Anakin Skywalker And 501st Legion Trooper (Coruscant) - SW [DV/ROTS] - Mission Series (MS02)

Anakin Skywalker and the 501st Legion Clone Troopers attack the Jedi Temple on Coruscant. After falling to the dark side of the Force, Anakin invades the temple to eliminate all the Jedi because he now believes they are enemies of the Republic.

One of the biggest inconsistency issues Hasbro has is how they label Anakin Skywalker in the basic figure line. For collectors, our request for how Hasbro designates these action figures often originates from our “anal-retentivity” based on the moment he became Darth Vader in Episode III. We understand that we acknowledge, but honestly, let’s not be that specific. There are indeed two completely different looking characters in the final Prequel Trilogy film that don the name, Darth Vader. But when it comes to a toy line, maybe we can have characters in the “black iron lung” be dubbed Darth Vader, and any pre-“black iron lung” characters be named Anakin Skywalker, just for ease of labeling and recognition purposes. Besides, unless you’re looking at a “Sith eyes” version of Anakin Skywalker, you’re not going to know for sure whether the action figure is Anakin Skywalker or Darth Vader without some subtext anyway. Anyway, Hasbro developed a Mission Series two-pack based on the Order 66 assault on the Jedi Temple. Guess what? Hasbro has called him Anakin Skywalker on this packaging. So, let’s keep it together folks.

It’s hard to say if the Anakin Skywalker And 501st Legion Trooper (Coruscant) Mission Series (MS02) set is the best of the first wave, but it may very well be. The set is very scene specific, and despite the limited articulation of the figures inside of the packaging, this may be the winning seller of the four. You’ll have to look carefully, but would you believe that Hasbro gave Anakin Skywalker “Sith eyes” on this particular figure? It’s true. The paint job isn’t spectacular by any means, but it’s there. You just have to look for it. Instead of giving kids a straight repack of the 2013 SW [DV/ROTS] Anakin Skywalker (SL03) figure, they tooled an all-new head sculpt and adjusted his legs differently where the center of gravity has been dramatically improved. We’re inclined to say that it’s almost an all-new figure because of all the changes made, but there are reused parts here. Anakin Skywalker (Darth Vader) comes with a lit lightsaber, and the hilt can be placed in the hands with a little patience. We mentioned earlier that some of the cuffs on the Jedi figures get in the way of the wrists and this happens a little bit with Anakin Skywalker as well.

The 501st Legion Trooper is the perfect complement for Anakin Skywalker. Based on 2013’s SW [DV/ROTS] Shock Trooper (SL08) figure, this sculpt has now been repainted to match the color flashes of the 501st Legion. The blue color chosen seems ever so slightly off as it seems too light, but for a lower quality action figure, we have to give Hasbro props for getting the helmet correctly this round. If you do not know this, Hasbro was unable to fit the pattern on the helmet of the 501st Legion Trooper, and the error kept getting released for years (despite collectors telling Hasbro it was constantly wrong). One new error brought to the table this time, however, are the missing parallel (and vertical) stripes running down the leg armor. It seems that Hasbro has a block with this particular battalion. Admittedly, it’s a pretty bad error this time around. Hopefully, Hasbro will find a way to correct in mid-production, but we’re not too hopeful about that. Out of the first four Mission Series sets, this one ranks as one of the better ones. You get two solid characters and a screen-accurate backdrop from Revenge Of The Sith. We don’t know if this line will resonate with the kids yet, but we hope that it is embraced by some facet of spenders.