Tag Archives: Star Wars

#3356: Cad Bane

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

CAD BAND

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS (HASBRO)

“Cad Bane is hired by Darth Sidious to break into the Jedi Temple and steal a holocron containing the secret names of future Jedi. The resourceful and cunning bounty hunter carefully puts his plan in place using schematics of the temple, a techno-service droid and an unscrupulous shapeshifter.”

Cad Bane was introduced at the end of Clone Wars‘ first season, following in the tradition of every post-Empire entry in the franchise trying to create the next Boba Fett. In his defense, he’s probably the closest the franchise actually got to that mark, by virtue of just aiming more to be his own thing from the start, thereby making him feel a little less artificial.  The same year that Cad Bane debuted on Clone Wars, he also got his very first action figure via the tie-in toyline, and I’m taking a look at that one today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Cad Bane was released in the fourth wave of the 2009 re-launch of Hasbro’s Clone Wars line, where he was figure CW22.  He was released alongside Clone Trooper Denal (who Bane notably impersonates after killing him in “Cargo of Doom”), as well as space versions of Anakin and Ahsoka.  The figure stands about 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 11 points of articulation.  Bane’s articulation is lesser compared to the best in the line, lacking any movement below the hips, as well as having rather restricted motion on the elbows.  Also, due to the construction of his elbow joints, his arms have a tendency to fall apart in the middle a lot.  All of this makes him a figure that’s just really not great for posing.  He’s really just built for standing there.  Given how much Bane does in the show, it’s kind of a shame.  There were later versions with better articulation, but this one still wound up with the most releases by far, so the mold was just really persistent.  The actual sculpt is at least pretty decent.  Not a spot on recreation of the animation model, but pretty close, and about on par with the best of the earlier run sculpts, at least in terms of accuracy.  His paint work is respectable; the colors match with his show design closely enough, and the blue skin gives him a nice and unique look.  Cad was packed with a removable hat (which started the trend of Cad Banes with hats that are hard to keep in place), his two twin blaster pistols, and a larger blaster rifle (missing from mine).

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I got Cad Bane while he was relatively new, but certainly not *brand* new.  It was probably in the spring of 2010, which is when I got a lot of my Clone Wars figures, since I suddenly had money and the means to drive myself places.  It really increased my toy buying options, I tell ya.  The figure’s honestly never been one of my favorites.  Like, he’s not bad, but he’s not really great either.  There were better versions, but they’re unfortunately a lot harder to get, which is a shame.

#3351: Commando Droid

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

COMMANDO DROID

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS (HASBRO)

“Commando droids land on the Rishi moon to attack a Republic outpost. Designed for surprise assaults, the droids quickly overwhelm the new clone trooper recruits stationed there. With this strategic outpost now in Separatist hands, General Grievous has everything in position to launch a surprise attack anywhere in the Outer Rim.”

Each of the Star Wars prequels added one specialized droid in addition to the standard Battle Droid, presumably to somewhat offset the general ineffectiveness of the standards.  The trend continued past the movies, with Clone Wars adding a few of its own Droids.  Most of them were situation-specific, but my personal favorite was the Commando Droid.  Introduced early in Season 1 in the episode “Rookies,” the Commandos were honestly just a more intimidating equivalent to the rank and file Battle Droids, who would become a common place feature whenever the show needed the droid threat to be genuinely threatening.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Commando Droid is figure CW16, and was released in the third assortment of the second generation of Hasbro’s Clone Wars line, which hit in 2009.  Up to this point, the line had roughly one Droid army builder per series, and the Commando Droid took that spot in this line-up.  The figure stands about 3 3/4 inches tall and has 21 points of articulation.  Up to this point in the line, most of the droids wound up with lackluster articulation, but the Assassin Droid had changed that, and this guy followed suit.  He’s the best articulated of the Droids the line put out, effectively on the same level as the upgraded Clone body used for the ARF Trooper.  And, with the ball-joint construction on the hips, you can even swap the legs and flip the mid-section around, to do the hunch that the Commandos frequently sported on the show.  This guy got an all-new mold, which Hasbro would re-use a few more times for other Commando Droid re-decos.  It’s a really good sculpt.  It’s accurate to the animation models, while also keeping the articulation useful and still worked into the sculpt.  He’s one of the few instances of a droid actually getting movement at all of the notable joints in the actual design, so there weren’t any of the phantom joints that the main Battle Droid mold got.  The figure’s paint work is decent enough; nothing crazy or anything.  The bulk of it’s a molded gunmetal grey, with some slight accent work in gold, as well as his eyes and the insignia on his torso.  Application is all pretty clean, so that all works out rather nicely.  The Commando Droid was originally packed with a single droid style blaster, though somewhere along the way, mine seems to have picked up a second blaster somewhere along the way.  That’s definitely not standard.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Commando Droid is one of those figures that I wanted before it actually existed.  When they showed up in “Rookies”, I was immediately a fan of the design and eager to see it in figure form.  This is definitely one I actively hunted for.  If I recall correctly, he got added to my collection during a sizable run of Clone Wars purchases in early 2010, when my parents were out of town for a week, and I had regular access to a car and some money to spend.  He’s definitely one of my favorites from the line, and he holds up astoundingly well.  I’d love to see him updated to Black Series one of these days.

#3349: ARF Trooper

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

ARF TROOPER

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS (HASBRO)

“These Advanced Reconnaissance Fighters often operate All-Terrain Recon Transport (AT-RT) walkers on scouting or combat operations. Riding atop these armed vehicles, ARF troopers can swiftly sweep through an area and cut down battle droids in their path.”

We’ve had environment and job specific troopers in Star Wars since the very beginning.  It’s on one hand very practical, and on the other a great way to justify more toys and other merch.  So, as the franchise has grown, so too have the variants on the troopers.  Within Clone Wars, there already some built-in armor variants going in, but a few more variants were quickly built-in.  Debuting in the theatrical film that launched the series were the ARF Troopers, a subset of clones with a unique helmet inspired by the Scout Troopers of the Original Trilogy.  The design cropped up a good number of times during the show, as well as a good number of times in the accompanying toyline.  I’m looking at the first of the toyline releases today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The ARF Trooper is figure CW10, released in the second assortment of the second generation of Hasbro’s Clone Wars line.  Since the first assortment was all re-packs moved to the new packaging style, the second assortment served as the first batch of real new figures for this adjusted version of the line, and the ARF Trooper was its first proper clone.  The figure stands a little over 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 26 points of articulation.  The ARF Trooper marked a notable step forward for the line, taking the already quite posable standard Clone Trooper body, and replacing the pelvis and upper legs to change the hip joints to universals, rather than the usual t-crotch.  This allowed the figure a great deal more mobility, and was just generally pretty awesome.  He also got a new head sculpt, based on the different helmet design.  Boy is it a sleek design, and boy does it look great in toy form.  Put the whole thing together, and you’ve got one of the slickest Clone sculpts the line ever produced.  The ARF Trooper’s paint work is fairly decent.  It’s largely pretty basic, but there’s some fun smaller detail work on the helmet, which has more going on than the usual Clone Trooper helmet.  The ARF Trooper is packed with a standard DC-15S blaster, a D-6 rotary blaster, and a firing missile.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I remember this figure first dropping.  It was right after I’d started my senior year of high school.  I remember finding him and his assortment-mate Commander Gree at retail fairly quickly.  And then I very vividly remember passing on them both because I had a date with a girl the next night and I thought it would be a wiser investment of my money to spend it on the date.  A week later, the girl had dumped me, and I had no new Clone Wars figures to console me.  Lesson learned.  Thankfully, by the end of the year, I’d gotten another chance, and I wound up with both of the figures I’d missed.  The ARF Trooper was at the time and remains to this day my very favorite mold from this line, and it all started with this guy.  He’s so much fun, and it’s a genuine goal of mine to own all of the variants of the mold.  Someday I’ll get there!

#3323: Mara Jade

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

MARA JADE

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES (HASBRO)

“Mara Jade was once Emperor Palpatine’s Hand, his most-trusted assassin. Five years later and now a successful smuggler, the last thing Mara expected was to stumble upon her former arch-enemy: Luke Skywalker.”

The post-Jedi Star Wars Expanded Universe had within it a good number of characters who rose to prominence, despite not being a direct part of any of the on-screen adventures of the franchise.  One of the more prolific examples was Mara Jade.  Introduced in Heir to Empire, Mara served as a foil to Luke, as the two eventually went from enemies to lovers.  Given her quite interwoven story with Luke, Mara was one of the first major “casualties” of Disney moving away from the Expanded Universe.  Unlike Thrawn, her compatriot from Heir, Mara has not, as of yet, made the jump to Disney’s official canon.  Her presence in the franchise as a whole has been a bit down played in more recent years, but she’s gotten her second figure since the Disney take-over, which, if you’re counting, brings her total number of figures up to a whopping four.  But hey, Black Series coverage.  That’s pretty cool.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Mara Jade is part of the third round of the comics-inspired sub-line of Hasbro’s Star Wars: The Black Series.  While prior assortments have had four figures, this one’s down to three.  Hey, at least Mara finally made the cut.  She’s officially branded “Legends,” denoting her outside of canon status.  Mara is based on her appearance in Dark Force Rising, allowing her to be a direct follow-up to Luke from Heir, by virtue of being the next entry in that trilogy.  It translates to her still wearing the all-black get-up that she’s best known for, so it works fine by me.  The figure stands about 6 inches tall and she has 28 points of articulation.  Mara’s posability is a little more restricted than some more recent figures from the line, but not terribly so.  A lot of it has to do with her construction, which re-uses a good chunk of  parts from Jaina Solo (who is, entertaining, the first figure to use the “Legends” classifier).  She shares the torso and legs with that release and gets a new head and arms to differentiate things.  It all works a bit better than I’d expected; many of Mara’s prior figures have looked a bit tossed together, but this sculpt flows rather nicely.  The head sculpt doesn’t exactly have a spot-on likeness of Shannon McRandle (the model who “portrayed” Mara on book covers and trading cards in the ’90s), but it maintains enough of the traits to feel appropriately like the character.  It’s certainly closer than any prior attempt.  The only slight nit is that the hair’s maybe a tad flatter than it should be, but it’s minor.  To further differentiate Mara from Jaina, Mara gets extra add-ons for her shoulder harness, bandana, and goggles.  They can also be removed, if you want a more streamlined look.  Mara’s color work is generally on the basic side, largely relying on molded colors, especially for the bulk of her outfit.  She gets the now standard face printing, which is suitably clean and life like.  Mara is packed with her distinct purple lightsaber, as well as a small blaster pistol.  It’s a bit on the light side, but it’s standard at this point for this branch of the line.  At least both of her accessories are actually for her, which is more than could be said for Luke.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Honestly, a few years ago, I probably wouldn’t have picked up Mara at all.  I’ve not really had any direct interactions with the character.  I do have her Expanded Universe figure from ’98, but that one’s more fueled by nostalgia than anything.  That said, Rebels got me more interested in Thrawn as a character, so I wound up buying his Black Series figure.  I then got the Heir Luke figure, since I was buying others from the first comics assortment.  At that point, I was two figures deep on this set, and Mara was kind of the main missing piece.  She’s the strongest of the three, so she was certainly worth the wait.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3321: Clone Trooper – 41st Elite Corps

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

CLONE TROOPER — 41ST ELITE CORPS

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS (HASBRO)

“The clone troopers in the 41st Elite Corps are led by Clone Commander Gree and Jedi General Yoda. The troopers are equipped with specialized gear for combat on jungle worlds such as Rodia, one of the planets to which this unit is assigned during the Clone Wars.”

People love Clone Troopers, and one of the things people particularly love about Clone Troopers are all the fancy colors you can get them in.  For their first appearance in Attack of the Clones, their colors corresponded to a rank structure, which was maintained in the 2D Clone Wars series.  By the time of Revenge of the Sith, the colors were modified into being unit markings, so when it came time to do to the 3D Clone Wars, they decided to retroactively make the the Phase I colors line up to units.  And that’s the way that Commander Gree inherited the 41st Elite Corps, whose design was previously that of the Clone Sergeant.  Which means that the figure I’m looking at today isn’t a Sergeant, but rather a member of the 41st Elite Corps.  How about that?

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The 41st Elite Corps Clone Trooper was initially released as figure 26 in the first run of the Clone Wars tie-in line, as part of the fifth and final assortment of the original run, and numerically the second-to-last of the figures in that set (Kit Fisto was the last figure in that first numbering, something he’d repeat when he also wrapped up the Phase III Black Series run).  The 41st was the re-released early into the next run, as figure 04, in an assortment entirely populated with repacks moving to the new packaging style.  He was the line’s third generic clone in the main run, following the all-white and the 212th.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 24 points of articulation.  From a structural standpoint, this figure is identical to the 212th, complete with the newer style of helmet.  It solidified the plan to keep the adjusted helmet going forward, after the Space Gear Trooper threw some things into question.  Beyond that, it’s all really down to paint.  This guy swaps out the orange markings of the 212th for a somewhat subdued green.  He’s still got a much cleaner armor set-up, as became the norm for the Clones in the line.  Unlike the 212th, this guy’s shading also remained consistent with the Commander Gree figure later down the line, so they matched.  Yay!  The figure is packed with a small blaster rifle, as well as debuting the D-6 rotary blaster in this line, complete with a launching missile.  You know, for all those missiles that the rotary blaster launched.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Though I definitely wanted one of these back in the day, the 41st was never one of those figures I was able to track down.  Thankfully, I got a second chance when All Time got a huge Clone Wars collection in a few years back, so my collection didn’t have to go 41st-less forever.  He’s a basic figure, but he does what I need him to, and I’m always game for more green!

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website.

#3316: Magnaguard

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

MAGNAGUARD

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS (HASBRO)

“The bodyguard droids for General Grievous are trained by the cyborg general himself. He has had their memories and combat libraries wiped clean so that the droids can learn battle techniques rather than rely on stored programs. This has resulted in more sophisticated — and lethal – droids.”

When the battle droids were first introduced in The Phantom Menace, we just had the two main versions, standard and Destroyer.  Attack added Super into the mix, and Revenge of the Sith further added the Magnaguards, the robotic bodyguards for General Grievous.  Though only a small part of Sith, they were repurposed for Clone Wars as well, giving them a little bit more to do during its run.  It also gave them a shot at more action figures, and I’m never one to complain about that.  So, let’s look at one of those action figures!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Magnaguard is figure #22 in Hasbro’s Clone Wars tie-in line, as part of the fourth assortment within the first year of figures.  This was the first of the two Magnaguards in the line.  This one was more on the basic side, stripping away the cloak and headdress that they had in the movies.  Those pieces were added for the next release.  The figure stands a little over 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 14 points of articulation.  As an early run non-Clone, his articulation is a little imbalanced.  The movement on the upper half, especially the arms, is really solid, and quite cleverly implemented.  Below the waist, however, he lacks anything beyond basic hip movement, which is frustrating, but it’s also just where the line was at this point.  At the very least, he was actually able to stand, unlike the basic Battle Droid mold.  His sculpt was all-new, and it’s honestly a pretty strong one.  It takes the Magnaguard animation model, and translates it quite nicely into plastic form.  The front and back of the torso have removable plates, allowing for more of a glance into the figure’s inner workings, which is definitely a lot of fun.  The paint work on the Magnaguard is quite impressive.  His base color is a gun metal grey, with a lot of brushing and washes, giving him lots of highlights and shadows, and really bringing out the details of the sculpt really nicely.  The Magnaguard was packed with his staff, which has electricity effects attached, as well as a large missile launcher, which mine doesn’t have.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was always intrigued by the Magnaguards in the movie, but none of the toys really lived up to their coolness in my eye.  This one was the first one that I really felt came close to that, so it was one I made a point of tracking down at retail.  He was slightly beaten to the punch of “best droid in the line” by the IG-86 assassin, but he was still a nice step forward for the droids, and a very nice figure in his own right.

#3311: Padmé Amidala

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

PADMÉ AMIDALA

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS (HASBRO)

“Padmé has worn many mantles during her young life, including queen, senator and warrior. To each role, she brings her characteristic poise and intelligence, whether she is in the midst of a diplomatic discussion or facing a menacing encounter with an enemy.”

Hey, it’s a Padmé review.  Oh man, is Ethan gonna use the same over-used gag he used the last time he reviewed a Padmé?  No, I don’t think so.  I lost the will to keep doing that joke.  It’s really a shame.  Okay, that’s the only time, I swear.  Anyway, since The Clone Wars is a prequel-era story, Padmé is unsurprisingly a recurring player in the series.  Her focus was a little heavier on the earlier side of things, which meant she was also an early addition to the tie-in series of figures.  I’m taking a look at the first of her figures today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Padmé Amidala is figure 20 in Hasbro’s Clone Wars tie-in line. She’s the second figure in the line’s fourth assortment, still during the line’s first year.  This was Padmé’s first of two figures in the line.  This one was based on her repurposed outfit from the end of Attack of the Clones, which is really one of her most consistent designs, so it made sense for starting out of the gate.  The figure stands about 3 1/4 inches tall and she has 10 points of articulation.  Compared to the rest of the line up to this point, Padmé’s articulation was a rather notable step down.  She wound up with the worst of both worlds, lacking the elbow joints like Ahsoka and Asajj, but also lacking the knee and ankles like the initial Jedi releases.  It makes her a rather stiff figure.  Not exactly a ton of fun to play with.  The sculpt is at least an okay offering, I suppose.  She matches up pretty well with her animation design, and the work is generally pretty crisp and clean.  She’s really scrawny, but that’s kind of just how the design works.  The paint work on Padmé is pretty basic stuff.  The application is pretty clean for the most part, and all of the important details are covered.  Nothing super thrilling, but it’s what it’s supposed to be.  Padmé is packed with her small blaster, a droid blaster, her cloak, and a removable headdress.  She’s got some trouble holding the blasters due to the shaping of the grip on her hands, so the clear bands used to hold them in the package were almost a necessity to keep things in place.  The headdress piece stayed in place surprisingly well given the hair, and the cloak is a pretty solid piece on its own.  There’s even a cool printed pattern on both, which is really fun.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I don’t recall much about getting this figure.  She sort of falls into the era of just grabbing figures as I saw them, usually in batches.  I think with this one, I probably grabbed her at the same time as the 212th Clone, who would have been my main interest of the purchase.  She’s not exactly one of the line’s star pieces, and kind of shows some of the overall weaknesses of the line as it went into its mid-run.

#3306: Clone Trooper – 212th Attack Battalion

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

CLONE TROOPER — 212TH ATTACK BATTALION

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS (HASBRO)

“The clone troopers of the 212th Attack Battalion are distinguished by the orange markings on their white armor. Led by Clone Commander Cody and Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi, this unit includes a number of elite infantrymen trained for special missions.”

In the first year of their tie-in line for Clone Wars, Hasbro was just starting to dip their toes into the world of clones.  They kept named clones to a minimum at first, instead focusing on diversifying the types of clones present.  Through a combination of exclusives and standard releases, they filled in a few of the core groups of clones.  Since we’d gotten Commander Cody in the second assortment of the line, it made sense to get a few of his crew, the 212th Attack Battalion, aka those guys in orange!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The 212th Attack Battalion Clone Trooper was figure 19 in Hasbro’s Clone Wars tie-in line.  He was the first figure in the fourth assortment of the line.  This marked the first main-line release for the 212th, but there was previously a Target-exclusive boxed set with four of them and an Obi-Wan.  This release was slightly different, of course, just to keep things interesting.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 24 points of articulation.  The 212th is largely built on the standard clone base body, which makes sense, them being in the same armor and all.  However, the notable change on this figure was a brand-new head.  Hasbro was looking to make the helmet more accurate to the animation, as well as more easily adapted to a removable helmet, so this figure debuted what would become the standard Clone helmet for the line.  While it’s technically more accurate, I was always more partial to the original helmet sculpt.  But, I get the point on this one, and it’s still a decent sculpt in its own right.  The figure’s paint scheme is another cleaned up clone, without the heavy wash.  At this point, that was the direction Hasbro was taking all of the Clone Troopers, so he was consistent.  He’s got his proper Battalion markings.  The orange was notably different from the standard release of Cody, and would also be different from the later Waxer and Boil…so, he doesn’t really match with anything.  But, I guess he looks okay on his own.  The 212th is packed with a small blaster rifle and a rocket launcher with missile.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

My favorite episode of Clone Wars’ early run was “Innocents of Ryloth,” which debuted Waxer and Boil, two members of the 212th.  Since they weren’t added to the line right a way, and we weren’t sure about getting any named Clones, I got this guy as a stand-in for one of them.  Sure, it’s not accurate, but it’s all I had.  He’s rather basic, but that’s all he needs to be.

#3294: Aayla Secura

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

AAYLA SECURA

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES (HASBRO)

“A cunning warrior and Jedi Knight during the rise of the Clone Wars. A master of the emotional detachment necessary in the Jedi Order, she tried to pass on what she learned”

Even before the tide had generally turned on how people viewed the Star Wars Prequels, there were certain elements that were always pretty well accepted.  Pretty much, anything having to do with Clones, of course, but also a good chunk of the newly introduced Jedi Knights also picked up quite a fanbase.  It helped that they added new ones for each film, and it helped even more when The Clone Wars added further depth to a good number of their stories.  First appearing as one of the Jedi sent to rescue Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Padme from Geonosis in Attack of the Clones, Aayla Secura was a pretty popular character right from the start.  Look, being a blue skinned space chick in a revealing outfit gets you a lot of good will with fanboys.  She resurfaced for Revenge of the Sith, this time paired off with fan-favorite Clone Commander Bly, and she got a rather memorable send-off during the Order 66 sequence.  Despite her fan favorite status, her figures are definitely a bit spaced out.  It’s taken her a decade to finally make her way into The Black Series, but she’s finally here, and I’m taking a look at that figure today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Aayla Secura is part of the first main assortment of Star Wars: The Black Series‘s 2023 line-up.  She’s under the Attack of the Clones heading, where she’s figure #3.  Though she’s officially billed as an AOTC Aayla, thanks to her design remaining consistent, she’s able to work as both the Revenge of the Sith and Clone Wars versions of the character as well.  The figure stands 6 inches tall and she has 28 points of articulation.  Aayla’s articulation scheme isn’t quite as impressive as some of the other more recent Black Series figures, being a bit more on par with the pre-2020 stuff.  She’s still able to get some decent poses, but she’s not quite as agile as she could be, I suppose.  Part of this is centered around re-using some parts, as she makes use of the legs from Vice Admiral Holdo, as well as the right arm from Aurra Sing.  Everything else appears to be new.  It’s a pretty decent sculpt, up to par with the rest of the line.  She’s not the spitting image of her on-screen counterpart, but we also only briefly see her on-screen counterpart anyway.  She winds up a little skinnier, I think, than she should be, and her face looks a little rounder, but the rest of the detailing works pretty well.  Her color work is largely handled with molded colors, with just a little bit of paint to cover the basics.  Her eyes seem just a tad askew on my figure, but otherwise, things are basically what they need to be.  Aayla is on the lighter side for accessories, including only her lightsaber.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I’ll be honest, I’m starting to slow down on Black Series these days.  Most of the assortment that Aayla’s in wasn’t anything I was dying to own, so I largely skipped on this round.  I did decide to grab Aayla, if for no reason other than that I have Commander Bly, and you can hardly have Bly without his General, right?  She’s not exactly ground breaking or anything, but she’s got a fun visual, and it’s nice to finally get her added to the line after all these years.  And, more Jedi is always a good thing.

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website.

#3281: Asajj Ventress

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

ASAJJ VENTRESS

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS (HASBRO)

“Asajj Ventress communicates via a holographic projector to her mentor, Count Dooku, as they twist events against the Jedi. Ventress can wield a lightsaber with devastating skill and precision and is fueled by the power of the dark side and her hatred of the Jedi.”

Perhaps the most important thing to come out of Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars cartoon (well, apart from General Grievous, who was actually already slated to show up in Episode III when he was added to the show) was Dooku’s apprentice, Asajj Ventress.  She made the jump from 2D to 3D, and went on to be a pretty prominent player in the 3D show’s run…well, at least until you get to the end part where they never got around to producing the episodes that would have wrapped up her story.  Maybe some day.  Well, in the meantime, how about another action figure?  She’s got a nice little handful to choose from, but let’s set our sights on the 2008 version.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Asajj Ventress is figure 15 in Hasbro’s Clone Wars tie-in line, right after Plo Koon numerically.  She was part of the third assortment and was one of the two Sith additions to the line in this particular assortment (the other being her mentor Count Dooku).  The figure stands right around 3 3/4 inches tall and she has 18 points of articulation.  Early in the line, the female non-clones actually made out a bit better than the male non-clones in terms of articulation, and as such Asajj actually gets a full set-up of leg articulation, which makes her quit mobile.  She does lose out on the elbow movement, but, honestly, where would they put it?  Asajj’s sculpt was an all-new one, based on her animation model from the show.  This whole assortment marked a definite step-up in accuracy to the show within the sculpts, and that’s very evident in Asajj, who sticks quite close to her show design.  There’s some really impressive detail work, especially on the texturing of her outfit.  her skirt is a separate, cloth piece.  It’s a nice, heavy fabric, which looks pretty decent, and allows for full movement on her legs.  It’s also removable, so that you can replicate the times on the show she’d ditch it to save the animators trouble free up her movement.  Asajj’s paint work is generally pretty solid stuff.  The small details are nice and clean, and there’s no notably missing elements, which is all pretty cool.  Asajj was packed with her two curved hilt lightsabers, as well as a small hologram of Count Dooku, which I don’t at all recall my figure ever having, but she absolutely did at some point, I suppose.  I’m just losing my mind.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I didn’t get Asajj during her first run.  She was rather tricky to find at retail, and wound up getting scalped a lot.  I also hadn’t really warmed to the character yet at that point, so I certainly wasn’t down for paying more.  As the show progressed, I came to like her more, and I recall finding this figure during her second run in the new packaging, along with a stack of other figures.  I wanna say it was during a errand for Christmas decorations with my dad, but it might have been for non-Christmas related purposes.  She’s a pretty strong figure, and holds up well this many years later.