Coleman Trebor/Jango Fett - LC - Geonosis Arena Showdown (1 of 6)

The Jedi Knights rush to Geonosis to rescue Obi-Wan, Anakin and Padmé from execution. The Jedi brandish their lightsabers against the Geonosian warriors and the massive army of battle droids, super battle droids and droidekas. All hope seems lost that any Jedi will survive this battle, then Yoda arrives with an army of clone troopers. Although many Jedi are lost that day, others survive this climactic battle that ushers in the Clone Wars.

Wow! It is simply amazing what six years will do for an action figure! The TARGET exclusive Geonosis Arena Showdown sets are some of the nicest exclusives our Star Wars collections have yet to see. And with of mix of both old, new, borrowed and blue (purple?) the first set of Coleman Trebor & Jango Fett is something that you can pride yourself in owning and adding to your collections. Don't get us wrong, the first Coleman Trebor figure from 2003's Star Wars "Saga" collection was awesome, but he had awkward articulation that just didn't work the way it needed. No worries here though, the best part from that original figure has been salvaged (the head) and has been placed on a super-articulated body making him the definitive figure we have been aching for since his appearance in Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones. Hasbro also decided to utilize parts of the Qui-Gon Jinn figure from 2008's TAC The Jedi Legacy Evolutions sculpt and passed them along to Coleman Trebor (most likely due to their similar height) to make him great in stature. But you will also find all-new lower legs, hands, and chest sculpted in authentic style and all the parts work incredibly well to make a stunning action figure. He has very symmetric stature and no pre-positioned pose like the first figure had. Since he is super-articulated, you can pose him the way YOU want to now (and in many more ways that the first action figure could). While the new figure is definitely the better figure, we tend to prefer the 2003 figure's deco much better because he looks a little too clean. But this is most likely to be expected at this point since the finishing touches are going the way of the dinosaur on our Hasbro action figures. Needless to say, Coleman Trebor is truly a special addition to this exclusive mini collection. And how great it is to get him finally updated to today's standards!

Jango Fett accompanies Coleman Trebor in this two-pack and we are still uncertain how to react to him. He is a dramatic repaint of the Evolutions figure (most recently available in 2009's last blue phased wave, specifically known as The Legacy Collection Jango Fett (BD 51). It is our opinion that Hasbro intended to make a stark contrast of the jumpsuit to the vest that holds his chest plate armor, but the figure still looks too purple. At this point, we are not entirely what can be done to make it less "purple". While it seems to be a clear cut answer, his uniform is indeed purple in some shots of the film and not so blue like many fans believe. Despite the color being off, Jango Fett is painted very nicely and while many of you out there may disagree with our sentiment, we will say that this newly decorated Jango is the better and more accurate figure. The Evolutions figure looks brighter where this Jango Fett figure looks more muted (albeit still very purple). We think muted is better than flashy. We hope this makes sense. Everything else about him is exactly the same to what you have already seen before. Hasbro is getting significant mileage out of this figure; at least they can't complain about tooling costs here. Interestingly, we noticed that this [newly painted] Jango Fett figure has a difficult time holding his pistols. They fell out every time we tried to put them in his hands. Perhaps reuse after reuse of the mold affects the shape of the hands? We don't know for certain, but there is a definite issue here. Either the weapons have shrunken or the hands have increased in width or openness. This isn’t necessarily a huge problem because there are functioning holsters where the guns can be placed as an alternative. Besides, there are more positives with this set than negatives.

The figures are packaged beautifully together and the boxes together form an arc of the arena. The quality of this entire set (from packaging to content) is top notch and we cannot thank Hasbro enough for the time spent to bring such a wonderful collection of two-packs to collectors. We have also reflected upon the attention Hasbro has been giving Episode II. After a knockout Attack Of The Clones wave of basic figures in the summer of 2009 and now a fantastic wave of exclusive two-packs, we are surprised at the resurgence of interest in anything Episode II related. Most likely an indirect result of the successful The Clone Wars, Hasbro must be focusing on Separatists and Jedi since they are getting a lot of attention in the television series. Regardless of the reason, we hope Hasbro continues to bring it. The excellent choices and awesomely sculpted action figures are making us grow even fonder of this film. The rich source of Jedi from the Geonosis Arena sequence are being slowly created in action figure form and it is our desire for Hasbro to continue providing us the opportunity to purchase these cool characters. The Geonosis Arena Showdown six separately packaged exclusives are such an exciting collection of figures. And if sales perform well, we can expect Hasbro to revisit this as a "series 2" sometime down the growth of the line. (Editor's Note: They did create a 2010 Edition!) We are supporting this set without question. For $12.99, we get two super-articulated figures. This is less than the cost of a basic figure. It certainly has great value and awesome collector appeal. Most of the figures in these sets have premium articulation and good paint jobs. We can't think of a better offering than these sets for the moment. They are one of the best surprises from Hasbro yet! And we hope more are on the way.