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I know, with the recent Jedi Luke I said I was
getting worn out on farmboy figures. Well, this one appealed
to me for a couple of reasons. One this is a fairly unique
Luke, not EU (Expanded Universe) enough to not be recognizable.
Second it was a two pack with Mara Jade, who goes on to marry Luke
in the EU. Now, they include an "Heir to the Empire"
comic with them. At that point the two weren't playing nice,
since Mara was an Imperial assassin know as the Emperor's Hand.
Appearance:
I have to admit I didn't pick up the "Heir to
the Empire" comic series, but I read the novels. So, except
for included comic and some of the EU stuff I've seen, I don't
have a lot of reference for Mara. She looks like
the character in the comic. She also sort of resembles
Shannon Baksa the model who is more or less the "official' Mara.
She looks a far site better than the POTF2 EU
version. She's got the same basic look, but the detailing is
more realistic, and the head is a dramatic improvement.
Strangely, the shoulder straps are not connected in the back
on this figure like the previous one. Because of that, they
appear to float at the tops of her arms.
I will say the gun, belt and holster look a bit
bulky to me. This might be right for the comic world, but I
would have like to have seen it toned down a bit for the this
release.
There is a bit of paint slop around her face,
hair and arm bands on my figure. Since it was the only one
the store, I don't know if this is widespread.
The Luke in this pack is half in his flight
suit. He's got the tank top on top and the top half of his
suit tied around his waist. This could make him a good
candidate for using in a Hoth medical center display.
I'm not sure if it's intended to be his chest
box on his back or not, but it does have a hole to plug in his
helmet.
This Luke seems a little buff in the torso for
me. Now, you could say he bulked up after Jedi. More
likely is this is how he was depicted in the comic.
He has what appears to be the same head sculpt
as the recent Jedi Luke. However, it's about 20% small that
the Jedi version. The entire figure seems a bit small
compared to the recent Luke. As such, this Luke's head won't
swap easily. That being said, to me the smaller version
looks a bit better, especially in the eyes.
Fun:
Two lightsaber foes against each other?
Guy versus gal? How could this set not be fun?
Seriously, both of the figures are geared up for adventures.
Luke isn't in his snobby black duds and Mara just looks like she's
ready to take on the bad guys. Or good guys depending on how
you see it.
Mara comes with a purple saber, gun and head,
uh, thingee. I think it's a wrap but it's so oversize it
looks bad. A separate head would have been a much better
solution. The saber handle is molded from some rubbery stuff
that bends pretty easy. As I said above, the gun, while a
cool design, is a bit big.
Her gun belt looks like a removable piece, but
isn't. There's a bit of glue holding it on in the back.
Both figures share some common articulation.
Ball jointed head and shoulders. There are also cut wrists
and elbows. Yes, the elbows are cut joints, which, while
they can achieve some decent poses, aren't as nice for these two
figures since both are lightsaber users. Mara gets ball
jointed knees as well, neatly hidden by her knee pads.
(Nope, not going to touch that joke.) Luke gets ankles
instead of knees. Which is goofy because without the knees
the ankles don't do much.
Luke comes with a blue saber, Han type pistol
and a belt that drapes over his shoulder. The pistol
fits neatly in the belt's holster. The saber is junky at
best, with no extra paint and doesn't look close to Luke's Jedi
one.
The helmet is a bit unusual for this figure.
As a I mentioned above the hose fits in a spot on his belt.
This helmet includes an oxygen mask over the nose and mouth area.
I'll assume it appears in the comic this way. It' a pretty
neat idea, though. They only drawback it that the helmet is
very flexible and doesn't hold its shape well off the figure.
(As an aside, this helmet reminds me a bit of Wild Weasel from the
GI Joe RAH line.)
Overall:
Yeah, I'm glad I got this set. It's EU,
but at least has a main stream character. It could have been
just a tad better with more articulation. I think the Luke
figure could have used some grime paint aps as well.
Mara will probably be hiding in the shadows of
my cantina display. Luke, I think, will eventually wind up
in my Dagobah display (See below). I know it's not
screen accurate, but was what I was thinking when I saw this
figure.
Engineernerd Score: 85/100
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