bespin stand up? Well, mine does, but barely, and she has a nasty habit of leaning sometimes if something’s pressed against her while she’s on her stand.
Her feet are tiny and thus kind of flimsy. This is not a good combination, and it’s showing with this figure, as mine’s had a habit of falling over. She’s holding a standing pose right now though, and not giving under her weight, and her stand helps, but she’s taken a nosedive a couple of times already.
Some figures it’s just a hazard of their design though it seems.
OVERALL
So what’s the verdict? Does Leia have it where it counts? Well, yes and no.
Leia’s a needed update to the majority… I’m not so sure I agree with “needed” but I’ll run with it and simply agree since I think most would disagree with me on the issue. She’s been overlooked now for a long time in the modern line, and a completely sculpted (no softgoods) figure of her is finally here for those that wanted.
The likeness is off though, the accessories are lame, and she’s not good for much other than standing near a Han figure. I’d have liked something a little more out of her then, that made her a little more interesting than she was. I didn’t get it, so I’m not content with what I did get out of this figure.
This Leia just says to me that Hasbro didn’t try hard enough. They maybe made some folks happy to get something they’d been asking for as far as resculpts go, but they didn’t make a figure that lives up to the line’s established standards, so Leia’s not getting high marks from me for that reason.
I can’t say not to buy her, but if you do I don’t blame you if you feel as though you didn’t get your $5 worth out of her, or if you don’t find her much “fun”, ya know?
As they say in my field of study, “Caveat Emptor”.
