The first wave of action figures from Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones is so big, it really needs to be broken up into different groups – and the biggest group represented in the first 27 figures happens to be the guardians of peace and justice in the galaxy, the Jedi Knights. As you may or may not have seen or heard by now, Episode II features a Jedi gathering that takes place in a much more hostile environment than that of the council chambers on Coruscant, and this first wave includes plenty of figures designed expressly to recreate that scene.
Only three of the first wave’s Jedi – Anakin Skywalker, Yoda and Obi-Wan Kenobi – aren’t from the arena battle scene. Yoda and the “Hangar Duel” version of Anakin replicate poses from those characters’ confrontation with Count Dooku, while Obi-Wan’s figure includes Zam Wesell’s assassin droid from much earlier in the movie. But the other Jedi are ready for battle on Geonosis.
The “Saga” packaging itself represents some huge frustrations for me: some of the figures are so intertwined in their trays that you have to take extreme measures to extricate them from their bubbles. My other big gripe is from the perspective of someone who doesn’t want surprises in the movie’s actual story to be destroyed: several of the cardbacks give away key moments in the movie, and in the case of the Hangar Duel Anakin figure, the toy itself spoils a rather major moment with a feature that also makes the figure very flimsy.
Some of the Jedi are hard to stand up because their poses overbalance them in one direction or another; Plo Koon and Kit Fisto are especially susceptible to falling over. If anything, the flowing robes of the female Jedi help stabilize those figures a great deal. (I can’t wait for wave 2’s Mace Windu, one of the best-sculpted figures in the history of Star Wars action figures.)
New features to look out for: the lightsaber “blades” can be removed, and some of the Arena Battle figures have “ricocheted laser beams” which can be clipped onto the lightsaber blades. Obi-Wan’s right hand contains a magnet which allows him to “Force-attract” his lightsaber (made of metal) or the assassin droid (which contains a metal disc). Some of the Jedi also include translucent “Force effects” representing deflected energy, but thankfully, just like the gun bursts and deflected laser bolts, they aren’t permanently attached to the figures. (I say fortunately because some of ’em look a bit goofy.)
All hail Darth Jar Jar!
