Anakin Skywalker/Assassin Droid - TAC - Comic Packs (No. 11)

The Clone Wars battles that were a subset of the Star Wars: Republic comic series contained some of the most virulent battles in recent memory. And for battles that are this violent, portentous and noxious, a new type of Separatist Droid needed to be developed to spell certain doom for the Republic heroes. The story documents some very important turning points in the Clone Wars, most importantly Anakin Skywalker’s internal dilemmas. This it was necessary for Hasbro to also develop an all-new iteration of Anakin Skywalker for the popular Comic Packs line. And what a fine specimen it is indeed. Hasbro managed to capture the personality of this particular version of Anakin Skywalker quite well. Not only is the angst and uncertainly sculpted beautifully into the action figure, the dirtiness of his Jedi robes reinforce the brutality of the various battles this Jedi Knight underwent in the Clone Wars. Hasbro has now based a Comic Packs set on events that transpired within these Expanded Universe storylines. And for all intens and purposes, the set is knockout hit for us. Some old (barely), but mostly new tooling makes up this great new pairing of hero versus droid.

Anakin Skywalker is an all-new action figure, although you’d probably bet yourself that parts of the 2005 ROTS Anakin Skywalker To Darth Vader Evolutions figure has been used as a basis here since they look so similar to each other, but it hasn’t. The figure succeeds with an incredible sculpt and the incorporation of some excellent articulation. However, this quality articulation is encumbered by the removable plastic outer robes as well as the plastic skirt molded directly to the figure. The details etched into the figure are quite impressive and the paint job is just beautiful. Unfortunately the figure functions more like a statue with some limited movement more than an action figure. We actually are big fans of the head sculpt even though his eyebrows are much too accentuated. It has excellent proportions and really captures the Episode II/Clone Wars look of Anakin Skywalker quite well. And the dirt on his cheeks just sells it home hard for us. So all of this premium articulation essentially goes unused. That is the definition of waste. And Hasbro should save this type of tooling for figures that can utilize it.

The other all-new figure in this set is the Assassin Droid. This action figure is sure to make Star Wars collectors want to army build it. It lacks wrist movement, but do you honestly care? There is an additional point of articulation on this figure. Hasbro added hinge-jointed articulation to the droid’s left shoulder cannon. This weapon can swing up and down and it is a very cool weapon for a droid that doesn’t really need anything to help it kill. (There are also lower forearm cannons as well but they do not include articulation of any type.) The figure has a great deal of posing potential most notably due to the ball-jointed torso. And let’s not forget about the Assassin Droid’s stunning paint job. This figure looks like it was cast from real metal it is done so well. And the details in the shape of the outer armor are just stupendous. With an eerie head sculpt and red eyes, this Assassin Droid should easily strike fear into the rest of the figures in your collection. That should be reason enough to purchase this Comic Packs set. (Editor's Note: This set was rereleased in The Legacy Collection as 2008's TLC Anakin Skywalker/Assassin Droid (3) Comic Packs.) (Editor's Note: Special thanks to Jayson Krebsbach from Yakface.com for the reference images. Editing by Jedi Temple Archives.)