Jedi High Council (Featuring Qui-Gon Jinn, Ki-Adi-Mundi & Yoda) (Scene 1) - OTC - Scene Packs (Exclusive)

The Jedi High Council is the main interface between the Jedi and the government of the Republic. The twelve High Council members are chosen from the ranks of the Jedi Masters and represent a gathering of great minds who have proven themselves and their abilities in the service of peace and justice.

Hasbro blew away Star Wars collectors in August 2003 when they released a small but poignant subline called Scene Packs. Each set focused on three characters from the Prequel Trilogy, and each brought to the table all-new sculpts of revisited and first-time offered characters. But not only were they all-new sculpts, the three characters at hand focused on a specific scene with the Star Wars film it represented. Hasbro released four sets in 2003, and two sets focused on Separatists from Attack Of The Clones, and the other two focused on the Jedi High Council. The latter went over very well with collectors. But as soon as we all realized that the Jedi High Council sets snapped together to partially complete a scene, we all began harassing Hasbro when the rest of the sets would enter the line too. Hasbro wasn’t entirely quiet about their plans to compete the Jedi High Council, but they gave collectors no indication of when they’d enter the line. Thankfully, we didn’t have to wait long. About a year after two more sets arrived as Toys R Us exclusives under The Original Trilogy Collection line look (without the OTC logo) as Scene 1 and Scene 2. We were only two more sets closer to completing the Jedi High Council. The final two sets (Scene 3 and Scene 4 – also Toys R Us exclusives) didn’t arrive until December 2004 but completed a beautiful display of all 12 seats and members on the Jedi High Council. What’s more, each of the 2004 sets came with a quarter of the flooring to connect everything beautifully. Hasbro went above and beyond here, and collectors are thankful.

The first set is called Jedi High Council (Featuring Qui-Gon Jinn, Ki-Adi-Mundi & Yoda) (Scene 1). While there aren’t any new characters included in this three-pack, Hasbro updated all of the figures in one way or another. Some figures have more aggressive updates than others. Yoda is a significant repaint of 1999’s EI Yoda figure. This time Hasbro painted the figure in a significantly darker color than the Episode I version. They even colored his chair differently, and the final result looks more screen-accurate than the 1999 original release. You can see a comparison picture in our Photo Gallery. No accessories are included with Yoda, but that’s fine here since the focus is completely different. Qui-Gon Jinn perhaps experienced the fewest updates of all three figures. Hasbro repainted him ever so slightly, but other than that the figure looks very much like the 1999 EI Qui-Gon Jinn (Naboo) figure. He’s standing upright in this set and comes with no separate accessories except for the removable robe shell that is part of his sculpt. Ki-Adi-Mundi (whose name is misspelled on the packaging by the way) has the most significant update of the three action figures in this set. Hasbro took the 1999 EI Ki-Adi-Mundi figure, completely repainted it and gave it all-new legs. The new legs are important here because Hasbro added hinge-jointed knee articulation which allows him to sit in the included chair in a very realistic manner. Hasbro also added all-new soft-goods below the belt which also aids the figure to sit in the included chair in a natural position. Other than the chair, Ki-Adi-Mundi has no other accessories.

As mentioned previously, the Jedi High Council (Featuring Qui-Gon Jinn, Ki-Adi-Mundi & Yoda) (Scene 1) Scene Pack set comes with a piece of the flooring to recreate the complete Jedi High Council setting. By itself, it’s a useless gesture, but once collectors have all four sets from The Original Trilogy Collection line (as well as the two from the Star Wars “Saga” [Phase III] line), they’ll be able to put together something that is truly special and unlike anything we’ve received from Hasbro in the past. Complete something as big as the magnitude of the Jedi High Council is no small feat. And we believe that Hasbro approached this correctly the give collectors the best results possible. Are the figures included in these sets perfect? No, they’re far from perfect. But they all work incredibly well for the Scene Packs subline. Hasbro has also balanced the character contents very well and balanced out newness with repetition very smartly. Collectors will complain about some the included figures here, but overall there is enough newness to make them happy. The Jedi High Council (Featuring Qui-Gon Jinn, Ki-Adi-Mundi & Yoda) has an MSRP of $19.99 which is the same price as the first four Scene Packs released in 2003, so that’s good news. If you must complete the Jedi High Council, this is the only way you can do it. And we believe you’ll think it’s more than worth it, repeat figures and all. Scene 1 is based on Star Wars Episode I: The Phantom Menace as most of the sets are. Only a couple focus on characters from Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones.