There are certain unorthodox ways to tell when someone has truly “made it” in their chosen field of expertise. For certain animators, maybe that feeling comes when Tumblr artists begin creating fan art of their original characters. For musicians, the only metric worth mentioning is whether or not Weird Al has done a parody of somebody’s song. But sometimes the indicator is a little more specialized, and a certainStar Warscreator has managed to reach that milestone and build a summer home there.
Director George Lucas, the only aspect ofStar Warsheld with higher regard than the original non-special editions, will soon receive his own collectible action figure that places him firmly in the universe he created all those years ago. As part of its Black Series, Hasbro has crafted a little trinket that depicts the original creator of this vast franchise in disguise as an Imperial stormtrooper, because at this point, it feels like going incognito in an Imperial base is a rite of passage forStar Warscharacters.
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Here’s the kicker, though. This isn’t Lucas' first timegetting his ownStar Warsaction figure. In the past, he’s received the same honor several times, and to varying degrees of friendliness to the canon. Back in 2002, he enjoyed a similar treatment at that year’sStar WarsCelebration in the form of a Rebel pilot figure (also from Hasbro) bearing his likeness. Named Jorg Sacul (in a rather chuckle-worthy bit of wordplay), the character even had his own backstory, which included a homeworld (Tatooine) as well as a redemption story where he defected from the Empire to the Rebels and became a highly respected flight commander.
Lucas was able to add another 2 figures to his collection in 2006. The first came from Hasbro’s Saga Collection, which launched that year. Part of the collection included Lucas in stormtrooper armor, albeit without the fancy name and backstory of his previous iteration. Notably, however, his face was sculpted to look like Lucas in his younger, original trilogy days as opposed to how his other figures appeared. Looks likesomebody at Hasbroreally wanted to butter the big guy up. The new figure being released this year appears to be a bit of a recreation of that iteration, including through its packaging, albeit with a slightly more age-accurate look.
Finally, in the same year, another figure was released that was unambiguously in-universe and lore-friendly. It featured Lucas' blue-skinned character Baron Papanoida, seen briefly in the opera house scene ofthe tragicStar Wars: Revenge of the Sith. In fact, his entire family made cameos in the movie, and Hasbro even offers a package featuring figures of all 4 of them. But where the new figure sets itself apart from the rest is in its scale. While Lucas figures have all been 3.75 inches tall, the upcoming Black Series release will be a whopping 6 inches. Well, ok so that’s admittedly not that tall. Less “whopping” and maybe more “whupping.”
As of 1 p.m., EST on September 29th, the Black Series figure isavailable for pre-order on Amazon(no accounting for how quickly the pre-orders run out, unfortunately). Any collectors out there may want to bookmark that page. But for everyone else, just enjoy the look of that tiny plastic replica of the Maker himself, and think about how long it will take before some kid pops those arms off. Wookiees and children are known to do that.
TheStar Warssaga is now available on Disney Plus.
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