Obi-Wan Kenobi (Acklay Battle) - SW [S - P2] - Basic (’03 #01)

Ten years after the fight to save Naboo from invasion, the galaxy is on the brink of civil war. Under the leadership of a renegade Jedi, thousands of solar systems threaten to secede from the Galactic Republic. A courageous Jedi Knight, his impulsive and headstrong apprentice, and a queen-turned-senator are drawn into the heart of the conflict... and the beginning of war.

Free of the binders that bound him to a column in the Geonosian arena, Obi-Wan Kenobi defends himself against the ferocious beasts that have been let loose in the arena to attack him, Anakin and Padmé for the entertainment of the crowd.

We probably can’t claim that every collector loved the Geonosis Arena sequence from Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones, but we still feel however that even if you didn’t enjoy the film, you found something exciting or at least interesting in these scenes. The Geonosis Arena battle borrowed from history and older classic films. Many likened the arena “attempted” executions it to the Christians being fed to the lions by the Romans during that Empire. There are definitely some similarities there. As the three heroes try to free themselves from the binders holding them to the columns, the three beasts make their way to them with an intent to kill. They all eventually escape and each is tasked to face a unique beast head on and fight to the death. Obi-Wan Kenobi is faced with defeating the Acklay, a large green skinned carnivorous creature that has features like a crab (the legs) and who knows what else for the body and head. It’s a vicious creature and was a large threat during the Battle of Geonosis. Hasbro has created an Obi-Wan Kenobi (Acklay Battle) action figure to complement the beast. It’s far from a good interpretation of Obi-Wan Kenobi, but you’ll want to buy this for the other things that accompany him. Obi-Wan Kenobi (Acklay Battle) is pre-posed and comes with an action feature. These are two of the biggest unpardonable sins for articulation junkies. They’ll have great trouble with this action figure.

Sometimes action figures should be valued by the sum of their parts, and not by figure alone. This definitely applies to Obi-Wan Kenobi (Acklay Battle). He for sure is one of the wonkiest action figures we have come across to date. His head is at an awkward angle and he appears to be flailing his arms without logic or reason. He is hunched over which lends to a peculiar posture and his likeness is far from what a discriminating collector would deem as acceptable. But there is a huge “but” here. Obi-Wan Kenobi (Acklay Battle) comes with so many accessories that make the purchase of the action figure (a mere $4.99) completely worthwhile. He is joined by binders, a two part spear, a two part column as well as a lightsaber hilt (metal) and lightsaber blade. You obviously get a lot of plastic here for your money. You could almost throw out the inferior action figure and still make out ahead of the game. Sometimes it’s not always about the action figure. The Star Wars “Saga” line is proving that over and over to collectors. The amount of “extra” plastic that is included with so many of these action figures are turning out to be the true values of the line. Many collectors have really been enjoying the metal lightsaber hilts and we have to agree. The amount of realism they provide is astounding. The only thing is you have to be careful with the blade attachment. It’s much easier to break them when heavy metal hilts house them.

Obi-Wan Kenobi (Acklay Battle) is absolutely a disappointing action figure. He comes with a humble six points of articulation. A swivel head is joined by swivel head sculpt is joined by a swivel left shoulder and hinge-jointed right shoulder (for the action feature). He also comes with a swivel waist and two swivel hips. His upper body has been sculpted in a bizarre upward angle, so when you swivel his waist, this effect becomes more accentuated. It’s not a great design and collectors will be just in finding plenty of complaints with it. The coloring is right on par with what you’d expect an Episode II version of Obi-Wan Kenobi to look like, but at this point in the game, action figures of him should be getting better, and not worse. Count this version of him as one of the worst yet. By pressing an huge obtrusive storage compartment on his back, you recreate a “slashing motion” with the spear. We suppose the action feature works as intended, but we’re so over them at this point that we wish Hasbro would just stop adding them to the basic figure line. Leave these types of atrocities to Deluxe figures or something similar. Some people may not appreciate the smaller scaled column or the other accessories here, but we find that they are easily the things that make this figure worth purchasing. You can disagree of course, but we will still feel the same way nonetheless.