Cat Miin - ROTS - Basic (III 62)

As adminstress and chief aide to Commerce Guild President Shu Mai, Cat Miin oversees the distribution of raw materials to the Separatist Droid Army. She accompanies Shu Mai when the council is instructed to go to Mustafar and await the arrival of Darth Sidious’ new apprentice, Darth Vader.

Sometimes Hasbro needs to take shortcuts, right? We can all be amenable to this once in a while, can’t we? When Hasbro announced that two “Repack & Repaint” waves would round out the Revenge Of The Sith line, collectors became ecstatic at the fact that a dozen “new” figures would be entering the line. For the most part, Hasbro made old sculpt seem new again with clever new paint jobs and/or accessories and a new name. Probably most fans looked forward to the new clones that were presented, but perhaps other collectors were more curious about the random characters like the Separatists that were chosen for these last two waves as well. Cat Miin is a very interesting choice. And were it not for Shu Mai being included in 2003's SW Geonosian War Room (2 of 2) Screen Scene set, the figure would have probably never been made as an action figure. Cat Miin is an extremely background character that can hardly be seen in Episode III. But despite her obscurity, we still think it’s cool that an action figure of her now exists.

Cat Miin comes with a pitiful five points of articulation. But since this is a figure that just stands around in a Separatist war room, are you really going to care? In place of good articulation, Hasbro has given Cat Miin a stunning paint job and it’s one that tremendously rivals the effort put forth on the Shu Mai figure. Cat Miin utilizes the color purple throughout her skin color and outfit. Her face is incredibly realistic and the paint application is textured and dimensional. Seriously, spend some time observing how Hasbro painted this figure and we’ll be that you’ll find it difficult to not be impressed. Her outfit has a lot of detail for a 2003 sculpt and although Cat Miin is shorter than Shu Mai (as seen in Episode III), you’re not going to really care about this detail because it’s insignificant when you consider how nicely decorated the figure is in comparison. Cat Miin doesn’t come with any accessories, but her presence is all you’re really going to need in your collection.

In an interesting move, Hasbro included Darth Vader’s lightsaber injury on her chest. Obviously this makes Cat Miin extremely scene specific and probably the first action figure ever to arrive “dead” on a card back to collectors. Perhaps it would have been better for Hasbro to avoid this detail and allow kids and collectors to use their imagination should they decide Cat Miin should become the victim of Darth Vader’s lightsaber. But the route Hasbro took here makes it silly if you decide to have Cat Miin on some Separatist committee with an orange slash mark on her chest. Moving along, Cat Miin also comes with a Mustafar specific environmental action figure stand. She, like so many other Episode III characters who were on Mustafar, looks fanstatic atop of it and we applaud Hasbro for including this extra piece for a Collection 1 figure when she has nothing else to serve as an accessory in her packaging. Cat Miin certainly isn’t an exciting action figure and she is terribly limited with articulation, but she is a first time offering for the basic figure line. She’ll also probably be the last.