Ultimate Gift Set - TCW [SOTDS] - Exclusives

Jedi versus Sith! Clone trooper cersus battle droids! Anakin Skywalker duels Count Dooku in a ferocious lightsaber battle that pits two masters of the Force against each other, lightsaber to lightsaber. Captain Rex takes on a battle droid and super battle droid, blasting them with his laser cannon as the droids launch their own attack.

Is it time to start worrying about the health of the Star Wars toy line when Hasbro dubs a set like The Clone Wars Ultimate Gift Set in exactly this manner? How can a set of five repacked figures be deemed “ultimate”? It certainly is a core character gift set, but ultimate? We don’t think so. And why would they go this route to create an exclusive intended for the holidays that is at high risk for just clogging up shelf space because of the sole reason that most collectors have all of these figures already. You may already believe that we’re none too happy or thrilled about this five pack, but interestingly this wouldn’t be a correct assessment. There is something oddly likeable about this Ultimate Gift Set. Hasbro could have made this a lot less interesting by giving us five basic figures in a new package, but instead they extended their reach beyond that and looked to both the Deluxe and Battle Packs line to make this set seem a little fresher. And it works. This set won’t be for everyone, but we bet that many The Clone Wars fans will have some interest in this set for one reason or another.

Anakin Skywalker and the Battle Droid are two figures that you’ll likely find the least interesting. These two figures are straight repacks of their original basic figures. Anakin Skywalker is a straight repack of 2009’s TCW Anakin Skywalker (CW21) figure and the Battle Droid is a straight repack of 2008’s TCW Battle Droid (No. 7) figure. Sadly for the Battle Droid however is its severe lack of articulation. This is a shame because it has a beautiful paint job that is wasted on a figure that doesn’t hit a home run in the articulation field. One surprise in the Ultimate Gift Set is the Super Battle Droid. Hasbro looked towards their popular 2010 TCW Clone Troopers & Droids Battle Packs set and pulled the unique Super Battle Droid with the gray color flashed and cool yellow warning label on its back. For those that wanted to army-build this style of Super Battle Droid, you now have another chance. And thankfully Hasbro chose to include the Count Dooku figure from 2010’s TCW Speeder Bike With Count Dooku Deluxe set which is super-articulated and even includes ball-jointed hips!

Perhaps the biggest surprise in the set is the Captain Rex figure. The 2010 TCW ARC Troopers Battle Packs set didn’t even come close to meeting demand and despite countless begging and asking when Hasbro would get it out again, they’ve basically informed us that a rerelease is not anywhere near planned. (We think Hasbro should have released the ARC Troopers Battle Packs set as the “holiday” release for Walmart – or another retailer – instead of this set. That would have been appreciated a whole bunch more by everyone we believe.) Anyhow, collectors desperately want to grab the figures that they missed because they couldn’t find it when it was originally released. The Captain Rex action figure is unique in the ARC Troopers set. In that version, Hasbro used the head from 2009’s TCW Commander Bly (CW39) head and repainted it to look like Captain Rex. It' isn’t a perfect figure, but it works better than the earlier 2008 versions we received. So that is what you get in this set. In summary, we think the set is decent. It’s not necessary for those who collect it all, but will definitely will serve a purpose for those looking to fill some holes in their collections. And it’s a great set to introduce a new fan to who is just beginning to collect.