Star Wars Black Series Princess Leia (Hoth) figure review
You’ve heard my spiel before — Empire Strikes Back is one of my three favorite movies alongside The Godfather and Avengers: Endgame. Princess Leia is one of my favorite characters and a lot of her best moments occurred in ESB. We first see her in Hoth as she’s awaiting news on the missing Luke Skywalker.
I’m perfectly fine getting every ESB figure Hasbro wants to release in its Star Wars The Black Series line. I’ve already reviewed the Bespin Escape Leia so now let’s take a look at the Princess Leia (Hoth) version.
Packaging: There’s a couple of options for Leia in this look with the latest one being the 40th anniversary packaging. I got the older version with the classic Black Series black and red packaging.
I still like the grayscale drawing on the front, the helpful numbering on the side — Leia (Hoth) is No. 75.
This is a great writeup that explains Leia’s role at this point in the story.
Likeness: Hasbro really nailed Carrie Fisher’s likeness with the Empire Strikes Back figures. The headsculpt has some subtle differences from the Bespin escape as the hair braid is arranged atop her head instead of the back. I like the expression as it captures Leia’s demeanor through most of the retreat from Hoth.
The outfit is similar to the Bespin attire but there are some significant differences you might miss on first glance. The vest of course is the big clue and it has a thick waffle-style pattern and badge for her rank. The sleeves are also thicker than the Bespin suit and have a readout device on the left sleeve.
Leia (Hoth) reuses the Bespin figure torso and legs just to the knees as she wears thick boots that come up just below her knee. The Bespin attire features regular shoes.
Paint: Leia’s attire is mostly a pure white with the vest being an eggshell white.
All of the smaller details like the device and badge are clean while the light grey boots are just the right shade.
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Scale: Leia is much shorter than everyone else so she should be looking up to all the characters besides R2-D2. Hasbro has done an impressive job with the scale on this line and there’s very few instances where anything even remotely looks off in this category.
Articulation: Leia is mainly on the run and having casual conversations in this attire so she doesn’t have to do a lot of extreme poses.
That said, the figure sports some terrific range of movement.
Princess Leia (Hoth) has:
- neck
- ball-jointed shoulders
- elbow
- wrist
- wrist hinge
- torso
- hips
- thighs
- knees (double jointed)
- ankles
Accessories: Hoth Princess Leia comes with a decent amount of accessories, which is helpful considering she really doesn’t need a ton of options.
She comes with the regular A280 blaster with the silver barrel.
Leia fired exactly zero shots in Hoth, but it’s nice to have the option if a Wampa came around.
Since this was the outfit Leia wore for the majority of ESB, Hasbro also included her welding materials for when she was helping to repair the Millennium Falcon in the “cave.” These are very welcome accessories and nice additions to give us an all-purpose ESB Leia.
Worth it? Entertainment Earth had a great deal for Princess Leia over the holidays so I was able to get her for $12. Given the extras, she’s well worth the regular $20 too. If you find enough to qualify for the free shipping, you can take advantage of her current price tag of $15.74.
Rating: 10 out of 10
So far, Hasbro has knocked out these Empire Leia figures. Now, I’m ready for the Bespin gown version to see if they can knock out the set. This is a great figure for Leia’s main outfit in the film.
Where to get it? Naturally finding Leia at retail is tricky in the older packaging. You can find her in the 40th anniversary card back at Target and GameStop. Maybe the better deal now is to get the Hoth Han Solo and Princess Leia two-pack from Target, which has dropped as low as $25.