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The facial likeness is incredibly good on this Darth Vader Dagobah action figure and the slight tilt to the head shows an impressive amount of attention to detail. In fact, Luke's face is perhaps the most accurate likeness of him achieved by any action figure I can think of. Vader's translucent cape and skirt are a nice touch and add a little to the ethereal nature of the scene.
Find Darth Vader (Dagobah) action figure on eBay
One really good thing about this Power of the Jedi Vader/ Luke action figure is that it fleshes out Dagobah a little bit. With the swamp planet being so sparsely populated it has always struggled in terms of play value. Once you've had Yoda cook a meal, Luke lift a few crates in the air, R2-D2 fall in the swamp and Yoda telekinetically free Luke's X-Wing Fighter from the swamp you've pretty much exhausted all your options. Now with this Darth Vader Dagobah action figure you could at least add a deeply symbolic lightsaber duel to the list.
This particular scene always felt like a bit of a departure from expectations in The Empire Strikes Back. On the one hand the ethereal premonition does take you completely by surprise the first time you see it, since nothing had happened like this is the films before. On the other hand the cave scene somehow feels like it sits outside of the rest of the film. Perhaps it undermined or compromised the shock value of Vader's revelation that he was Luke's father on Bespin. I think it begs the question as to whether we needed to be both shown and told the same thing so closely together as this feels a little bit like over-working the plot. However, another way of looking at this is that the hallucinatory Dagobah cave scene fits nicely with the dream-like quality of the Wampa cave scene on Hoth during which Luke is first told to go to Dagobah. The resonances between the two help create a nice integrated overall feel to The Empire Strikes Back.
Abrams echoes this premonition scene in The Force Awakens when Rey comes into contact with Luke's lightsaber for the first time and I can't help feeling like this scene doesn't really work either. In terms of the bigger picture however, premonitions do tie the trilogies together very well as whenever they happen to a character, they are at key stages in the process of becoming what they are to eventually be, and fulfilling their destinies. They are essentially juvenile rites of passage into the adult roles they will fulfil. Anakin's dreams are one of the key factors that lead him on a journey towards the Dark Side and both Luke and Rey's revelations form key moments on their journeys towards becoming Jedi.
The visions always seem to be about family; Anakin's mother, Luke's father, and we already suspect from The Force Awakens that Rey may have family connections with Han, Luke, Leia and Ren somehow. Her vision connects her to Luke through his lightsaber and also to Ren, and it is also revealed slightly later in the film that she sees Han as a father figure, which seems slightly inexplicable taking into account that she's only just met him. It will be interesting to see how this unfolds in subsequent movies.
This scene from The Empire Strikes Back is also the first time we see the iconography of Vader's mask utilised to show us something about another character. The theme was next used prior to the release of The Phantom Menace when we had the advertising teasers showing Vader's shadow looming over the child Anakin on the sands of Tatooine, to illustrate his destiny. Finally, in The Force Awakens we have Kylo Ren keeping his grandfather's melted mask as almost a religious Sith relic which he believes he uses to commune with his ancestor. We already know from the previous two trilogies that this isn't the way that communication with the dead happens, so this serves to underpin Ren's delusions and misunderstandings of his family history, and perhaps also his ignorance of Jedi ways and lack of training.
See my articles Helmets and Masks in the Star Wars Movies and Luke Skywalker, The Empire Strikes Back and the World Turned Upside-Down.
All Star Wars action figures, vehicles, collectibles and Star Wars toys shown on this website are the 3.75 inch scale and from my own private Star Wars collection unless otherwise stated. Where possible original vintage accessories have been used but in some instances I have placed Kenner Star Wars figures with either reproduction weapons and accessories or for Hasbro figures close approximations have been used. This is mostly the case for modern Star Wars lightsabers where the correct item can be very difficult to identify on some ocassions. Vintage Star Wars action figures are shown with their original weapon or accessory when I have them. When a vintage Kenner action figure is shown with an accessory which is not original I have tried to point this out where possible.
All of the Star Wars action figures shown were purchased second hand, usually incomplete, and in bulk. They have been reunited with their original weapons and accessories where we could get hold of them.
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