Jedi Showdown - TCW [R] - Battle Packs

Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi duel Count Dooku and Asajj Ventress. All four are strong in the Force and trained in the Jedi arts. They have all faced each other before on different worlds, and now chance – or destiny – has brought them to this confrontation. Lightsabers are quickly ignited as Jedi and Sith position themselves for battle.

Ugh. Is this the inevitable fate of Battle Packs? Hasbro gave us fair warning in 2009 that the platform of Battle Packs was dramatically changing (and not in favor of collectors). We raved over the Scramble On Yavin, Battle For Endor, Hoth Recon Patrol and Resurgence Of The Jedi Battle Packs (among others) and voted with out dollars as they sold quite well for the most part. But Hasbro seems to have turned a deaf ear to the income we are providing them and they have decided to approach Battle Packs like this one with all repacked figures that we have bought already with nothing new or anything tweaked at all. Of course, a set like this will be good for the kid who needs some core characters at once, but it is a good bet that even they have all the main characters already. So, we are disappointed that these are the types of Battle Packs that will be coming down the pike with a little more frequency that we want. There will still be plenty of new Battle Packs coming too, but we fear that sets like Jedi Showdown will be responsible for clogging the shelves and preventing new ones from making it to retail. (Sometimes we never learn from our mistakes, do we?) Loosely based on The Clone Wars film, and we suppose episodes like The Hidden Enemy from season 1, this hodgepodge of characters never fought each other at once like the Battle Packs suggests. But they all can be seen at some point in The Clone Wars movie.

What you do get in this set is four excellent action figures, all well designed and decorated with the highest quality standards. But honestly, they were all excellent figures the first time around. Did we need another rehash (with even fewer accessories than the original figures came with packaged in the basic figure line)? We think not. But apparently, this is the way it is going to be for a while. It seems that repacked Evolutions and repacked Comic Packs didn’t alert Hasbro that repacks are detrimental to the line. Maybe third time’s the charm here. But that would mean that Battle Packs would get canceled and, this is a road we do not want to go down. Anakin Skywalker is a repack of the 2008 TCW [B] Anakin Skywalker (No. 1) figure. This time he only comes with his lightsaber. Asajj Ventress is a repack of the 2008 TCW [B] Asajj Ventress (No. 15) figure but only comes with her lightsabers for this release. Count Dooku is a repack of 2008’s TCW [B] Count Dooku (No. 13) figure, but this time he is missing his Asajj Ventress hologram and interchangeable hand with Force lightning. He still comes with his cape and lightsaber. Lastly, Obi-Wan Kenobi is a repack of the 2008 TCW [B] Obi-Wan Kenobi (No. 2) action figure, but he only comes with his lightsaber. And since he doesn’t have his back jetpack, there is a big ugly hole in his back. This is quite unfortunate.

Hasbro couldn’t even give us updated paint applications either? Unfortunately, the answer is no. There is no incentive to buy a set like this unless you are giving it as a gift for someone just getting involved with The Clone Wars. And even if this Battle Packs set serves that purpose, we are willing to bet that it is not enough of an audience to warrant the sales Hasbro needs to keep bringing us more exciting and more engaging sets. We will offer some suggestions. Instead of trying to replicate scenes from a movie, how about developing army builders? The 2005 ROTS Clone Attack On Coruscant Battle Packs set sold very well (multiple times) as did 2009's TCW [B] AT-TE Assault Squad Battle Packs set. Both contain nothing but army builders. We think that Hasbro can take the army-building beyond clone troopers too. We would love to see a set based on more Ewoks (with maybe one stormtrooper). A set focusing on Bespin Security Guards and maybe one or two Cloud City inhabitants would be another cool choice. And last but not least, sets that contain a nice selection of aliens from both the Cantina and Jabba’s Palace would be incredible additions to the line. Multipacks are great things, but they have to have the right content otherwise they could be quite boring just like the Jedi Showdown set is. And a slot saved for one of our suggestions would have been better. We are sure you can come up with a ton of better ideas too. And we understand the need for The Clone Wars Battle Packs, but come on, with all the various clone troopers out there, a better idea could have been reached.