Princess Leia - EU - Basic

Prepare to jump to lightspeed with Kenner's Expanded Universe, now offering the most memorable characters from Star Wars Dark Horse comics, Bantam novels, and LucasArts video games. Finally, the entire galaxy can be yours!

Six years after the destruction of the second Death Star, the galaxy is thrust into turmoil. A reborn evil threatens to enslave the galaxy, and the Republic's closest friend – Luke Skywalker – may become their greatest enemy.

Hoping to free her brother Luke from the evil of the dark side, Jedi Leia prepares to match her power against that of a reborn Emperor. Boarding his colossal warship, Leia is overwhelmed by the oppression of the dark side.

After the death of the vintage Kenner line in 1985, Star Wars sort of disappeared from the collective consciousness. There were things here and there to keep interest in the Star Wars brand, but one alternate source really struck a chord with fans. The Star Wars: Dark Empire comic book series continued events after the Battle of Endor. It brought back those we thought were dead, and returned characters who interestingly developed new roles in the galaxy. The action was intense and the storylines were good. And the Dark Empire series not only gave us material for what fans could consider those rumored Episode VII, Episode VIII and Episode IX films, it also gave affirmation that Star Wars is forever and that there would be plenty of things that would keep fans occupied for years to come. With beautiful cover artwork and excellent sketches inside, the Dark Empire series provided enough reason for fans to get excited about Star Wars all over again. In 1998, Kenner paid homage to many Expanded Universe sources, including Dark Empire. One of the figures released in the line was Princess Leia, as she appeared in the Dark Empire comics. Collectors dug the figure and she quickly became one of the most sought after figures in the entire Expanded Universe line.

Princess Leia IS A PRETTY DECENT ACTION FIGURE. Her hair is down in a similar fashion to how it was when she wore the dress provided to her by the Ewoks. Essentially the two styles are not all that different, aside from the lack of twine used to sculpt her hair in Episode VI. Basically her hair is long and hanging down her back. Princess Leia’s likeness is alright. Kenner hasn’t had the best luck translating Carrie Fisher’s appearance into the 3.75” line and it appears that the same has happened here. You can tell this is a female character from Star Wars who resembles Princess Leia, but to say the likeness is unmatched, well, that just isn’t going to come from us. Still simply articulated, Princess Leia comes with six points of articulation. This is unfortunate because she comes with some really cool accessories that cannot be manipulated all that realistically thanks to her limitations. The red lightsber is a nice touch, a removable cape (that goes underneath her hair and has some really cool red hues throughout it), in addition to a holdout blaster. When her cape is removed, Princess Leia sports a mostly tan outfit. We preferred posing her with the weapons this way for more movement and options. That cape severely limits how you can manipulate Princess Leia.

The icing on the cake with the Expanded Universe basic figures is the inclusion of a cardboard diorama. Sadly, you need to cut up the package to make it functional, but it’s well worth the time and aggravation to “chew up” your packaging to utilize this nice extra. Once you open up the “pop up” diorama, this colorful backdrop is the most perfect setting for the included Expanded Universe character. Princess Leia looks absolutely perfect standing on it. The background is based on artwork from the comics, and now you can place a three dimensional character on it to recreate these pivotal scenes. What’s more, the fold-out dioramas can easily be flattened and reused at another time. They’ve been manufactured in sturdy cardboard so it’s our guess that these will hold up through the years quite well. Princess Leia is a great action figure. And we think she was a wise choice for the Expanded Universe line. We’re so appreciative to Kenner for developing a smaller line that included character from multiple Expanded Universe sources, like the comics, as well as concept artwork created to inspire the films. Of course we’d love to see articulation get majorly enhanced, but it’s hard to discount what Hasbro has included for us here.