Yoda - TCW [B] - Basic (No. 3)

Yoda is alarmed by the growing darkness that is spreading throughout the galaxy. While he monitors Obi-Wan's and Anakin's rescue of Jabba the Hutt's kidnapped son, he is faced with his own challenge – leading clone troopers under his command into another grueling battle against the vast droid army. As he destroys one droid, another one quickly takes its place.

We have a bittersweet relationship with the very first The Clone Wars Yoda action figure. Essentially a miniature statue with limited articulation, the likeness etched into this sculpted piece of plastic is pretty much brilliant. But once you get beyond this you will basically feel not much more than buyer’s remorse. It is such a shame too, because we are so thrilled with so many aspects of the figure. From his head to his feet, there is no denying that careful attention to detail was paid because from afar, Yoda looks fantastic. It is only when you play with him in your hands that you realize all of his shortcomings. Never have we seen a bigger example of a hybrid action figure than this particular Yoda, he comes with a ball-jointed right arm, head and feet, swivel wrists and waist and an action feature for a left arm. A little something for everyone, we believe that Yoda may be responsible for making articulation junkies scratch their heads. When holding Yoda in your hands, you are elated, then angered, excited then irritated. Yoda is a figure that confuses and satisfies on many different levels. It is hard to say that you dislike it, but you can’t say you love it either.

You will be surprised to know that despite his limited movement, Hasbro managed to squeeze in eight points of articulation into Yoda. Many of them are rendered useless due to his design. For example, he has a swivel waist, but thanks to a stagnant left arm, it doesn’t do you much good to turn him to the left or the right. Oh, and that left arm? What a travesty that is. Since Yoda will be outstretching his arm until you decide to part with him, it is an annoying action features that has destroyed the aesthetics of the figure. This created unnecessary frustration to the hardest core collector. Yoda is an amazing sculpt that has been made inferior thanks to the action feature. And it is always a shame when a potentially great figure is ruined trying to make the kiddies happy. To add insult to injury, Hasbro gave Yoda ball-jointed right arm. Why Hasbro? Why bother with this? That was extra tooling costs that could have been saved on a better figure. The left arm can be remedied slightly if you decide to pose Yoda with the can he come with to plug into the slot where the projectile fires. Once the cane is in place, this abomination is nearly forgivable, but don’t try to pose that arm because it doesn’t budge at all.

Hasbro saved all the action features for the guns and backpacks on all the other figures in this wave. So, to say that we are perplexed why Hasbro would incorporate an action feature in the arm of one of the most popular Jedi Masters of all time would be an understatement. Still, the figure is a hot seller and not many sat on the pegs for too long. Besides his cane, Yoda also come armed with a lightsaber and a Force “blast” projectile. If action features are your thing, Yoda will bring you some fun, but we believe many (most) collectors will balk at it. Despite its issues, Yoda has been painted very nicely. His green skin is quite dark and it is a great color on him. His features are in proportion to one another and it seems that the artisans at Hasbro really did make the most of this figure despite the parameters they were forced to work within to get this figure into the basic line. If you are a collector who buys on of everything, than this one is for me, but until Hasbro delivers an absolute ultimate version of Yoda base on his The Clone Wars appearance, this may just be one figure to bypass. Better will surely come and we hope the wait isn't long.