ANIMATED BLACK & WHITE LUKE SKYWALKER MAQUETTE

 

Adding on to what seemed to be a never ending list of exclusives in 2007, Gentle Giant offered yet another one of their previously released Animated OT maquettes sporting their now well known monochromatic Black & White colors. Luke Skywalker as Snowspeeder pilot became, like a few others before him, an exclusive for the Blister store in Japan having a limited run of 500 pieces. As an already established routine for this sub line, 250 of the maquettes were made available through Blister's website and store while the remaining 250 were raffled off in June to worldwide GG's Guild members. Following the norm with most of the Gentle Giant product, Luke was hand numbered under the base and packed with a baseball card size Certificate of Authenticity.

 

The maquette was made available through GG's website along with the Commander Neyo bust, another desirable Blister exclusive.This time around the familiar raffle received a few more critics than usual due to what appeared to be a glitch in GG's system. According to reported numbers, a high percentage of the winners were found to be on Eastern states while in Central and Western states the numbers were peculiarly low. As nothing was officially admitted nor proved, this is being mentioned here only for record purposes.

 

There were also certain issues with Luke's somewhat awkward pose when placed in next to other animated maquettes. A few months back in March, when the regular 4500 run colored version of the character begin to ship, people had a variety of opinions dealing with the "less than impressive pose", as some called it. Despite of course being the animated form of the character and not intended to look-alike, Luke's face had not much to offer as far as likeness and a few complaints were raised.

 

ANIMATED BLACK & WHITE LUKE SKYWALKER
MAQUETTE: A DETAILED LOOK

 

Inspired by the striking movie sequence in The Empire Strikes Back, slightly scrunched but determined, Luke stands 8 inches tall on a small pile of snow atop an irregularly shaped black base after being blasted from the sky by AT-AT Walkers in his heroic Hoth fight. His layered long hair is brushed back on the sides as if being hit by the ruthlessly freezing Hoth wind moments after struggling out of his cockpit. A feeling of awareness and aution is reflected on his face with squinting thick eyebrows over exploring eyes that seem to look for a way to, against impossible odds, leap out from the path of these upcoming Imperial behemoths before taking one of them down himself.

 

The flight suit our hero wears is nicely elaborated, accessorized with a strapped down life support unit over a rigged flak vest. There is an air support hose coming down from under the life support unit and hooking up to Luke's pants over the left thigh. Clipped to the utility belt around his waistline are his lightsaber hilt and the holster for his blaster. His hands are covered by a pair of oversized gloves and gauntlet while the feet are protected by thick, bulky boots made to resist the frozen weather of the ice planet. Over the left boot, strapped to Luke's leg, is a black belt holding 9 signal flares. There is also a gear harness coming out from under the top part of the suit and tangled around his legs.

 

Luke carries a blaster in his right hand, index finger on the trigger ready to shoot at the slightest enemy attempt against his life. In his right hand he holds his pilot helmet and, this was indeed an exquisitely executed part of the maquette's design. All of the appropriate markings on the helmet are present, including the Alliance symbols. Even sectioned pieces of the inside padding were rendered in. Adding on to the authentic look, the goggles on the helmet are made of a transparent, tinted plastic.
 

As far as color is concern, given the fact this is the monochromatic version, there isn't much to say. Basically the different tones of gray in contrast with the blacks and whites work well and, it is the opinion of quite a few collectors that the Black and White version of the character is more appealing to the eye than the bright orange color of the suit and yellow hair of the colored version.

 

ANIMATED BLACK & WHITE LUKE SKYWALKER
MAQUETTE: FINAL THOUGHT

 

Frankly Luke's face does not seem to fit well the animated style of others. His facial features aren't exaggerated enough to appear as an animation, rather making him look as an entirely new character. Perhaps a more protruding split chin, a longer mouth or even his hair style part to the side, not in the middle would had given him more of a resemblance to the actual character while providing the comedic look intended in animation. Nonetheless and as a whole, the maquette is exquisite in it's presentation and dynamic execution. The snowy base (as with the sand on C3PO's) maquette adds a bit of a scenery to what it would had been otherwise, a dull stand.

 

I still don't see the purpose of the Black and White maquettes other than novelties aimed at completists as another way to suck up a few extra dollars from readily available sculpts. While there are definitely better ones out there, overall the Luke maquette is a solid entry in the Line. Furthermore, if you rather take a moderate hit to your wallet and save some extra bucks, make sure to grab the color version from our sponsor. In all honesty both versions of the maquette work just as well.