Speeder Bike With Count Dooku - TCW [R] - Deluxe

Count Dooku flies a speeder bike across the Tatooine desert to confront Anakin Skywalker. The young Jedi will ruin Dooku's plans to win Jabba the Hutt's support if Skywalker returns with the Hutt's son alive and well – after the devious Dooku had convinced Jabba that the Jedi had killed the boy.

We admit it! We’re suckers for The Clone Wars look and style of Count Dooku. There is something extra menacing about him in this line that Hasbro has unsuccessfully captured in the realistic line….so far. From the evil look in his eye, to the expression on his face that describes an insatiably driven goal-oriented mission completion, Count Dooku in The Clone Wars line really hits the mark when it comes to great action figure design. When the original Count Dooku figure was released in 2008 as TCW [B] Count Dooku (No. 13), most collectors were enthralled by how awesome he was (and he definitely was a great figure). While the figure wasn’t awesome because of the articulation; it sorely lacked in that area (with only ten points), Count Dooku was great because of the careful attention made to his facial and bodily structures. They were replicated beautifully and it amazes us how well some characters translate into action figure form so much better than others. The Clone Wars version of Count Dooku has features that are very geometric and angular in nature and Hasbro has incredibly captured these characteristics beyond our expectations. Now Hasbro has taken that great sculpt and included more articulation making the deluxe version of him the new definitive The Clone Wars Count Dooku action figure! We are thrilled that Hasbro took the cream of the crop on the last figure and brought over a few new surprises eclipsing the first figure by a milestone.

We are the first to tell you right up front that we are not generally fans of the deluxe line, but Speeder Bike With Count Dooku was certainly more than a worthy purchase for us (for many reasons) and we hope you will at least have open minds to hear why this may just be a figure that could surprise you in your own collection. We also hope that you don’t ultimately pass this one by because we believe you will feel a sense of regret once you realize what you're missing. Hasbro has utterly improved this character and it is one of the best deluxe figures to date. (It’s rare that we beg you to listen to us, so please humor us.) If you’re looking for the best Count Dooku figure there is to buy in an animated form, this is the figure for you. (We suggest getting the basic release as well.) He doesn’t come with all of the cool accessories from the 2008 figure, but he does come with his unique lightsaber which should be enough for most collectors. The soft-goods cape is the only way to go in our opinion and it really does wonders for the figure. Nothing is cooler than flying Dooku around on a speeder bike with his cape blowing in the wind behind him; trust us on this one. It still has a gray “plastic” chain to keep it around his neck, but now since it is constructed out of soft-goods, it has a beautiful drape and it even looks awesome when you have him piloting the speeder bike.

And the enhanced articulation allows the collector to pose Dooku basic ally any way possible. This is a gift folks, and we couldn’t be more thankful for it. Hasbro has made Count Dooku super-articulated. And not only does he have full movement, they also gave him ball-jointed hips (to help out with the straddling over the speeder bike). This allows for more freeform movement than ever before and since he is a little bit top heavy, it makes posing him much easier. There seems to be some small sacrifices made in the paint application throughout the figure, but this isn’t a deal breaker. Would we have liked to seen streaking and wear like on the basic figure, (of course). Will we live without it, (definitely of course)! Speeder Bike With Count Dooku is indeed an overlooked deluxe figure as proven by it’s lack of sell-through at retail. In fact, we got ours on clearance for a song (less than five dollars). This makes us like the figure even more, but had we known how much Hasbro improved upon it, we would have absolutely purchased it a long time ago. A super-articulated figure mixed with soft-goods, a simple but necessary accessory and a smaller-scaled vehicle are what makes up this deluxe set and it is worth every penny. We just hope we don’t have to wait for the deluxe line to bring us updated articulation on our action figures like they did here. These figures should definitely be released in this manner through the basic figure line first!