Leia Organa (General) - POTJ - Basic

A princess on her homeworld of Alderaan, Leia Organa is a strong-willed woman of action. After Alderaan was destroyed by the first Death Star, she became a full-time member of the Rebel Alliance. She is dedicated to putting an end to the Empire's reign of tyranny.

After Hasbro released 1997’s POTF2 Speeder Bike (With Princess Leia Organa In Endor Gear), fans wondered how much longer they would wait to see this character get carded as a basic figure. That update certainly didn’t happen with 2000’s POTJ Leia Organa (General) figure because she is missing all of the gear which would make her a modern replacement for the 1984 vintage Kenner Princess Leia Organa (In Combat Poncho) figure. Hasbro was going for a different take on her actually for the 2000 release anyway. Her pre-Endor look was marked by the omission of her poncho, helmet, and most of her other battle gear, the way she looked on the Home One while observing the tactical battle plan for the Rebel Alliance’s attack on the second Death Star by Admiral Ackbar and company. Where Hasbro missed the mark is that Princess Leia on the Home One and Princess Leia on Endor (well, most of the time at least) are the same exact outfits. The only difference is the amount of accessories. It would have behooved Hasbro to just update the vintage Kenner figure in its entirety instead of skimping and copying a very screen specific version of her. Wouldn’t you have preferred to have received all of her accessories in an updated fashion than just the incomplete core figure? We digress.

Leia Organa (General) is a decent update to the 1997 release, but for reasons unknown it feels like it’s more of an unused leftover from the tail end of The Power of the Force “2” line, as the figures from that line were starting to look better. And that may have to do with the fact that the POTJ figure is loosely based on the figure from 1997’s POTF2 Speeder Bike (With Princess Leia Organa In Endor Gear) vehicle set. While still a completely new figure, Hasbro definitely used the based sculpt from 1997 and retooled it in its entirety to bring us the Leia Organa (General) figure. She is too tall, has bulkier than normal features, even though she has delicate arms, and her head is completely reminiscent of some of the better Princess Leia Organa figures from the 1995-2000 Hasbro era. What’s more, her oversized weapons are ill-fitted to her petite frame, albeit large hands, and it almost appears as if she is struggling to hold onto them (based on size alone). Sadly, an out of scale Leia action figure is disappointing, but thankfully Hasbro did the best job possible on the sculpt and as a result the figure comes across more palatable than you might first be inclined to believe. Her head sculpt is decent. She looks feminine and her hair is nearly screen accurate. She has a curvy yet athletic frame and she looks like an official in the Rebel Alliance. The details in her vest are done quite well and the communicator on her arm as well as her ranking badge all add to the list of what makes this action figure interesting. But what’s aggravating is that this is where it ends. You can’t dress her up to battle on Endor and we find that discouraging.

That’s ultimately the opinion we have for Leia Organa (General). She isn’t a terrible action figure, but she is lacking. She feels instantly antiquated, but still looks good. Her release is bittersweet. There’s not too much more that can be said of Leia Organa (General) other than that. She feels incomplete and needs more, even if she looks decent as an action figure. We hope in the future that Hasbro doesn’t give us the base costume of a character when they can give us removable layers to that the figure feels like it have value. It would have been relatively simple to include a removable helmet, belt and poncho. Heck, if the 1984 vintage Kenner figure could come with all of these accessories, then why couldn’t a modern figure with decades of technology behind it not have these options? We’re glad to see that the Hasbro through the Power Of The Jedi line is looking to revisit previously attempted modern action figures already, but we feel that they need to bring more to the table in this instance. Leia Organa (General) is admirable in a few ways, but she also doesn’t meet our own expectations in a few other ways. Her release is bittersweet. She really does look good, albeit too tall, but it’s what she doesn’t come with that has us scrambling.