Plo Koon - LC - Saga Legends (SL13)

Jedi Master Plo Koon is a member of the Jedi Council and comes from a long line of Jedi. Serving as a General in the Clone Wars, he leads a battalion of clone troopers against Separatist forces.

When the Revenge Of The Sith toy line was getting prepared for release, Hasbro took some shortcuts on some of the figures. Whether the shortcuts were intentional or inadvertent, figures like Plo Koon came up a bit lackluster and its authenticity just wasn’t perfect. When the opportunity arose to get the fairly decent 2005 ROTS Plo Koon (III 16) sculpt back into the basic figure lineup, Hasbro pondered ways to make it better. Thankfully they came up with a great solution. Plo Koon just needed a good repainting (and a soft-goods cloak) to be “almost” perfect. And in the 30 (77-07) line, to introduce the Droid Factory concept, Hasbro issued the 2005 sculpt with an impressive all-new paint job. Some had criticized that the colors were too dark. We’d agree to that testament somewhat, but it’s a heck of a lot better than the bright and too orange color used on the original release. Plo Koon still came without his distinguished soft-goods robe, but he came with his trusty astromech droid which made this completely forgivable with collectors). Because of the vastly improved paint operations, Hasbro thought that this updated Plo Koon would be a prime candidate for The Legacy Collection Saga Legends line. And now it has been re-released in the Legacy Collection Saga Legends lineup. There is such a thing as too much. This one is a prime example.

We REALLY didn't need to see this version of Plo Koon again. This is the third release of him in less than two years. And he isn't even that great of an update. As stated, Plo Koon is a straight repack of the figure from 2008’s TAC Plo Koon/R4-F5 Droid Factory (1 of 6) set. This figure however is a major repaint of 2005’s ROTS Plo Koon (III 16) figure. Plo Koon comes with a ball-jointed head, two ball-jointed shoulders, two swivel elbows, two swivel wrists, a swivel waist, and two swivel hips. He has two more points of articulation which are quite curious. He has a ball-jointed (really hinge-jointed) right knee and a swivel left boot. And believe it or not, these two extra points give him a great array of movement, perhaps more than you expected. He also comes with a lightsaber to help round out his Jedi status. Plo Koon still sadly lacks his unique Jedi robe. It’s desperately wanted by the collecting community and we’re not sure why Hasbro has avoided making it in soft-goods for us. But until they release a Plo Koon action figure with it, we will still say that a definitive update is still needed. To Hasbro’s credit, they did accurately base the figure of Plo Koon to his appearance in Episode III. He is not wearing his outer robes in the Jedi starfighter during the Order 66 sequence, so kudos to them for that. But that doesn’t mean we want his Jedi robes any less.

The “big deal” pack-in for all  The Legacy Collection and Legacy Collection Saga Legends figures is the inclusion of the “Battle Gear” locker of guns. But even these are becoming repetitive at this point. You get seven extra weapons for Plo Koon (or any other figure in your collection). If you have other figures that have lost accessories throughout the years, then this is a great resource to help make them whole again. The only downside to the included pack-ins is that they’re all the same and the gun selection gets rather repetitious quickly. Still, getting some extra plastic for free isn’t a terrible thing and because these figures retail for $7.99, it helps take the some of the sting out of the high prices Star Wars action figures cost us anymore. Thankfully Hasbro has included the better version of Plo Koon for the Saga Legends line. But let’s face it. The figure is far from perfection despite its improvements. But Hasbro has stated time and again that Saga Legends is geared to get popular figures back out to the market with an emphasis on what kids want. Plo Koon still may not be the most popular Star Wars character for kids, but it makes sense why they would choose him for this sub-line that complements the main basic figure lineup. And if you missed the Droid Factory release, here is your third (and hopefully final) chance to get this version of Plo Koon. Enough is enough at this point.