1998 Dark Empire Luke Skywalker

I figured I'd start this blog off with what is probably (ok, definitely) my favorite figure from Kenner's Star Wars Power of the Force line from the 1990s, Luke Skywalker from the Dark Empire comics.

Distribution of these figures was spotty, at best. I remember coming across these at the dearly-departed Waterloo, IA Toys R Us during the after-Christmas clearance purge in 1998. I also picked up the Clone Emperor, Spacetrooper, Kyle Katarn, and Mara Jade. I was just happy to find new figures, since the last waves of this line were getting super-hard to find, and I had already found the follow-up Flashback wave that was supposed to tie into Episode I: The Phantom Menace, which was coming out the next summer. (Was that a long time ago or what? Back when that movie was bigger than the Second Coming.) I eventually found the rest (except Leia) the following spring at Kay-Bee Toys (again with the departed store... what a lousy leitmotif, amirite?) at a premium. I'll get to other figures at some point, though I have to say the Troopers from this series are amazing.

I was very fond of the Dark Empire series, that being the first comics Dark Horse Comics published waaaay back in 1992. I never read it until 1997, when I picked up a collected version at Waldenbooks (also dearly departed) in the Crossroads Mall. I read it all the time, finding it far more interesting than most (if not all) Bantam novels. It involved Luke crossing over to the Dark Side, and Leia taking up her Jedi heritage and bringing Luke back. I think I'll have to read it again, since it's been a long time.

I do wish that Hasbro's current offerings for Star Wars 3.75" figures were up to this standard. The paint is incredible, it has all the articulation it needs, and while the head sculpt is really softened from Cam Kennedy's art, it works for the time. And I just noticed I gave him Leia's lightsaber from the same series. Luke's actually has a black hilt, whereas Leia has the silver one. Anyway, it's a great figure, and what with Disney's purge of the Expanded Universe stories from 1978-2012, is a relic that likely will never be revisited. Hasbro did offer newer versions of Luke and the Clone Emperor in 2008, but they were technically from Dark Empire II where the 1998 figures were mostly based on the first series. This is really becoming a litany of asides, but I do miss those Comic Packs. Two new figures, a comic reprint, and some of the strangest characters Hasbro ever offered. Hell, I'm still waiting for General Leia Organa and Luke from The Force Awakens.

Thanks for the read, and please come back for more!

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