Kit Fisto - CW - Basic (’03 #49)

Begun the Clone Wars has!" – Jedi Master Yoda
On the remote planet of Geonosis, the growing conflict between the Republic and its foes explodes into all-out war. The Republic's Jedi Knights lead a massive Clone Army into battle on hundreds of planets. The Separatists, led by the powerful Dark Lords of the Sith, fight back with their own formidable droid armies. As this terrible conflict rips across the galaxy, Anakin Skywalker, Padmé Amidala and Obi-Wan Kenobi are swept into the turmoil of war and the rising shadow of the dark side.

Kit Fisto was one of the few Jedi to survive the extended melee on Geonosis that marked the beginning of the Clone Wars. He fought well against the Geonosian and battle droid forces, leading a special unit of Clone Troopers into the thick of the conflict. During the Clone Wars, he provided aid to the Mon Calamari on their home planet, leading Clone Troopers in an underwater battle, for which he was particularly suited, as an ampibious Nautolan with the ability to breathe underwater.

Any fan of Genndy Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars micro-series fell deeply in love with the Battle of Mon Calamari sequence. It introduced fans to the finer traits of Kit Fisto. We learned he could breath underwater. We saw for the first time that lightsabers function when wet. And we soon began to understand why Kit Fisto was such a formidable Jedi Master in the Clone Wars. Based on his infamous appearance in Chapter 5 of Volume 1 of the Clone Wars, Kit Fisto gets a high quality realistic action figure made of him that is sure to make collectors extremely happy. Kit Fisto isn’t a perfect action figure really, but there are enough important details that Hasbro has mastered here that may allow fans to look the other way and appreciate the figure for what it is. He comes with only eight points of articulation, but the thing you should pay the most attention to here are the ball-jointed ankles which allow the collector to recreate a swimming pose for Kit Fisto as he appeared underwater in the micro-series short. We don’t want to mislead you because the rest of his articulation is limiting, but it’s incredible what the ball-jointed ankles do for this action figure.

Kit Fisto has an incredible sculpt. Collectors should take it for granted. The head sculpt favors his appearance during the Battle of Geonosis very much. But for the first time we see him without any clothing on his upper body. Instead we see a musculature ripped with tone and it helps to explain his agility and strength as a Jedi Master. He also is not wearing any boots, so we get to see what his Nautolan toes looks like completely uncovered. Kit Fisto’s paint job is good, but there are parts that are slightly disappointing. For example, his skin tone is much too tan/brown. We would have preferred to see a very distinct shade of green like we see in both the Prequel Trilogy films and the Clone Wars micro-series. You’ll definitely feel that Kit may not be feeling well, or that he is camouflaging his skin tone very similarly to what a chameleon does. But again, Kit Fisto’s sculpt should immediately bring you right around again and show you how much thought went into his design. Kit Fisto also comes with two swivel shoulders, two swivel hips and a ball-socket head that sadly has inhibited movement.

It’s been fascinating seeing Hasbro’s concepts of the realistic interpretations of characters from the Clone Wars multimedia event come to fruition. Star Wars collectors have typically always preferred Hasbro making realistic rather than animated takes of the characters from the Clone Wars in the action figure line. It keeps the flow of the basic figure line more intact while seamlessly aiding in connecting the dots between the films and the Expanded Universe. Kit Fisto will definitely hold his own in the basic figure line. The sculpt is so dynamic that it will age very well throughout the years. (Editor’s Note: Hasbro gave this figure an all-new and more accurate paint job and released it two additional times. First it was released as 2006’s TSC Kit Fisto (SAGA 055) figure and then it was released in 2008’s TAC Kit Fisto/R4-H5 (4 of 6) Droid Factory set.) With the Clone Wars line being a very brief/shortlived subset of the basic figure line, it doesn’t seem that Hasbro will be releasing a ton of characters in this line. So collectors need to steep in the wonderful releases that did come. Kit Fisto is one of these fine releases.