Mace Windu - TBS [P1] - Basic (#19)

Mace Windu is a Jedi Master known for his wisdom as well as his excellent skill in lightsaber combat.

Well blow me down! Hasbro has made an enhancement to the “basic” Mace Windu sculpt and it may sadly go unrecognized by the members of the collecting community because of passing on The Black Series Mace Windu (#19) figure. The figure is disappointingly getting a negative rap from collectors. We have heard comments ranging from this figure was an unnecessary release to his skin color is completely wrong. Those points may be well taken, but we have discovered that the figure is a pleasant surprise and this action figure has more than what meets they eye. Collectors have been patiently awaiting the official announcement for the release of the previously announced realistic interpretation of Captain Rex. So a Jedi character from The Clone Wars like Mace Windu certainly pales in comparison. But that’s what is so tragic. Collectors will ignore this figure because it seemingly is more of the same when in fact it has a major update that none of us expected. Granted, much of what Mace Windu brings has been seen multiple times before; but “new” now entwines with “old” to create something unique for the adult-focused collector line. Let’s talk about what makes this action figure special. Mace Windu joins Anakin Skywalker (VC92), Ahsoka (VC102) and Obi-Wan Kenobi (VC103) (and others if you think about it hard enough) as realistic interpretations of characters from The Clone Wars television show.

Mace Windu is a retool of 2011’s TVC Mace Windu (VC35) action figure. That figure is a retool of 2007’s TAC Mace Windu (30 06) action figure, but it follows more of the features from The Vintage Collection figure instead of the 30 (77-07) figure. This time Hasbro sculpted an all-new portrait and arms. The new head sculpt is excellent. It actually looks like exactly what a realistic interpretation of the animated character would look like. You must think that sounds insane, because the animated characters are intended to look like the live action movie-based characters. But this is what happens when likenesses are adulterated through animation. So back to our point, if the animated Mace Windu “came to life”, this action figure represents exactly what he would look like. It’s its own oxymoron. And it’s one of the things we love about this action figure. The greatest enhancement to Mace Windu however is the inclusion of the most smoothly working ball-jointed wrists. We’re flabbergasted with how easily they articulate and especially how functional they are for the action figure. Posing Mace Windu with the lightsaber or lightsaber hilt is just an incredible experience as he can hold them in almost any manner possible. We were blown away with the array of motion we could get out of the wrists and how many awesome poses we could attain with this enhanced feature. We love it!

Not all is perfect with Mace Windu however. His skin color is sadly off and is too light. It has a yellow tinge to it and if you compare him to other recent Mace Windu action figures that have been realistically styled and the shades are so completely different one figure to the next. But this version of Mace Windu is just drastically different from the others. Thankfully the head sculpt is so awesome that it takes away some of the pain of the poorly colored skin tone. Even Mace Windu’s eyes haven’t been painted correctly. They have red irises which we find particularly odd. Another coloring issue with Mace Windu is his soft-goods skirt. It just doesn’t match the plastic sculpted portions of the figure. Perhaps this was done to emphasize that this is Mace Windu from The Clone Wars and not the Prequel Trilogy, but we find it odd that it’s so far off from the color it should be. Hasbro also neglected to add the Jedi insignia to his left gauntlet armor. We think that was a big mistake. Hopefully a running change is in the works. In addition to his lightsaber and lightsaber hilt, Mace Windu also comes with Jango Fett’s helmet. 2010’s TCW [SOTDS] Mace Windu (CW20) figure came with a much better and more interesting Jango Fett helmet. It came in two parts and with a detonator inside. This version is just a simple removable helmet. Boring! We still love this figure nonetheless. Sure, it could use some fine tuning, but we love the realistic The Clone Wars action figures. Keep them coming Hasbro!