Princess Leia (Slave Outfit) - TBS [P1] - Six Inch Figures (#05)

Dressed as one of Jabba the Hutt's slaves, Princess Leia escapes from the Hutt's sail barge at the Pit of Carkoon.

"Come on, we gotta get out of here."

Yikes! If one could come up with a reason for why Hasbro may want to delay adding scantily clad female body types into The Black Series 6” line, Princess Leia (Slave Outfit) may be the case in point. Baby got back! And we mean big time! OK, so that sounds a bit harsh; and in actuality it is, because although she has a few issues, Princess Leia (Slave Outfit) isn’t as bad as we think people are making her out to be. Sure, she could use some trimming around the hips, but we have to remember that this is a first time offering of her in this scale. But the early complaining didn’t even focus around what we see as her main issue. No, other collectors don’t like the aesthetics of the articulation points. With any action figure that isn’t wearing much of anything, joints connection points of this articulation are not going to be seamless. Sure, there are ways to hide the harshness of where they intersect each other, but no matter how well they are executed, there will always still remain some integrity issues within the frames of these types of characters. It becomes hypocritical of us to demand unlimited articulation and then only complain about it when it’s been added to an action figure. So, look the other way a minute from this other issue and focus your eyes on what makes this a great action figure. Princess Leia (Slave Outfit) was a bold choice for Hasbro. As the first female character in The Black Series 6” line, they certainly could have played it safer with other outfits instead. Even Leia’s “combat poncho” outfit seemed like a more likely first choice. Hasbro did a good job for what we consider a first attempt. Something s still need to be perfected, but overall we’re pleasantly surprised and almost impressed.

That being said, Princess Leia (Slave Outfit) has a lot going for it. We liken its approach to the 2001 Power Of The Jedi Deluxe figure much more than 2009's LC Princess Leia (BD17) figure. The colors and likeness favor the former much more. The head sculpt is a decent likeness of actress Carrie Fisher. Her expression isn’t the one we had hoped seeing and it certainly wouldn’t have been our first choice, but she looks a little more dazed and confused rather than concerned. Even an emotion surrounding the overthrowing of Jabba the Hutt, whether that be anger or determination, would have been a better choice in our own estimation. Her costume has been replicated very well. The colors chosen including the infamous gold and gray accented bikini are perfect and the long skirt covering up most of her unmentionables seems to be cropped into the correct shape. This absolutely looks like the character in the film and we applaud Hasbro’s efforts for doing her well. She comes with a partial chain around her neck, so all we need now is a The Black Series 6” Jabba the Hutt to hold it. We wish, and this is even true for the 3.75” line that Hasbro would give us a full length metal chain. It seems that is even more necessary in the 6” line where crossing over into mixed media territory will give these figures the best appearances and ring loudly with authenticity. She comes with two different force pikes, but most of the action surrounding these weapons have only ended up on the cutting room floor. It’s still nice to have them included here as it gives the character more dimension and versatility. Her booties, for lack of a better term, have also been recreated very nicely and surprisingly give her a great center of gravity to attain a number of diverse poses. Sadly, there is one glaring issue with Princess Leia (Slave Outfit) that may be a little too difficult to overlook.

That issue would be her backside. Thanks to the inclusion of ball-jointed hips (a first for this character in any scale), her butt looks way too wide. It’s tragic because the rest of the figures proportions are relatively perfect, save for a small issue here or there. With strategic manipulation of the joints in her lower hip area, you can diminish just how far they stick out, but consider this her one true flaw. And it’s a big one, no pun intended. For us, it’s not enough to deter us from straying away from this scale, but it does leave us feeling a little disappointed that this didn’t catch the attention of Hasbro at the prototype stage. Maybe there isn’t much that can be done to remedy this situation, but we find that extremely difficult to believe. We are confident that The Black Series 6” line has tremendous room for growth. Princess Leia (Slave Outfit) just scratches the surface on what Hasbro will be able to bring into the 6” scaled line, whether it continues under The Black Series banner or a yet-to-be unnamed collection. And we hope that they receive the necessary feedback to make figures like this as close to perfect as possible. (For the record and as an unrelated aside, it would behoove them to continue on with this line look and collection name despite how the basic figure line moves forward.) Wave 2 of The Black Series 6” line has turned out to be a pleasant surprise for us. Sure, we have already seen the repacked Boba Fett figure in the San Diego Comic Con exclusive set earlier in the year, but this is a gift to lovers of the Original Trilogy. Hasbro had you in mind when they designed it. There is room for growth obviously, like her frayed soft-goods skirt. Sure, there is always room to grow and perfect things, but the line is off to a fantastic start.