In the STAR WARS collecting community, there is probably no action figure character that is as heavily contested and controversial as Farmboy Luke Skywalker. Hasbro has tried their hand at this character several times over the years. But some collectors feel that the likenesses are not quite right. Others prefer to see him with a soft-good robe and not sculpted. Yet others feel that his body has always been rendered anatomically awkward.

I suppose to one degree or other, I fall into each of those categories of dis-satisfaction... at least a little bit.

Now with my custom, I addressed each of those issues (and several others) as I worked toward creating an accessory-heavy "Ultimate" Farmboy Luke.

At first, this figure was all about correcting Hasbro's awkward anatomy with virtually ALL of their production Farmboy Lukes. Many suffered from legs that were anatomically too short and stubby. The hip "side" articulation (which was introduced during the Vintage Original Trilogy Collection in 2004), was un-necessary in my view, and aesthetically ruined the look of the figure by giving him an overly-narrow off-balance stance by default.

I re-built this figure completely from the waist down with a standard pelvis, and slightly longer legs. I was lucky that Hasbro made this figure a little bit TOO short, because by lengthening his legs I still managed to maintain his scale height relative to other 3.75 inch action figures (Luke should be somewhat shorter).

I knew that I wanted the farmboy tunic on my custom figure to be soft-goods, but the one provided by Hasbro in 2004 needed some tailoring for a more appropriate fit.

As for head sulpts, Hasbro seems to not be able to quite get this right. I suppose it's not entirely their fault. If a sculptor were to try to capture Mark Hamill's STAR WARS likeness from 10 difference scenes, he is likely going to end up with 10 radically different sculpts. This is why my approach is to borrow a page from the POTF2 Kenner playbook: I select ONLY ONE head sculpt for a main character, and I re-use it with all custom action figures of that character. I simply do NOT concern myself with making Luke appear "younger" or "older" relative to which film outfit the custom figure is supposed to come from. For me, a nice, pleasant, [i]neutral[/i] Luke sculpt is all I'm after.

Back during the Power Of The Jedi line (2001), a Luke Skywalker sculpt was released that seems to have missed virtually everyone's radar. And I think that it's the closest that Hasbro has ever come to creating a pleasing Luke likeness. It was the 25th Anniversary "Swing To Freedom" Luke (packaged with Leia as a two-pack). I converted the sculpt for ball-joint use. This conversion had the fortunate result of correcting the sculpt's inherent "turkey neck". Once converted, I never found a more pleasing Luke likeness sculpt, even among the most recent Hasbro offerings.

Accessories for this action figure include:

Sun hat
Soft-goods poncho
Macrobinoculars (pictured), which clip on and off his belt.
Lightsaber (ignited)
Lightsaber hilt (for hanging on belt)
Droid caller
T-16 Skyhopper toy model on a stand
Laser rifle
Imperial blaster
Imperial Stormtrooper belt
Imperial comlink
Grapplng Hook and line
Jedi Training Remote
Blast Sheild Helmet


Anyhow, for what it's worth, here is my Luke Skywalker Tatoine Farmboy from [b]STAR WARS Episode IV: A NEW HOPE[/b]


“I want to learn the ways of The Force and become a Jedi like my father."