Saesee Tiin - TCW [SOTDS] - Basic (CW54)

Saesee Tiin is an outstanding pilot because of his impressive telepathic abilities and the practice he received flying his starfighter through the challenging winds on his homeworld, Iktoch. When he is on space combat missions, the Jedi Master wears a special helmet and flight pack with swing-out wings.

It took a while for Saesee Tiin to make an appearance in The Clone Wars television show. As a direct result of this, it likewise took Hasbro almost as long to get the action figure interpretation out to us too. This all occurred around the same time season 4 was about to start up on the Cartoon Network. While there was a delay, the action figure from Hasbro is thankfully more than worth the wait. Hasbro has developed an excellent animated version of him and like multiple other recent action figures in the line, Saesee Tiin comes with extra play value via an extra large, albeit borderline silly, jetpack accessory. Saesee Tiin has dual functionality as he will appeal to both collectors and kids. He's the definition of "something for everyone" here. We’re impressed with this because Hasbro has discovered a way to seamlessly link action features with a collector-friendly sculpt without compromising what we want in an action figure. And that includes accuracy and exactness to the images and deatils we see on the television screen. Instead of ruining action figure aesthetics with disproportionate weapons (and even some bodily distortions amongst other things), they have figured out a way to make the action features removable and separate from the main action figure so that once they're removed, you'd have no idea that they were even part of the action figure package. It’s a win-win for everyone.

Saesee Tiin truly shines from head to toe. From the near perfect coloring of his outfit to the subtle gradient in the horns on his head, Saesee Tiin brings simple perfection to The Clone Wars line. He comes articulated with 12 points and has an extremely excellent portrait. The very nature of his skin tone is subtly human and Hasbro has effortlessly replicated this in the action figure. He has a slight look of concern on his face and because he's a Jedi of few words, Hasbro successfully ensured this was captured in his expression. Saesee Tiin comes without ankle joints but this is not something that concerns us too much. You may feel differently, but he still has incredible flexibility when posing him and he’s able to maintain these poses thanks to enhancing ball-jointed knees. Saesee Tiin has gauntlets with Jedi Temple insignia on them. They are white and don’t really match the rest of his outfit, but since every other Jedi in The Clone Wars is wearing similar gauntlets, he doesn’t look out of place at all. He comes with a green lightsaber and his soft-goods skirt is woven nicely is darted for a close fit and the drape just looks fantastic. (You’ll even see the stitching pulling the fabric close to his body for that fitted look. It honestly just looks fantastic.)

But what about that play feature for kids? Well, Saesee Tiin comes with a crazy jetpack that is inspired by the look of his Jedi starfighter. It’s colored in a rich green with light (or neon bordering on yellow) green contrasting details and comes in three separate pieces. The two “wings” snap onto a plug on each side of the center piece and altogether they attach to the harness. What's great about this new harness "convention" is that is preserves the integrity of the action figure by removing the need for holes in their backs. They're articulated and can swivel/pivot up and down in various poses. You can have a wide wingspan or tuck them in close to Saesee Tiin. The choice is yours. What we personally love the most is his helmet. And we’d like to think that the included removable helmet is a tribute to Saesee Tiin’s appearance in Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars micro-series. In case you didn’t know, Hasbro released this version of Saesee Tiin as 2008’s TLC Saesee Tiin (BD 11) figure. The helmets look almost identical to each other. (Even if it’s not an instance of homage paying, it’s still cool nonetheless.) Saesee Tiin is an exciting release in The Clone Wars line. Now if we can only get Hasbro to give us a definitive version of him in The Vintage Collection then all will be well.