Darth Sidious - TCW [R] - Basic (CW45)

The mysterious Darth Sidious manipulates events from the shadows to achieve his evil plans. He keeps his idenity a secret as he gives orders to his minions and uses his power and cunning to influence others and shape the outcome of the war.

It was only a matter a time before we got Darth Sidious in animated form as an action figure in The Clone Wars line. But technically, he isn’t even from The Clone Wars. To date, none of us has seen Darth Sidious in the television series outside of his holographic form (and of course as Palpatine – but that doesn’t count). So for now, this version of Darth Sidious falls under the Expanded Universe banner in The Clone Wars. Darth Sidious is actually a very cool action figure. While he is limited to only eight points of articulation, it suits him decently. After all, this is not an action figure that you would expect to need tons of movement (despite coming with Force lightning attachments and a lightsaber). He is rather somber looking the way Hasbro designed him to hide most of his facial features except for his nose and mouth was very clever. But of course this is just a mask for the true evil that is bestowed in him. Darth Sidious will likely serve as a favorite for fans of the film. Those not necessarily into The Clone Wars still tend to like to have animated versions of the movie characters. And since Darth Sidious is the epitome of evil, well, that just makes him extra desirable to those fans.

Darth Sidious is a rather simple action figure. He is essentially a statuette from the waist down. But he is loaded with articulation from the waist up. Including ball-jointed elbows and shoulders (plus swivel wrists). We tried to remove his hood but with no luck as it is glued into place. But in retrospect, we like this idea very much as this character remains literally (and physically) shrouded in mystery. Sidious also come with a soft-goods cloak that has been constructed out of very cheap material. It is unfortunately too shiny and takes a little bit away from the action figure. You can successfully pose Darth Sidious with his lightsaber or Force lightning bolts and despite his lack of articulation below the belt, he stands very nicely and doesn’t fall over too often. We actually sweat bullets over whether an action figure can stand when it doesn’t have that much articulation. We think Darth Sidious passes this test quite well. While only a portion of his head is visible, Hasbro did a phenomenal job on the paint applications. When looking at this action figure, you know not to trust him too much and we think this effect has a lot to do with how well Hasbro sculpted and painted him. We also must point out that he has the most incredibly sculpted hands. They're just strikingly designed. (Editor's Note: Darth Sidious has since made a "flesh and bone" appearance in The Clone Wars television show.)

Darth Sidious is part of a wave of action figure that only leaked out in February 2010 and hasn't returned to retail since. And they only sparsely shipped. It remains to be seen if these figures see more widespread distribution. We know Hasbro knows that Darth Sidious is a very popular character and this figure should have held a position in more than one case in the red phase of The Clone Wars line. Maybe there are a ton of cases stuck in Hasbro’s warehouse somewhere. We don’t know, but this is a figure that will be adored by all. And that is saying a lot for a figure with such a modest amount of articulation. We are not the biggest fans of the holographic (blue plastic) figures, but we think that Hasbro should utilize this Darth Sidious figure’s tooling and make one for the line. After all, that is how Sidious appears in the cartoon and we love our “screen accurate” action figures. But we also believe that Darth Sidious will make more than just The Clone Wars crowd happy. But that will only happen if this figure sees more widespread availability. Oh, and Darth Sidious looks quite striking next to both Asajj Ventress and Count Dooku. He essentially completes the Sith “trilogy” in The Clone Wars. Darth Sidious is definitely one cool action figure and we think you should make it your mission to get him into your collections.