Yoda (Ultimate Jedi Master) - SW [S - P3] - 12 Inch Figures

At the battle of Geonosis, Yoda follows his instincts to a darkened hangar where Count Dooku has grievously wounded Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker. Yoda and Dooku engage in battle. First, their powers in the Force are put to the test, as Dooku attempts to crush the tiny Jedi Master with hurled debris. Yoda easily deflects the assaults and even repulses Dooku's Force lightning attacks. The contest comes down to a duel of lightsabers. In a climactic battle, the two master combatants display amazing speed and agility. Yoda, empowered by the Force, leaps through the air, twirling and battering at Dooku's defenses. Dooku only manages to escape by using the Force to once again jeopardize Anakin and Obi-Wan. Knowing that Yoda's nobility would buy him time, Dooku flees as the ancient Jedi Master saves his younger compatriots.

By the time we reached the Star Wars “Saga” era of collecting, Hasbro was doing something interesting with the 12 Inch Figures line. Although they introduced a ton of first-time offerings into the 12 Inch Figure focusing on Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones, they filled quite a few Original Trilogy spots by revisiting or redoing some of their past efforts. They also “repacked” others. This repeating was especially evident in the final wave of 12 Inch Figures released in the Star Wars “Saga” [Phase III] line look. This wave was unique in that it included something new, something redone, and something revisited. It was the perfect hybrid of old and new as far as tooling costs were concerned. But there was also enough newness here where collectors felt like these 12 Inch Figures were worthwhile purchases. For example, Yoda (Ultimate Jedi Master) isn’t a new figure, but you’d think it was. This release mostly borrows parts from the Yoda figure that was part of 2001’s POTJ Luke Skywalker & Yoda Walmart exclusive 12 Inch Figure set. This time, however, Yoda (Ultimate Jedi Master) gets all-new arms and a completely new paint job among many other new additions, most notably the accessories.

Yoda (Ultimate Jedi Master) is meant to be based on the character featured in Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones. That is made clear by the figure’s source emblazoned on the packaging. But because they used a sculpt based on the character's appearance from Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, this figure isn’t going to look completely authentic to his CGI appearance in Episode II. That interestingly won’t affect the way collectors feel about this release. Collectors will always happily welcome an old-school Yoda. And it also doesn’t mean that Yoda (Ultimate Jedi Master) doesn’t look great. The figure does look great. And it may be the greatest 12 Inch Figure version of Yoda Hasbro has produced to date. We’re quite sure about that. There shouldn’t be any questions about that. Hasbro has mixed the Original Trilogy and the Prequel Trilogy here rather seamlessly. He has a very dark green skin color, which is not entirely screen-accurate. Yet, his likeness favors the character from Episode V, and some of his accessories are Prequel Trilogy specific. In case you didn’t know, Yoda (Ultimate Jedi Master) comes with accessories featured in Episode I, Episode II in addition to Episode V. This may be one of the most heavily accessorized 12 Inch Figures Hasbro has produced to date and makes the MSRP of $19.99 completely palatable.

In the past, Hasbro would have reserved a small-statured character like Yoda for a different SKU, which included other smaller scaled characters for a lower price. This lineup usually included Jawas and astromech droids. But with the way they handled this 12 Inch Figure, Yoda (Ultimate Jedi Master) can now compete with the regular-sized characters that are normally twelve inches in height. When you include so many extras with a figure, collectors are going to be fine by it. Yoda (Ultimate Jedi Master)’s Original Trilogy accessories include a removable soft-goods cloak, a gimer stick, a removable belt, and blissl. For the Prequel Trilogy accessories, Hasbro has graciously included a large two-part Jedi High Council chair, a lightsaber hilt, a lightsaber blade, Force lightning (we assume “a deflection of”) and a view screen. All of the accessories are beautifully tooled and exquisitely decorated. And they all interact wonderfully with Yoda (Ultimate Jedi Master). This final wave of Star Wars “Saga” 12 Inch Figures were victims of distribution issues and were very hard to locate at retail. Most collectors were only able to secure them via online ordering. But Yoda (Ultimate Jedi Master) is a definite highlight of the wave. We highly recommend this one for your collection. Hasbro did right by collectors with this release. Yoda (Ultimate Jedi Master) is truly that.... ultimate.