Saesee Tiin - TLC - Basic (BD 11)

The Separatists attack Coruscant, and the Jedi launch an all-out defense. Saesee Tiin leads a squadron of clone trooper marines on a daring spacewalk to capture a Trade Federation cruiser, after the Republic assault cruiser they are on sustains heavy damage.

If the original Clone Wars micro-series has gone unnoticed by you, then you have truly missed out on a very special timeline in our beloved Star Wars history. The short stories are engaging and quite a few of our oldest questions were finally answered. And probably most importantly, we got to see our favorite characters in new outfits and involved in new action-packed plots. Saesee Tiin from The Legacy Collection fits this description perfectly. As one of the most beloved Jedi by fans, he appeared in an exciting sequence in Volume 2 of the Clone Wars appearing with jet pack clone troopers. This was the first time we saw him with a custom-fitted helmet to fit over the horns on his head. It was a very engaging scene and this version of Saesee Tiin quickly became one of the favorite outfits of this Jedi hero fans ever saw. The character translated well into action figure form. It is an all-new sculpt and has been developed excellently to be very faithful to the micro-series, but with realistic likeness. He basically is covered in clone trooper armor (with a very distinct gray color – the first and only time we have seen this color on a Star Wars charcater) with his Jedi robes popping out here and there just as we had seen on the (General) Obi-Wan Kenobi (BD 9) figure in the same wave. For Saesee Tiin, he comes with a brown body glove. Saesee Tiin has one of the coolest helmets we have ever seen and fans will be thrilled to know that it has been engineered so well and fits over his distinctly shaped head perfectly. It, too, is cast in the same gray color as his armor and decorated with primary colors. The combination makes for a very striking result. He is super-articulated and a figure of this caliber needs to be.

If you spend the time, he can be posed in a variety of ways, but take note that the plastic skirt does limit some of his movement. Sadly, Saesee Tiin comes sans cape. And with all of the capes Hasbro has manufactured for the 3.75” scale to date, this is almost unacceptable. This was a staple to his uniform in the Clone Wars and we would consider it an almost egregious act that Hasbro decided to save a few pennies and cut it from the figure. It could also be an oversight, but this is too important of a detail to just overlook. Likely that “cost” had something to do with it, it is a shame that important accessories like this are omitted to meet tooling budgets. We have seen many “fauxstomizers” (those who mix and match parts instead of dramatically altering their figures) try different brown soft-goods capes on him, but we have to say that the 2005 ROTS The Sith Evolutions Count Dooku cape looks the best on him. In fact, it looks spectacular. The Evolutions Count Dooku cape is double-layered and has pleating that gives it an absolutely amazing drape and helps to give the impression that Tiin is battling in space. But even without this enhancement, Saesee Tiin is a necessary purchase for your collection simply because he is an awesome figure. He even rivals his movie based interpretations. A figure like this really makes us wish that Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars a lot more popular that is was. Saesee Tiin interestingly has a very yellowish-green, albeit illustrious and glistening lightsaber. We don’t recall Hasbro using this shade of green too often, but it gives him extra specialty and uniqueness, sort of like when he was packaged with a purple lightsaber for his 2001 Power Of The Jedi figure. (Yes, long before that Mace Windu rule....) It is really interesting how homage gets paid to the same characters time after time even if it’s unintentional.

We would have wished for one more detail to be considered for revision for the Saesee Tiin action figure. While we do indeed love the figure, we have to admit that his face looks a tad too friendly. Once the portentous helmet is removed, you will witness a Jedi that doesn’t have the same grit on his face as his movie-based counterpart. Perhaps a face similar to the first 2003 Saesee Tiin figure may have been more favorable here because it seems that this is a character that needs to articulate angst, determination, fortitude and grit on his expression. This version of Saesee Tiin does not successfully accomplish this. But ironically, this expression changes from sample to sample. There are different degrees of “happiness” that is exhibited solely based on the paint job. An interesting notation, we are not exactly sure how paint affects that attitude on a figure’s portrait, but it apparently does. Nonetheless, arbitrary face expressions or not, this is a remarkably sculpted figure and definitely one of Hasbro’s shining stars in The Legacy Collection. We really do wish that Hasbro will complete the very few key figures from this micro-series. For the most part, we have learned from fans that you too are big fans of Tartakovsky’s flawless vision of the Clone Wars series. It is a very special set of stories and we think it has been one of the best Expanded Universe sources the saga has ever witnessed. But if Hasbro never gives a nod to it again, we indeed can say that we got a marvelous sub-collection of great figures. And Saesee Tiin is one figure from this sub-collection that will probably rank as one of the best! We still hope that more will be on the way soon!