• Animated Clone Wars Wave 3

  Posted by mr-jabbajohnl on January 13, 2005 at 7:39 PM

  This wave, consisting of three new figures as well as three new repaints, is now in stores, no longer just exclusive to Target. Which is a good thing, as Wal-Mart has them for nearly $1.50 cheaper. Each of these figures comes with a ROTS preview paper thing, the same one that shipped with some Darth Vader Voice Changer Helmets.

  General Grievous
  Introduced in Chapter 20 as a lightsaber-spinning, Jedi-killing, foot-utilizing son of a biatch, General Grievous will be a major character in ROTS. Following in the tradition of other cool one-movie-only bad guys Darth Maul and Jango Fett, Grievous will likely show up, cause some trouble, and get killed easily. If history is any indicator of the future, we’ll be seeing a whole lot of Grievous in the toy aisle, and it starts now. This figure has two lightsabers, one green and one blue, as well as a base, which is the same one we got with all the others. Like the first two sets of animated figures, he doesn’t have a whole lot of articulation, but he has it in the head, shoulders, forearms, and waist (all of which, save the head, are swivel and not ball-joint). Even with the small amount of articulation, he can be put into quite a few poses, ready to kill Jedi in every single one. Unfortunately his head pops off quite easily but goes back on just as well. The sculpting is quite nice, with his eyes off to one side, cape blowing in tyhe wind, and non-removable lightsaber hilts dangling from his belt. It looks just like the character from the cartoon. Grade: A

  Anakin Skywalker
  Though there already was an Anakin figure in the first wave of figures, this one is based on his appearance from Chapter 19, during his duel with Asajj Ventress. Anakin looks pi*sed, as he should. He comes with his lightsaber, one of Asajj’s, and the Clone Wars base. Here, the red saber is a much deeper crimson and the hilt is darker gray, resulting in a cooler looking saber than the ones packed with Asajj. Anakin can hold them one at a time, or both simultaneously, if you prefer. He has head, shoulder, right wrist, and waist articulation. His hair looks wet and his clothes are torn or nonexistent, like in the show. I still don’t understand why his mechnaical arm only extends up his forearm since Dooku clearly cut it off above the elbow, but anyway, it’s much more gold than the yellow previously seen on the first animated Ani. The coolest feature of this figure is his ability to grab Asajj by the wrists, trying to make her drop one of her sabers. This one is really nice. A+

  ARC Trooper
  Though there are three blue ARCs and only one red, Hasbro opted to make the commander in their animated style. He comes with two identical blasters and a base. He has ball joint head articulation as well as regular joints at the shoulders and waist. He’s sculpted with both his elbows at permanent 90 degree angles, with his left arm down at his side and his right at its own 90 degree angle. This makes it possible for him to signal with two fingers at the other clones, as in the show, though he can also hold a gun. It would’ve been nice if he could just shoot forward, though. The guns fit in his holsters fairly nicely. A

  Clone Trooper
  Perhaps the hardest figure to find in Wave 2 (along with Yoda) was the Clone Trooper. While Durge and Dooku stunk up the pegs, the Clones were few and far between. Thankfully, they’ve made a comeback, though it’s not the exact same figure. I mean, it’s the same sculpt with ball-joint head and regular-moving elbows and waist, and it has the same blaster and base. However, this time he can be found in yellow, red, or blue. The new colors look quite spiffy, even though I don’t remember any colored clones in the cartoon. Maybe next season? The insert is new as well, with three colored clones (one for each version) standing where the lone white clone once was. There’s no difference between the packaging for them, though, you’ll have to make sure you’re getting the right color by looking at the figure. Unfortunately he still only holds the gun with his left hand while his right fist is clenched closed, contrary to the way he’s packaged would have you believe. There’s an abnormally long stick coming out of the end of the blaster thats not on TV, I wonder if they planned to return to the Saga-style blast effects for this guy? That would’ve been cool, but alas, we just get a gun that looks like a giant needle. B+

  If you liked the other animated figures, you’ll definitely want these.

  mr-jabbajohnl replied 20 years, 3 months ago 0 Member · 0 Replies
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