Like many of you, I swore off Hasbro's The Black Series 6-inch figure line because, well, it's not 3-3/4-inch. And like many of you either have or will--curiosity got the best of me and--I cracked. Here's a brief rundown of my thoughts on the Luke Skywalker figure.

Since Hasbro revealed it on USA Today, I was a fan of the medallion design on The Black Series package art. The overly simple black theme of the design, however, didn't do anything for me. When I opened the box of the Luke figure, I was pleased to find that you can easily remove the figure without damaging the packaging, which means you can return figures into their boxes to store or display in box. At this point, the packaging is growing on me because of the functionality and my ability to be a "loose-boxed" collector.

I actually like the Luke figure a lot more than I expected. The 6-inch scale lends well to ensuring a well-translated representation of the character with type of details you lose in a smaller-scaled figure. I was surprised just how much bigger the 6-inch figures were in comparison to their 3-3/4 inch counterparts. The detail on the accessories is fantastic. The likeness of the figure to Mark Hamil isn't bad, but unfortunately the less than stellar paint applications on the face and hair don't do the portrait justice. With that, the figure looks fantastic with its helmet on.

The articulation is comparable to what you'd expect with one of the super-articulated 3-3/4-inch figures. A couple of additional articulation points are added to the head, thighs and knees that aren't standard on the 3-3/4 figures. For a full articulation overview, be sure to check out the figure anatomy guide.

Overall, I'm pleasantly surprised by this figure. If I could make two recommendations to Hasbro on how to improve future figures in the 6-inch series, I'd suggest they veil the visible pins in the articulation points (on the Luke figure, you can see them on the side where the knee joints connect to the upper and lower legs) and to reduce the porcelain doll appearance on human faces by using a translucent base plastic to achieve a more realistic look (NECA and Hot Toys figures are doing this successfully). It's not a flawless representation of the character, but it's a great start and I'd recommend picking this figure up.

View the photo archive entry for Hasbro's The Black Series 6-inch Luke Skywalker figure.