Making the Definitive Anakin Skywalker Minifigure

Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith is 20 years old this year. I recently was able to view the film in theaters and it was a blast. More importantly, it reminded me of my endless pursuit as a kid for the definitive Anakin Skywalker minifigure.

Anakin Skywalker is my favorite character in Star Wars. Though Luke is tough competition for #1. I’ve already made my definitive version of Anakin from the Clone Wars Micro-Series using official LEGO parts, as well as another appearance of Anakin in the series from his combat with Asajj Ventress. But if you were to ask me 15 years ago what my favorite appearance of Anakin was (outside of his appearance in the second volume of the Micro-Series), it would be from Episode III: Revenge of the Sith. And I’d still say that’s the case even today.

Since the first wave of LEGO sets based on Revenge of the Sith, there have been 10 minifigures based on the Jedi’s appearance in the film. But can it be said that a definitive, accurate version of Anakin exists officially from The LEGO Group? What would make an Anakin minifigure definitive or wholly accurate?

The desire to have the definitive version of a character in toy form is an ancient struggle that mankind has wrestled with for centuries. Okay, maybe not that long, but given the size and prolificity of the work of the toy customization community online for LEGO and action figures, mankind—or maybe just fanboys and really detail-oriented children with particular tastes—have long desired to see their favorite characters, vehicles and locations definitively represented in their toy of choice.

We’re going to take a survey of the official Anakin Skywalker minifigures, see what works about them and what doesn’t, and also delve into the world of minifigure customization to see if I can make an Anakin LEGO minifigure that I am entirely satisfied with. This is where the fun begins.

LEGO Got it Right the First Time: Light Brown Was Underutilized

The Anakin minifigure from the first wave of Revenge of the Sith sets holds a special place in my heart.  Is it anywhere close to accurate to the character’s appearance in the film? By today’s minifigure design standards, absolutely not, but the same can be said about the majority of licensed minifigures from the early 2000s. Though by today’s standards (and this figure doesn’t hit the mark for accuracy in most standards), I would argue it’s the only figure to even get close to accurately representing Anakin’s hair color in the film.

Depending on the lighting in any given shot in Revenge of the Sith, Anakin’s hair goes from a very dark brown in appearance to a dirty blonde color. This change in color due to lighting cannot be captured in plastic. But, despite this limitation, there are certain colors that work better than others, and light brown, I think, does a really good job.

Light brown was a color that was used very minimally and was most prominent in Bionicle sets. Anakin was the only minifigure that used this color for a hairpiece, let alone any other minifigure part.

After this first figure, Anakin’s hair color has either been reddish brown or dark brown—and I don’t think either color works very well. Dark brown is far too dark a color to accurately represent Anakin’s hair in the films (the Clone Wars cartoon is a different matter entirely, as an argument can be made that dark brown works to represent that iteration). And reddish brown… I think reddish brown looks too fake.

There is an unnatural nature to LEGO’s reddish brown color. (Check out BrickNerd’s article the LEGO color palette to learn more.) Unlike hues such as old brown, light brown and even dark brown which better capture colors that can be found in nature, reddish brown looks artificial. This artificial look to the color is why I’m so opposed to it being used for trees and nature scenes in MOCs or official LEGO sets. Under the right circumstances, usually when there’s a wide variety of different colors used with it, reddish brown works in builds—but this is not the norm.

So if brown and light brown are out of the picture and cannot be considered for Anakin’s hair color, what other color presently in production could be used?

BrickNerd-in-Chief Dave Schefcik suggested that the new medium brown color might be a good alternative when I brought up this topic in our Patreon Discord. This color is presently only used as a new flesh tone for minifigures, but I think Dave is on to something. Medium brown isn’t too dissimilar from light brown. Only time will tell if LEGO decides to use this color for more than heads and hands.

Image via Rylie Howeter

Finding Alternative Options for Anakin

Iterations of Anakin from Revenge of the Sith after 2005 are all decent representations of the character. However, all of them use the same hairpiece that was designed for The Clone Wars iteration of Anakin in 2007 which is a very stylized, rigid piece that captures Skywalker’s appearance in that show very well, but fails to represent the flowy, curly nature of his hair in the film.

2020 was the last time we received Anakin as he appeared in Revenge of the Sith, still using the Clone Wars hairpiece, and his robe design, which is very accurate, is hindered by dirt stains and “battle damage” from his duel of Mustafar with Obi-Wan, making it difficult to use the figure in any context outside of that battle. LEGO attempted this with a second Ep. III Anakin in his interceptor, but the dirt stains are far too noticeable on the minifigure.

This year we received a new iteration of Anakin from The Clone Wars cartoon, whose design is patterned off his appearance in Episode III. While I like this figure, it is very much going for the cartoon look with the style and color scheme of the robes, the face print looking more closely like the animated model, and of course, the reddish brown hair piece that’s been around since 2007.

If we’re to get anywhere close to achieving a perfect Anakin minifigure, this hairpiece needs to be forgotten. Lloyd Garmadon doesn’t use the Clone Wars hair and hasn’t for years. In fact, Lloyd’s hairpiece, which was initially exclusive to him in 2017, would make a decent representation of Anakin’s hair in episode III.

Custom Options for a Film-Accurate Anakin

If LEGO can’t presently provide the parts I need to best create a definitive Anakin, I’m going to have to look to the world of minifigure customization.

The world of custom Star Wars minifigures is an entirely different entity than when it started when I was a kid. Long gone are the days of using Sharpie markers on clone troopers. Entire small businesses have been created around developing high-quality designs for minifigures from the Star Wars universe that LEGO may never produce themselves.

Light Customs’ Anakin Figure is nigh-perfect… Too bad it’s no longer in production

There are many great custom Anakin-inspired figures that have been produced by many of these businesses. However, nearly all of them are based on his appearance in the Clone Wars cartoon and either utilize the Clone Wars hair or use a custom design even more accurate to the cartoon. Not to mention these high-quality figures all come with quite the high price tag, and I’m not in the market for premium figures with premium prices.

For a time, AVFigures produced a figure for Ep. III Anakin and wow—it looks really good, especially with the unique hairpiece and face print. Fortunately, they sold the hair and headpiece separately, which I ordered.

Upon receiving the parts, I knew this was something special. When ordering, I had a choice between dark brown and what I initially thought was reddish brown for the hair piece. I selected the reddish brown option, and I was very pleasantly surprised to see that the color was actually a far less saturated brown color.

By no means am I close to achieving the definitive Anakin. But the present custom result I have is enough to satisfy me for the time. The newest Clone Wars Anakin’s torso and leg prints look really nice, and I think there’s a good balance between the dark brown and black on the figure that wasn’t quite achieved on the Duel on Mustafar figure from 2020. And of course, the biggest hurdle has been passed with AVFigures custom pieces.

If the pursuit of the definitive adaptation of a character in toy form is unending—given the nature of LEGO’s interchangeable pieces and the ever-growing customization community providing new prints and molds for consumers—then maybe one day we’ll get even closer to a screen-accurate Anakin minifigure from Revenge of the Sith.

In the immortal words of Master Yoda: “Patience you must have, my young padawan.”

What is your experience with minifigure customization? Let us know in the comments below!

Do you want to help BrickNerd continue publishing articles like this one? Become a top patron like Marc & Liz Puleo, Paige Mueller, Rob Klingberg from Brickstuff, John & Joshua Hanlon from Beyond the Brick, Megan Lum, Andy Price, Lukas Kurth from StoneWars, Wayne Tyler, Dan Church, and Roxanne Baxter to show your support, get early access, exclusive swag and more.