JEDI MASTER SOL Kennerized
The Retro Collection 3 3/4-Inch Action Figure
Item No.: No. G0386
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: n/a
Includes: Lightsaber, cloak, another 5 figures
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $59.99
Availability: October 2024
Appearances: The Acolyte
Bio: The Star Wars Retro Collection is inspired by the original 1970s Star Wars figures and features original figure design and detailing! Continue your collection from a galaxy far, far away. (Stolen from the marketing copy. Packaging has no bio.)
Image: Adam's photo lab.
Availability: Click here to buy it at Entertainment Earth now!
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Commentary: I'm writing these way before they go live, popping open a figure every day (or couple of days) because I like taking time with
Retro. The final figure I opened in
The Acolyte set,
Jedi Master Sol is a pretty good figure that I assume a lot of fans would skip. For this reason, if
Retro takes off in 2025 with that new
Star Wars-themed set, these figures may be expensive down the road. For whatever reason, the world failed to click with the series and the action figures. This shared online exclusive
Retro set was probably doomed from its conception. As soon as I heard Hasbro say "we're making a new show as Kenner figures!" I knew that there's a really good chance that the Kenner audience would immediately reject something that doesn't fit in with "the adventures of Luke Skywalker." They don't even need to see it - as a group, that's an older audience that mostly wants the format to fit the goings-on of the age of the Galactic Empire.
The Acolyte Retro figures are generally all very good, but I assume quite a few fans are aging out of their 1970s hobbies. It's sort of like the various Frank Zappa 50th Anniversary fancy boxed sets. Are they cool? Absolutely. But how old is the audience who might want these? Would it have been better to put them out when they were more likely to haunt record stores and had better hearing? Yeah, probably. (But I'm listening to
The Mothers 1971 box as I write this, so what do I know?)
Digressions aside, you can't fault Hasbro for doing a good job. Sol had a few slightly different looks during
The Acolyte, and Hasbro opted to do the one with the white cloak and trim that was mostly seen on Coruscant. This costume is distinct from the ones Hasbro produced in
Vintage and
The Black Series. The thin fabric of his white cloak is excellent, and the material looks superb. It hangs, it's not too bulky, and I wouldn't mind seeing more new figures given this exact material down the road.
The lightsaber is the same mold you've seen on most retro figures, and is pretty much the same as other blue sabers. They're not identical, but if you handed me a bag of them I couldn't tell you which one went with Anakin or which one went with Sol. His hands grip it well, as Hasbro did a bang-up job ensuring the hands could grip the lightsaber without dropping it. Accessory compatibility shows great improvement over actual Kenner-era figures and most earlier Retro releases.
As one of the show's leads, it makes sense this is who you'd get as a figure. Kenner Sol does a good job translating Lee Jung-jae to Kenner-era sculpting, but seems to have shaved off a few years from his face in the stylization process. The hair looks a bit like Qui-Gon's, although it's worth noting that there's a
partially separately molded weave. Everything above the ears is painted and part of his skull - everything below the tips of the ears are molded in color and a separate element. Kenner of old didn't tend to do anything to add to the tooling budget, so presumably these guys are a little bit cheaper to make these days as Hasbro puts in some pretty nice improvements. Kenner would likely have just shortened his hair, as they did with Leia.
When it comes to the costume, Hasbro did a good job translating it to plastic. The robes have little raised elements that do a good job simulating the stitching on the costumes. Gold paint keeps it from being too shiny. There are little wrinkles and other details everywhere, arguably making this the best "prequel" Jedi costume we've yet seen in
The Retro Collection. Sure, I'd love some more texture, but it's fine. The belt and robes have a whiter trim than the other Jedi, making it so he doesn't quite fit in with the other figures, making this kind of a grab bag of a set where you're going to have to use your imagination when using your imagination and playing with these. The limbs all swing forward, and everything just plain works. One thing about this figure that stands out as different are his shorter tunic - the crotch zone seems big relative to the shorter "skirt" that shows more of his legs than a lot of other retro Jedi figures.
It would have been fun to give any figures that take place during (or before) A New Hope an embedded, telescoping lightsaber out of some silly sense of conceptual continuity. Hasbro did a good job making this figure appear as if it could have been made in the 1980s - maybe not with the extra hairpiece - and it's one of the more successful figures in the set. The costume is simple, and the figure nails it. I don't think it's the coolest in the set - it's hard to compete with the three Aniseya figures - but it's the strongest of the Jedi half. I'd recommend this set of six carded figures at (and especially under) $60 if it comes across your radar. I'll buy a second set if I see it on sale.
Collector's Notes: I got mine from Entertainment Earth.
--Adam Pawlus
Day 3,230: April 8, 2025
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