The Original Trilogy Collection brought about a lot of rehashed figures with new paintjobs to them, and very little else. Greedo, Imperial Scanner Tech, Bib Fortuna, and many others saw a re-release with little more than a tweak of colors or some dirt painted onto them (or cleaned off them, as the case may be). The Spirit Obi-Wan (Dagobah Training) figure though, offered something unique. The figure is a mixture of old parts with a few new ones, and cast in a translucent plastic with a nice translucent paint-wash to bring out the details.
The end result is that Hasbro put out something “new” for less than what it would’ve cost them to make a figure 100% from scratch, and we got an upgrade to a figure that’s been released twice before, but wasn’t ever a very spectacular toy. Did Hasbro make the definitive version though? That’s the age-old question, and below you’ll get my thoughts on the matter.
PROS
Sculpt: The sculpt actually isn’t even 100% new, and this is something I think Hasbro should try utilizing a little more. Some of their figure sculpts are so well done that they really don’t need to jump into making a whole new figure from scratch, and may save a couple bucks in the process. While it’s a good idea it could be abused though, so hopefully Hasbro doesn’t just start reusing every figure sculpt no matter how poor it may be, just to save that buck. This figure utilizes a couple pieces from the POTJ “Ben” Kenobi figure.
With that said, here’s what’s new, and what’s old.
New:
-Torso/Body
-Arms
-Hands
-Cloak
-Head
Old:
-Legs
-Lower Robes
The lower robes piece even sports the hole for the POTJ Obi-Wan’s saber hilt that the figure came with, which is kind of funny. The POTJ figure’s sculpt was pretty good overall, but in a quick comparison you can clearly see that the upper body of the new Spirit Obi-Wan is vastly superior. The legs and skirt-piece hold up well though with the new upper body.
The head sculpts between POTJ and OTC are vastly different. OTC is really blows the POTJ’s head sculpt out of the water as far as capturing Guinness’s likeness. It’s really remarkable. As well, the Torso of the Spirit Obi is much sharper and textured, which the translucent effect really shines here.
Obi’s new arms and coat are also sculpted with nice texturing to the cloak. They flow and look very realistic with a lot of nice folds and creases, especially where you can see up the arm hole of the cloak. The hands are also sculpted in nice “gesturing” poses for Obi-Wan to look like he’s giving some advice to the whiney farm boy.
Overall, even if Hasbro reused parts, this was clearly a nicely sculpted figure, and it blends so seamlessly that you almost can’t tell the differences in what’s old and what isn’t. Good job and I hope they make smart decisions like this one was, should they decide to reuse parts on figures in the future. They can really do a nice job when they want to.
Paint/Deco: The figure’s paint is pretty simplistic really, since it’s just the odd, almost glowing paint that just highlights the figure’s sculpt and makes it appear more life-like… for a ghost anyway. It’s visually superior to every Ghost Obi-Wan attempt previously done. They’re really nowhere even in the same league.
Obi-Wan’s main paint applications are his eyes, beard, and hair. My sample and most I’ve seen since getting mine are very clean and clear. The eyes seem almost too bright of a blue, but it’s a passable paintjob, and they’re not crooked. They’re just “bright” looking.
Another feature to the figure, and I’m not sure if this is molded within the translucent plastic or what, so I’m listing it here as merely part of the deco, is the way in which the figure actually sparkles and shines. It’s really sort of illuminated like the spirits are in the film. There are sparkles that catch the light, and they actually seem as if they’re within the figure itself. A very cool effect if nothing else and it really sets this figure apart from previous attempts.
Articulation: Oddly enough, the spirit of Obi-Wan can actually be posed! This is a big leap over the previous versions which were merely a solid piece of plastic. Not that Obi-Wan did much when he was dead. He mostly just stood around and talked to Luke or complained with Yoda. Nonetheless, it’s nice of Hasbro to take a little extra time and effort with Obi-Wan, by giving him a couple extra points of articulation.
His articulation count is:
-2 standard shoulder joints
-2 swivel elbow joints
-2 wrist joints
-1 standard waist joint
-1 standard neck joint
-2 standard hip joints
With a total of 10 points, he’s one articulated specter, but his leg joints (it should be noted) really are useless due to the skirt piece. Irregardless of that though, he can take some nice conversation poses, and that’s at least something. It’s about all he did anyway.
CONS
Accessories: Short of a reused base that other figures in the Dagobah Wave came with, he really is accessory-less. The base does interlock with other bases from the wave though, and may I again reiterate that I’d love a Yoda’s Hut playset that actually had tabs for the bases to connect to, but beyond the base Obi-Wan’s Spirit has diddly squat to claim as a figure.
What could he come with though? Well, not a lot other than perhaps packing him with some random junk that maybe would’ve been seen on Dagobah. Perhaps Hasbro could’ve included the flying creature from the Dagobah Complete Galaxy playset from POTF2? Or perhaps the boxes and gear from the Red 5 Dagobah X-Wing released a short while ago to Toys R Us stores? It would’ve been something to include and make for more of a “diorama” feel.
It’s note a huge deal though, just a minor thing I noticed.
Unable to Sit: It’s a gripe only because Obi-Wan’s sitting conversation with Luke in Return of the Jedi was always a sequence that seemed important to me. It’d be great if an Obi-Wan spirit figure could sit, but how do you do it? I’m not sure soft-goods could be made to be “sparkly” like this figure is.
I doubt any Spirit Obi-Wan ever really is able to sit, but the thought is there and it’d be nice. Even if it was a solid cast piece or some such, the figure would be nice to sit in a diorama with a Luke Jedi while he inquires about his past and Yoda’s cryptic answers. Again, this isn’t a major gripe to me at all, just more of a thought.
OVERALL
Not a bad figure at all really, besides maybe the accessory issue. I think this is a great update to the spirit figures; however it brings about a problem. What do you do with the OTHER spirit figures now? To say they look bad next to this Obi-Wan is an understatement. They look like knock-offs now, actually, so what is a collector to do?
Well, my Obi’s gonna spend some time with the other Dagobah Wave till the other spirits are redone to match him... hopefully. That’s about all we can do. Way to go Hasbro on a nice update though and a good use of part of a previous sculpt.
So in the end, pick up Obi-Wan’s Spirit if you catch him (He’s still pretty easy to find, even at the end of the OTC line), and enjoy a nicely upgraded figure from Hasbro.
