Monthly Archives: October 2026

Flashback Friday Figure Addendum #0093: Tomar Re

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Flashback Friday Figure Addendum and tagged with , , ,

TOMAR RE

GREEN LANTERN (MATTEL)

Hello and welcome to Friday!  It’s a great day for a Friday.  Or, at least, it’s Friday, which is, let’s face it, the day for Friday.  It’s also the Friday before the finale of Lanterns, and I marked the Friday before the premier with a throwback to a movie GL review, so I’m gonna mark the finale with another one of those.  So, let’s return back to one of my very favorite Green Lanterns, Tomar Re!

The 2011 Green Lantern was certainly not the greatest thing to be shown on the silver screen. That being said it’s far from the worst, and I personally found it to be about on par with the Tim Burton Batman films, which suited me just fine. One of the nice things about one of your favorite characters getting a movie is all the toys that are bound to be released to coincide. Sadly, while I found the Green Lantern movie to be inoffensive, the same can’t be said for the vast majority of the toys released for it. One of the few figures from the line I didn’t hate is Tomar Re, the subject of today’s review.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Tomar Re was technically part of the first series of Green Lantern figures, but he was not amongst the initial assortment of figures. I think he came in the second wave of product. The figure is about 3 ¾ inches tall and he features 8 points of articulation. The articulation is one of the most annoying parts of this line, because it was about 10 years out of date at the time of release. It’s completely useless for anything outside of a standing pose, and in some cases it couldn’t even do that. Case in point, Tomar’s right leg is slightly warped, and the articulation is such that standing is not a thing that happens. Tomar’s sculpt is fine. There was a deluxe Tomar in wonky colors that was released first, so technically this one’s a re-use of that one. There’s some okay texture work on the body, which is nice, I suppose. However, the head is rather smooth, and definitely too squat for the character. In fact, the whole body is off when compared to the on screen character. He’s just too bulky. Were this figure 10-15 years older, the scale might be excusable, but come on, Hasbro’s Battle Droids from 1999 looked better than this. The paintwork is rather vaguely handled. In some places, lines are very sharp, but in others, everything just sort of runs together. That’s sort of what they looked like in the movie, but it wasn’t this bad. He just ends up being a bit of a mush of colors. Tomar included a construct of some sort, but I threw all the constructs together, so I don’t remember which was his.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got Tomar from a Walmart near where I was vacationing the year these were released. This was notably two days AFTER I broke down and bought the wonky colored deluxe Tomar because I hadn’t been able to find this one. Yay. It’s hard to say much about this figure that isn’t negative. I honestly don’t hate it, and I really think it was one of the better small scale figures Mattel offered in this line, but that isn’t saying much. There’s a reason this line didn’t sell well, and it wasn’t the poor performance of the movie.

Tomar here ran about a month into my second year here on the site, and would have been one of my “pull from the randomized list” reviews, which I actually did quite a bit of at the time.  He was my third review from the movie line, and I was definitely wearing a bit thin on the line already.  I was pretty fresh off of its initial release, and the disappointment the line brought me was immense.  I think I maybe took that out on this figure in particular more than maybe others, which isn’t quite so fair, because, yes, he’s got the flaws of the rest of the line, but he ultimately holds up alright.  When I reviewed him, I noted that I had thrown all the constructs together and couldn’t recall which one was his.  Apparently, the idea of, oh, I don’t know, looking it up was a foreign one for past me.  It’s actually some sort of a harpoon launcher looking thing?  It’s weird, but not awful.  He also included one of those wearable rings that were super small.  Tomar Re is my favorite of the alien Green Lanterns, and also my favorite part of the 2011 movie, and I think maybe my high expectations came down on him in my original review.  Upon revisiting, he’s one of the figures from the line I don’t mind so much.  He’s even, dare I say, kind of fun.

#4135: Clone Wars Volume 2 Pack 1

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , ,

ANAKIN SKYWALKER, SAESEE TIIN, & CLONE TROOPER

STAR WARS: CLONE WARS (HASBRO)

“In this time of galactic civil unrest, Anakin Skywalker sets off on a spiritual quest that foreshadows his dark destiny. Obi-Wan seeks to give strength and encouragment to his gifted student and through his guidance, Anakin is awarded the prestigious title of Jedi Knight. Meanwhile, Yoda, Mace Windu and the clone troopers battle a massive Separatist droid army that has suddenly attacked Coruscant. Led by the cunning warrior General Grievous, the Separatists succeed in kidnapping Chancellor Palpatine. Now the stage is set for a re-emergence of the Sith and the birth of a dark new Galactic Empire.”

Genndy Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars was split into three “seasons” when it originally ran, with a clear division of time between season’s 2 and 3, thus splitting the series into two “volumes”.  Volume 1 maintains the aesthetics of Attack of the Clones, while Volume 2 takes everything decidedly closer to Revenge of the Sith.  While there was a notable merchandising push for the first design set-up, by the end of the series, there was less time to get things out before the larger RotS push.  What we got instead of a proper assortment of figures was two boxed sets of three, heavily leaning on pre-existing parts.  And, today, I’m looking at one of those sets.

THE FIGURES THEMSELVES

Anakin Skywalker, Saesee Tiin, and the Clone Trooper make up “Volume 2 Pack 1,” one of four sets offered in the “Commemorative DVD Collection” of Hasbro’s Star Wars: Clone Wars tie-in line.  The set was released in 2005, before the release of Revenge of the Sith.

ANAKIN SKYWALKER

The newly knighted Anakin Skywalker spends most of Volume 2 isolated, on a mission on the planet Nelvaan, where he winds up with a rather distinctive and cool design, which is kind of torn down and sporting some pretty nifty tribal markings.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  He makes use of a decent amount of tooling from the second single Anakin Skywalker release from the line.  Since they both have him sporting a sort of damaged and stripped down look, it’s a sensible choice for re-use.  He gets a new head and torso for this release, showcasing his updated design.  He actually got the most new parts of any of these multi-pack figures, since he’s got more than just a new head.  That new head is a very nice piece of work.  It captures his Sith style hair-do, and even manages to get his facial features a fair bit closer to the the model than either of the previous attempts.  The torso isn’t really different from the one on the original figure, but it lacks his vest/tunic/whatever it is.  His color work is a good match for the cartoon; in contrast to the single release figures, his skin tone is a molded plastic, rather than painted, and I think it looks a little bit better here.  He gets some more involved work on the tribal markings, which grant him some rather nice pop.  While the original Anakin used a flatter orange-ish sort if plastic for the robotic hand, this release used gold…which, though a softer plastic, is somewhat susceptible to “Gold Plastic Syndrome.”  Mine broke and has been very carefully repaired.  Anakin was packed with his lightsaber and a display stand.

SAESEE TIIN

Each of the Volume 2 packs got one new character, and this set’s new guy was Saesee Tiin.  He’s virtually a non-entity in the movies, but the 2D Clone Wars gave him a decent focus he hasn’t really gotten anywhere else.  Personally, I’d have preferred Kit Fisto, but there’s some good reasons for going with Saesee instead.  Well, mostly just the one reason, and that’s parts re-use.  It’s also the same reason that Saesee is in his standard robes, rather than his more distinctive armored appearance, because this way he can re-use the body of Obi-Wan.  It’s a rather pre-posed body, but it’s at least a good pose, and it’s a generic enough robed body to work for multiple characters.  Saesee gets a unique head sculpt, which is a solid recreation of Tartakovsky’s take on the character, right down to the broken off tip to one of his tusks.  His color work is fine, if perhaps a bit underdone.  There are definitely some spots where it just kind of ignores the sculpt, most notable the figure’s forearms, which don’t have the wraps painted.  Saesee is packed with a lightsaber and a display stand.

CLONE TROOPER

There was also a clone in each Volume 2 pack, so, you know, here’s one of those.  In Volume 2, the Clones have upgraded to their Phase II armor, which for the purposes of the animation really just means a new helmet, and for the purposes of this figure, really just means a new head.  As such, this guy’s really just the same mold I looked at last week, but with the adjusted head.  It’s decent, if maybe not amazing.  While I think the Phase II helmets look fine in a more realistic set-up, I never felt they translated as well to Tartakovsky’s style as the Phase I, and this figure really just exemplifies that.  But, it’s hardly a bad offering.  The Phase II is without any color or rank, just a basic white shiny armored guy.  Paint is respectable, if perhaps a bit fuzzy on the line-work.  The Clone Trooper is packed with his blaster rifle and a display stand.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As a kid, the ARC Trooper (aka Fordo) was my entry into the line, and this was actually the only follow-up I got during the original run.  In fact, I very nearly missed it, but managed to find just this set, sitting off on its own right after the holiday rush in 2005.  I never saw the companion set, but always meant to track it down.  Maybe I still will one of these days.  I do like this one.  The Anakin in particular remains my favorite version of the character from the line, and honestly from the prequel era, and the other two aren’t as definitive, but they’re still fun.