Cool Stuff: One Of The Best Star Wars Books Is Getting An Incredible Set Of Action Figures
After Disney acquired Lucasfilm, one of their biggest creative decisions regarding the "Star Wars" franchise was to completely disregard the entirety of the Expanded Universe, opting to turn all the novels, comics, video games, and other assorted media surrounding the "Star Wars" movies into what is now known as Legends and removing them from the overall canon of the galaxy far, far away.
However, since then, several "Star Wars" projects have brought some of the Expanded Universe content back under the canon umbrella, such as the villainous, master strategist Grand Admiral Thrawn. The character originated in the "Heir to the Empire" trilogy of novels by author Timothy Zahn, which is largely considered to be among the best "Star Wars" books ever written.
But just because that story was relegated to Legends doesn't mean Lucasfilm is ignoring it. Not only is a version of this storyline slowly coming to fruition in a new way through the "Ahsoka" TV series, Hasbro is bringing fans a four-pack of Star Wars Black Series action figures inspired by "The Last Command," the concluding chapter of Zahn's trilogy. More specifically, these figures are inspired by the comic book adaptation of the novel.
Hasbro's new Star Wars Black Series action figure four-pack includes the familiar "Return of the Jedi" version of Luke Skywalker. But there's also another version of Luke, one that we'll likely never see in the proper "Star Wars" universe. That's not all either, because the collectible set also includes a key villain and one of the most beloved characters from the Expanded Universe. Let's take a look below!
Truly legendary
Along with the black clad Luke Skywalker, Hasbro's "Star Wars: The Last Command" Black Series four-pack includes Luuke Skywalker, a clone of the Jedi Master created by the Dark Jedi known as Joruus C'baoth. The villain is also included in the four-pack, and he comes with swappable hands that have Force lightning shooting out of his fingers.
Created from tissue cells taken from the severed hand of Luke Skywalker during his fight with Darth Vader in "Empire Strikes Back," the Luuke Skywalker clone serves C'baoth, and with equal Force power and Luke's original lightsaber handed down to him by his father, Luuke proves to be quite the formidable foe for the real Skywalker.
Of course, Luke doesn't have to face his clone alone. In "The Last Command," he's joined by Mara Jade, the Force-sensitive smuggler who once worked as an Emperor's Hand, a special agent for Emperor Palpatine, and she attempted to assassinate Skywalker. But eventually, she turns against the Empire and works with Luke to defeat both his clone and Joruus C'baoth.
As you can see, there are four lightsabers included with the action figure set, so they can all be engaged in combat with each other. However, with the exception of Mara Jade getting a blaster and an alternate head sculpt, the accessories are rather sparse. But since this is an action figure set coming from Star Wars Legends, we can't complain too much. It's just nice to see these characters get this kind of collectible treatment, especially in this cool window packaging inspired by the comic book.
Hasbro's "Star Wars: The Last Command" action figure pack is available for pre-order exclusively at Hasbro Pulse, and it will ship in August 2024.