A Look at Hasbro's "Luke Skywalker: Hoth Attack" Action Figure

Luke Skywalker: Hoth Attack: While patrolling on Hoth, Luke was savagely attacked by a Wampa and dragged off by the creature to its cave, where he was suspended from the ceiling in anticipation of becoming the Wampa's next meal. Luke used the Force to retrieve his lightsaber from the floor if the cave and freed himself from the ice entrapping his leg. The Wampa attacked again, and Luke fought the vicious creature, escaping only after severing one of the Wampa's arms. -- Blurb from the Luke Skywalker: Hoth Attack figure's package.

Because Mark Hamill, the actor who plays Luke Skywalker in all three episodes of the Classic Star Wars Trilogy, had sustained severe injuries to his face as a result of a car crash that occurred late into the filming of Star Wars, George Lucas was faced with the challenge of just how to explain the scars on Luke's face. At the same time, he didn't want Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back to begin with a face-off between the evil Empire and the Rebels from the very beginning; he instructed screenwriter Lawrence Kasdan (Raiders of the Lost Ark) to write a suspenseful introductory scene in which Luke is in jeopardy and has to use the Force, but not with the obvious Imperial stormtroopers or a premature encounter with Darth Vader.

This, of course, ushered in the Wampa Ice Creature's attack on Luke and his poor snow-lizard mount just as the young Rebel commander is about to investigate the site where a "meteor" (which really is an Imperial Probe Droid) has crashed. Cinematically and dramatically speaking, it solved two of Lucas' problems - how to explain the scars on Luke's face, and how to create tension before unleashing the Imperial counterattack against the Rebel Alliance - very handily.

Luke Skywalker: Hoth Attack (The Figure)