Ok, now that I've got him posted, here are my thoughts:
Putting aside my intense dislike of Disney Star Wars for one moment, there is a lot that I appreciate about this one.
The draw for me is that finally, FINALLY....someone has made a non-angry Anakin headsculpt! Seeing as he is my favourite character, it bothers me greatlly that only his angry/darker side gets focused on in the collecting world. There's far more to the character than that, and particularly when it comes to the Clone Wars-version of him. I personally have always wanted to do more light-hearted photoshoots with my figures, so this new version is extremely welcome and long-overdue from my perspective.
That being said, I do wish they could have made him look just a *tad* younger. I know it's based on the on-screen 'de-aged' version, and there's only so much they can de-age someone. While I didn't watch the show, the clips from the flashback scenes did look good, considering. So it captures the on-screen look just fine, but my personal preference would have been to give him a 'happy version' of the Artisan Anakin headsculpt (and/or the upcoming AotC Anakin sculpt). All the same, I'm not going to pass up on a Hayden Anakin sculpt, even if it's not 100% how I would have done it myself.
One of the best things about the sculpt is the hair. Why oh why couldn't they have just made his hair like this in the version they put out a few years ago??? The hair on that one has always been atrocious and is why I went with real rooted hair on my own custom version. This hair sculpt not only got the style right, but it also looks detailed enough that I'd be tempted to just keep it as it is and not even re-root it, which is saying something!
Another improvement is the costume. One of the things I noticed immediately about the flashback scenes was that his on-screen tunic looked way better than the previous Hot Toys interpretation of it, particularly in terms of the sort of velvety texture of the fabric. I even wondered what it would look like as a 1/6 figure. I still think the outer blue tunic could be a bit better on this one too, but it looks less likely to crease and get weirdly wrinkly like the previous version. The design on this Disney version of the tunic is off from the animated style though, which is frustrating to me. Again, why can't we combine best of both worlds?
This might sound odd, but sometimes the Hot Toys committment to 'screen accuracy' is actually a hinderance to my enjoyment of their figures. That's where customisation comes in, but they do seem to make their figures more and more difficult to use as 'bash material these days. I suspect I will have to make my own blue tunic from scratch in order to finally have the perfect version I envision.
One thing I'm curious about is the body on this one. Will it be limited in articulation by the annoying padding like the previous one??? From the pics, it looks a little slimmer, which is actually more screen-accurate to the animated series, as well. So, we'll see...
Re: the accesssories - I LOVE the lightsaber-deflecting-blaster-fire effect! I'd been trying to figure out how to do that effect myself, so this is a really nice little detail. I wish the set would come with that holocaster table in the image, but I have the one from the RotS Obi-Wan set which I've been planning to use for a Clone Wars dio someday. I have to admit I totally forgot about this particular Rex figure and I'm kind of kicking myself for not PO'ing him as it would be nice to have a Phase I Rex to balance my collection a bit.
Regardless of my feelings on the source material and my complaints and moans here and there, I've already PO'd this figure -- it was literally the most instant PO I've ever made in my collecting life.
Mainly because this 'General Skywalker' is one my all-time favourite Anakin designs, and I can never have too many of my faves.
Anakin Skywalker
