Jedi Temple Guard - R - Saga Legends (SL17)

Members of the Jedi Order, these guards are armed with souble-bladed Lightsaber pikes and are sworn to protect the Jedi Temple on Corsucant.

We have recently often wondered if the release of a simply articulated character from The Clone Wars that is a first time offering in the line makes collectors feel happy or is the sensation more like salt in the wound. We don’t think any collector was ready for the sudden demise of The Clone Wars line and its vast array of animated characters. About the time when Legacy Collection [2] was supposed to go live before it was tragically canceled, Hasbro announced to us that they were still committed to adding characters from The Clone Wars into the basic figure line, but that they would be realistically styled. What they didn’t come clean about initially was that most of them were going to be added to cheaper Saga Legends and Mission Series lines instead of the super-articulated collector line. We don’t want to come across as ungrateful. After all, it’s our assertion that 2013’s TBS [P1] Mace Windu (#19) figure is one of the greatest action figures based on The Clone Wars Hasbro has ever produced. It still ranks as one of the most underrated figures for us of all time. Seeing characters like Captain Rex (SL10) and Clone Commander Cody (SL12) (both from 2013’s Star Wars [Darth Vader/Revenge Of The Sith] line look really isn’t too much of a big deal. We have much better versions of them in other lines. But a character like the Jedi Temple Guard? Man, it’s almost painful to know that we’ll likely never receive a super-articulated version of him ever and that is just too much to bear for some.

Thankfully, the simply articulated Jedi Temple Guard looks very, very nice. The sculpt is incredibly tooled. It’s done so well it seems that it could easily pass for an animated take on the character as well as a realistically styled version of it. As such, we found posing him next the animated figures was just as poignant as it was posing him next to realistic interpretations of TCW characters. As we’ve mentioned, the sculpt is very nice. What is even more impressive are the paint operations. Hasbro didn’t get everything perfectly as far as the deco is concerned, but most of the key details have been translated beautifully. The typically drab robes which are accented by gold silver and bronze details make the Jedi Temple Guard look like a distant cousin of the female Tusken Raiders more than anything else. That isn’t a jab. But it looks as if the concept artists were looking all over the Star Wars universe when designing these characters and felt they could elevate a nomadic species into something more refined. (This doesn’t mean this happened but we can’t help see the strong resemblance.) The Jedi Temple Guard has very neatly applied paint operations. There is some “messiness” in the eye detail and maybe an unruly splatter of metallic paint here or there. But for the most part most of us should be happy with how the final version of the Jedi Temple Guard turned out. This could have been a really bad train wreck. But it turned out well.

The Jedi Temple Guard comes with a double-bladed lightsaber, but for them it’s officially called a double-bladed lightsaber pike. It also represents the first official appearance of a yellow lightsaber blade. As you know George Lucas adamantly has stated that lightsabers are red for Sith and blue or green for Jedi. Of course, Mace Windu is the only exception as a Jedi with a purple lightsaber. (Interestingly, orange lightsaber blades were part of the Star Wars “Saga” role-playing line. It’s fascinating how they were not caught by licensing back in 2002.) The accessory is simple. There are no removable blades and because of the stiff pose, there aren’t too many ways you can make this action figure look interesting with its accessory. There were many Jedi Temple Guard characters in season 5 and season 6 (The Lost Missions) of The Clone Wars. Collectors are likely going to be buying these up like no tomorrow. We do think the figure is impressive, but this figure’s release is more bittersweet/melancholy more than anything else for us. The Clone Wars was a rich bed of characters from which Hasbro created an incredible figure line. We want to see that line continue to grow. We just ask that first time offering be held back for the super-articulated line. We don’t think that is too much to ask. In short, the Jedi Temple Guard is one of the finer figures in the Rebels Saga Legends line. And it’s wonderful to see new characters from The Clone Wars produced, even if they are only five points of articulation.