Joker Squad - TLC - Exclusives

The stormtroopers of the 407th division – Anson Trask, Sergeant Harkas, Jes Gistang, Hondo Karr, and Vax Potorr – are sent to take down one of their own. The 908th division is going to defect to former Emperor Fel's side against the current Sith regime. The 407th is ordered to stop them, and Sith Lord Maleval joins them to ensure they finish the job. Trask's first mission as a stormtrooper challenges his ideals as well as his courage – and has dire consequences for the rest of "Joker Squad" as well.

OK, we are going to let the cat of the bag. We tend to not be the "biggest" fans of EU lore. Unless the story and characters make a really, really big impact on the Star Wars timeline, we are likely to say "that's nice" and move on as briskly as possible. We realize to define 'impact' would of course imply a very qualitative definition, so the opinions can greatly vary here as well. However, if the story is engaging or enthralling, we are very happy to give it a second glance. Such is true for the Joker Squad (an Entertainment Earth exclusive). Members of the Joker Squad are part of the 407th division. They work with Darth Maleval to stop the 908th division in its efforts to side with Emperor Fel. It is easily one of the better Expanded Universe stories to ever grace the Star Wars universe. Likeable, vile, and familiar characters all vastly populate the Legacy series together and create an amazing collection of personas and the Joker Squad set is no different. We have a "Darth Maul" meets "Squid Head" Sith Lord and five stormtroopers (including one with boobs). Without sounding so abrasive, we admit it is cool to get Jes Gistang (yes, we can barely pronounce it either) who is the first female Stormtrooper (marketed and bragged as the first by Entertainment Earth as such) we have ever received. Her “attitude” is quite reminiscent of Vasquez from Aliens (1986); as she is the shortest soldier of a different sex carrying the biggest gun. This is actually pretty neat and we do give credit for the brave attempt by Hasbro to introduce her into action figure form. We are sure she has been a leading factor for these sets selling well.

Sergeant Halkas is another standout figure from the set. He is colored very similarly to a Clone Trooper Commander (although his color flashes are in between a yellow and green color). His head looks a bit too wide when compared to his comic counterpart (mainly due to his wide hair), but it passes and is good enough in our book. Anson Trask (the stormtrooper with wet hair) is nothing new other than a stormtrooper with a unique portrait. The same is true for Vax Potorr although we have to admit that he looks a bit too much like Basso without the head ring. You won't be wowed by these two but they are necessary in the Joker Squad storyline. For us, probably the real gem of all the included stormtroopers in this set is Hondo Karr. Possessing a head sculpt that looks more like Luke Skywalker than almost all the Luke action figures we have received thus far, we believe that he will be a leading candidate for all the talented customizers out there to update their Luke figures. We have actually played with a few different Luke figures ourselves and have been pleasantly surprised with how well the results of Karr's head turned out on them. He is also the only stormtrooper to come with a dagger. Lord Maleval is the answer to "What is different in this set?" Surprisingly, he is a believable character and a beautifully designed action figure. Borrowing just a few parts from other previously released Quarren action figures (The 2008 TLC Quarren Soldier (BD 15) and the Ibtisam/Nrin Vakil Comic Packs come to mind). He is brightly colored and well clothed with a soft-goods cape, sharply sculpted armor, a lightsaber and a soft-goods "saber-whip". He certainly can hold his own even amongst the most popular Sith we have already added to our collections. We know this species to be hostile, so it fits well that one has been immortalized as a Sith or Darth "Something". He is definitely an asset to the collection as a Sith Lord due to his believability as one.

It is excellent to receive a pretty decent grouping of exclusive figures packaged nicely together in a box set. The last couple of exclusive sets from Entertainment Earth have been unfortunate disappointments in our opinion. The Mandalorians multipacks and the Power Rangers-inspired 2008 TLC Crimson Empire multipack were just too silly to even take seriously. Skittles-colored characters seem to work very well for clones and droids, but it fails terribly when it is applied to other characters. We have yet to see a good exception to this rule. But if you liked them, then you are certainly entitled to your opinion. But we want to accentuate how we sorely miss the incredibly awesome days of the clone trooper multipacks or astromech sets. We hope that EE will give the EU a break and go back to the Original Trilogy to give us our next multipack. How about a pack of Ewoks, a pack of concept art Episode III clone troopers, more (different) McQuarrie figures? The possibilities are endless! We want to still get multipacks, but let's see some love for the films that birthed the EU. As of this posting, the steam for this set has seemed to have cooled and Entertainment Earth had it on sale. We recommend that if you are on the fence for this set, that now may be the time to pick it up. Once exclusives go on sale, they tend to clear out and disappear forever. We are more than confident you will find some value in this set, even if you are after just one or two figures. We have grown to become quite fond of them ourselves (even despite our initial disdain for the set when it was first announced).