Obi-Wan Kenobi & Darth Vader (Concept Art Edition) - TBS [P4] - Six Inch Figures

Ralph McQuarrie's contribution to the look and feel of the Star Wars galaxy is immense. His unique style provided a visual language and guide for the saga's costume designs, set builders, location scouts, and model makers, and laid the groundwork for a consistent Star Wars aesthetic that is still seen and felt today. McQuarrie's work has and will continue to inspire artists and fans around the world for years to come.

Hasbro paid the most significant homage to Ralph McQuarrie in the 30 (77-07) lineup. Every wave of figures came with q specially packaged concept art figure. By the time they completed the line, they had produced well over a dozen characters, including exclusive releases. Now, a decade and a half later, it feels like it’s time to celebrate this creator’s artistry again, and it’s coming in the form of The Black Series 6-inch line. Unfortunately, Hasbro is taking shortcuts with the line’s inaugural release of this celebratory collection of figures with the Obi-Wan Kenobi & Darth Vader (Concept Art Edition) set. The figures are retools of existing 6-inch figures. They each have new head sculpts and has been completely repainted. But why did Hasbro pair Obi-Wan Kenobi and Darth Vader together? Everyone knows the classic Ralph McQuarrie images feature Darth Vader dueling Starkiller with an onlooking Stormtrooper, and Obi-Wan Kenobi was featured in a standalone image by Ralph McQuarrie. The character wasn’t in a developed scene with color or background. So, we don’t understand why Hasbro decided to include them together. Perhaps it’s because of the cost savings from using existing tooling to create these concept art characters.

Obi-Wan Kenobi (Concept Art Edition) is a retool and repaint of the existing Obi-Wan Kenobi 6-inch action figure. They managed to tool an all-new head sculpt with a faithful likeness to the McQuarrie sketch. Then they repainted the figure in white and purple and developed a new lightsaber accessory that breaks down into a hilt and blade. There isn’t any new tooling on this figure save for the portrait, so there are some inaccuracies to the concept art that we believe some collectors will find objectionable. Overall, we feel that Obi-Wan Kenobi (Concept Art Edition) turned out pretty well for what it is, but let’s face it The Black Series 6-inch line is suffering from redundancy. The 3.75-inch line went decades before constantly repackaging existing figures. Sure, Hasbro worked in some retooled figures into the line and many repacks, but it wasn’t at this rate or frequency. Darth Vader (Concept Art Edition) is a retool and repaint of the Darth Vader 6-inch figure based on The Empire Strikes Back. Like Obi-Wan Kenobi, Hasbro tooled a new head sculpt, which looks fantastic. What we’re not too crazy about is the figure’s coloring. It’s much too purplish-blue. We think a darker or blacker color would have been more appropriate here instead.

Released as a Shop Disney exclusive, the Obi-Wan Kenobi & Darth Vader (Concept Art Edition) set has an MSRP of $52.99. That’s not a bad price for two 6-inch action figures. With the line creeping up to almost $30 a figure, we should probably count our blessings when figures are cheaper like this set. The Obi-Wan Kenobi & Darth Vader (Concept Art Edition) two-pack comes packaged in a beautiful window box with elongated packaging that mimics the line’s standard basic figure packaging. Hasbro used the neon orange color coding and sourced the set to Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope, but it doesn’t come with a number. We hope that more concept art action figures are considered for The Black Series 6-inch line. Hasbro opened a new can of worms by producing this set, and it makes us want the rest of them. Imagine an all-new Chewbacca, C-3PO, and R2-D2. All of those characters require all-new tooling, so it’s quite a heavy lift for Hasbro to get all of these characters into the lineup. But we hope it remains a strong possibility. There is way too much focus on products and characters from Disney Star Wars, so it’s refreshing to see new action figures inspired by the George Lucas era get added to the modern toy line.