Wedge Antilles - TBS [P1] - Basic (#29)

This Rebel pilot and friend of Luke Skywalker battles Imperial forces who are attacking Echo Base on the ice planet Hoth.

When Wedge Antilles was announced for The Black Series line, there were many collectors who believed that this would be the first offering of this character wearing as he was wearing his snowspeeder pilot outfit from the Battle of Hoth. But that isn’t correct because he was first issued (albeit incorrectly initially) in 1997’s The Power Of The Force “2” Millennium Falcon Carry Case. This particular version was based off of 1995’s The Power Of The Force “2” Luke Skywalker (In X-wing Fighter Pilot Gear) figure (which was incorrectly labeled since it was based on Luke’s appearance in The Empire Strikes Back during the Battle of Hoth as well). Serendipitously, Wedge Antilles in The Black Series line is also based off of Luke Skywalker, specifically 2009’s LC Luke Skywalker (BD51) figure. The new and improved 2014 figure is quite impressive, although some of the paint operations on are sample are rough and will likely put off some collectors. Although Wedge Antilles does look a little too much like Luke Skywalker (because Hasbro used almost the entire based sculpt and just updated the head sculpt), Wedge Antilles does indeed look a little familiar. But we still love it nonetheless. He’s one of the last (if not the last) snowspeeder pilot from the Battle of Hoth to be updated, and Hasbro has chosen wisely to pick a great base sculpt on which they could extrapolate on for Wedge.

First and foremost, Wedge Antilles has a pretty outstanding head sculpt. He’s wearing a skullcap very similarly to the one Luke Skywalker was wearing in the Legacy Collection line, but Hasbro tooled an all-new likeness (obviously) and we think it interestingly may be one of the nicest head sculpts of Wedge Antilles we have seen in the line to date, despite the skullcap covering most of his head). As mentioned, our sample doesn’t have a perfectly painted face (especially in the eyes), but the paint job isn’t terrible and we actually think our sample looks pretty darn good despite its imperfections. You should still be able to get the idea that this is still a great likeness. The new head sculpt looks seamless on the previously existing body. We just wish Hasbro would have reused the existing tooled hands since they have been designed to be “lightsaber specific”. It also would have helped Wedge Antilles look a little more unique. The paint job on the rest of the figure looks great. His flight suit is a little bright, but it’s nothing out of the ordinary that we haven’t seen on other figures already. The ball-jointed torso that this sculpt comes with is extremely functional and useful. We think that pilots should definitely come with ball-jointed torsos because it really helps with posing and seating them in vehicles. There had to be at least one retool in a new wave of figures, but by doing it this way we can swallow the reuse of parts easily.

Wedge Antilles comes with three accessories. The first is a removable helmet and it is decorated beautifully. His helmet has specific symbols and patterns on it and Hasbro has ensured that they’ve been replicated awesomely. In all honesty, the removable helmet is still slightly too big and is wobbly when you situate it on his head (similarly as it was for Luke as well), but it looks so good that you’ll probably overlook the size issue. Wedge Antilles also comes with a strapped blaster rifle and a smaller blaster pistol. He is modestly accessorized and in fact he comes with more accessories than we expected because this action figure represents him flying a snowspeeder where he didn’t have any accessories at all (save for the helmet). Wedge Antilles is last on the list for many collectors to acquire for their collections, but he is definitely one of our favorites in The Black Series line. He was severely overdue and Hasbro updated the old 1997 POTF2 figure in a way that meets our discriminating standards. As Wedge Antilles is part of the final wave in the first phase of The Black Series line, we hope and pray that he doesn’t experience last wave syndrome, a condition that has made many incredible action figures very difficult to lock down. Wedge Antilles should be a priority on your list. Be sure you get yours.