I've spent the weeks since Force Friday II slowly tracking down the items on my Last Jedi Hasbro huntlist. In contrast to last Force Friday, I've been spacing out my purchases - doing my best to take advantage of the best deals and make my budget go as far as possible. My main focus was on the 3/4" Force Link line, and I began by picking up Luke Skywalker (Jedi Master) on release day, followed soon after by Finn (Resistance Fighter), Kylo Ren, Resistance Gunner Paige, Resistance Tech Rose, and the Rey (Jedi Training) and Elite Praetorian Guard 2-pack.
As with the Force Awakens and Rogue One lines, this new Force Link range continues to be restricted to only five points of articulation. With every wave of new figures, however, this is becoming less and less of a concern. Put simply, these are some of the best-looking Star Wars figures to hit shelves since Disney bought out the franchise back in 2012. The tooling is fantastic across the board, with simple elements (like fabric texture) looking better than ever. Kylo's cape and Luke's cloak are rendered in vinyl which - in this collector's humble opinion - leads them to look far better than the cloth capes found with their 3 3/4" and 6" super-articulated Black Series equivalents.
The likenesses are also spot-on - particularly in the case of old-man Luke. But the real stand-out figure in this line is the as-yet-unknown Paige. Not only does she finally give us a Resistance pilot with a removable helmet, but she also comes with a detachable oxygen mask that neatly clips into her donned helmet - a phenomenally cool detail!
Each figure (not counting Luke) comes with a single sidearm or lightsaber, while Rose also comes with an unidentified tool that clips to her belt. Thankfully, Hasbro has ditched the oversized additional weaponry in favour of the new 'Force Link' technology: an embedded chip that, when scanned by the (separately sold) Force Link bracelet, elicits a series of character-specific dialogue from the device. The one exception to this is the Rey in the 2-pack, who still comes with a whopping Falcon-esque shoulder-mounted quad cannon (not pictured above). It's a forgivable inclusion, however, since Rey already comes with a plentiful supply of screen-accurate accessories including her blaster, staff, and Luke's lightsaber.
I haven't had the chance to test the Force Link feature yet - since I'm holding out for the Toy'R'Us exclusive bracelet set that's being released later this year - but I'll be sure to update this post when I do!
