Luke Skywalker: X-Wing Pilot (SW 1978-79)

That orange jumpsuit, those beady eyes, it could only be…Luke? The X-Wing outfit was the first costume change we get to see of a character, but Luke’s face is quite generic - it could be most other X-Wing pilots. His eyes remind me of a lot of old comic strips, like Little Orphan Annie. Beady little eyes.

Luke comes with the same blaster pistol that Han came with, and his uniform which actually has quite a few good details from the original movie costume. This figure came on SW, ESB, ROTJ, and POTF cards. For the ESB card it was renamed to Luke Skywalker: (X-Wing Pilot); for ROTJ and POTF it was Luke Skywalker (X-Wing Fighter Pilot). Big distinctions here.

Why should you own this figure? Five reasons:

1. If you were a stickler like me, this was the only figure that could fly your X-Wing.

2. Those eyes. Like the old Shazam! comics or something. Creepy.

3. No other figure besides Walrus Man gives you quite the orange as this one.

4. Recreate that scene where the X-Wing cockpit flies open mid-flight and Luke spills out to his death in space. Oh, wait, that was just in my living room.

5. Recreate the other scene where Luke switches off his targeting computer:

“Luke, you’ve switched off your targeting computer. What the f*** are you doing?”

“It’s okay, I’m alright.”

“What? What are you talking about? Look, I’m on a planet about to be f***ing blown up! Do you want that? Huh, do you want me vaporized?”

“I’m going in.”

“Listen you hayseed – I’ve been in the Rebellion longer than you. You show me some respect!”

“I’ve got one on my tail!”

“I don’t care if there’s a giant space slug with your leg in its mouth – you switch your f***ing computer on right now!”

“Torpedos away!”

“You son of a…”

Backstory:

X-Wing pilots have a long and varied history of wearing orange, ever since Lance Lightloafer designed one during the third season of Galactic Project Runway. But seriously, the designers on the original film put together uniforms that looked pilot-like. I just wish they had made a different uniform for Y-Wing pilots – new figure! If you want Luke’s backstory, here's his Wookieepedia entry. Here's the entry on the X-Wing.

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