Hasbro Star Wars Power of the Jedi Leia Organa General Action Figure Review

Leia Organa (General):

A princess on her homeworld of Alderaan, Leia Organa is a strong-willed woman of action. After Alderaan was destroyed by the first Death Star, she became a full-time member of the Rebel Alliance. She is dedicated to putting an end to the Empire's reign of tyranny.  - From the Jedi Force File

This figure is based on Princess Leia Organa as she is seen in the second half of 1983's Star Wars - Episode VI: Return of the Jedi, wearing a Rebel Alliance uniform (battle dress blouse with rolled-up sleeves, a vest with general's rank insignia almost at shoulder level, combat-style trousers and knee-high Rebel issue boots) and wielding not just her trademark slim-barreled sporting blaster but also a larger Rebel-issue blaster pistol.

Essentially, this is a simplified version of Princess Leia in Endor Gear, of which two figures were made in the earlier The Power of the Force 2 collection in the late 1990s.  Where those two figures have only the sporting blaster,  a permanently-molded on helmet, a camo Combat Poncho, and a subtly-different paint job (the uniform's colors are more muted), Leia Organa (General)  doesn't have a helmet or the Combat Poncho, but does have the aforementioned two blasters.


Introduced in the post-Episode I collection known as Star Wars: Power of the Jedi Collection 1 (2000), Princess Leia (General) is nicely sculpted and painted.  The overall look is exceptionally accurate for a mass-produced non-specialty action figure, with the Rebel uniform - rendered in earth tones to contrast with the Empire's more fascist and soulless color palette of grays, blacks, reds, and whites - looking a bit better than in other Leia-in-Endor gear figures.

On her left wrist - and this is a carryover from Leia-in-Endor figures that came before - is a wrist-chrono/comlink done in metal-chrome coloring.

Leia wears her hair in a variation of her Nordic braids from The Empire Strikes Back so her really long hair doesn't get in the way during battle.  The detailing here is nice; the sculpt is good and the "hair" is rendered pretty well considering the figure's small size.

The face's sculpt and paint job is also nice, though some of the salient features - the lips, especially - look a bit off and don't look a lot like Carrie Fisher in her mid-20s.  This is a constant issue with Kenner/Hasbro figures of the two main female characters in both trilogies - finding good likenesses of Leia and her mother Padme Amidala (played by the beautiful Natalie Portman) is almost as difficult as finding a Luke Skywalker - Figure No. 1 from 1978 unopened and in mint condition.

As for articulation points, Leia Organa (General) has the basic ones at the neck, the upper arm/shoulder joints, and the hips, but no others at the knees or elbows.


Accessories: As in all the 2000-2002 Power of the Jedi figures, the carded bubblepack contains not just the action figure but also the two weapons described above.  The hand blaster Leia carries is right from the movie but a bit larger than proportion; if you look at the painted-and-sculpted holster on her right hip there's no way the pistol could have fit inside if it had been made to.  Perhaps this was a deliberate act on Hasbro's part so the blaster would be a bit harder to lose (or easier for kids to handle), but it does look odd.  

The larger weapon? I don't have any clue as to why it was included.  I'd have to watch Return of the Jedi again to see if Leia uses anything other than her small blaster pistol, but I'll chalk this up to Hasbro's use of creative license.

The other Power of the Jedi accessory that needs some discussion is the Force File booklet that comes with every figure of this Hasbro line. Basically, it's sort of like a roleplaying game guide which breaks down the character's skills, gear, technology, statistics, adventures, allies and enemies.  Leia Organa (General), for instance, has two little blurbs on her Jedi Force File that sound like a setup for a SWRPG, Seize the Bunker and Surrounded!

My Viewpoint: Though it has its little flaws - which may not appear in all the figures - Leia Organa (General) is still a nice addition to any serious Star Wars figure collection.  There are very few Leia-in-Endor Gear figures without the helmet and the camo Combat Poncho, and Hasbro did give the figure some nice detailing.