Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Figure of the Day: Day 1,286: Asajj Ventress

ASAJJ VENTRESS with Tol Skorr
The Legacy Collection Comic Packs
Item No.:
Asst. 87504 No. 87630
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: #01
Includes: Lightsabers, probe, additional figure, comic book
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $11.99
Availability: July 2008
Appearances: Clone Wars comics

Bio: Asajj Ventress & Tol Skorr are on the trail of Quinlan Vos; Count Dooku wants the Jedi brought back to him to face punishment. They locate Vos on a ruined exploration vessel, but meet with unexpected difficulty when Obi-Wan Kenobi arrives to find out what happened to the missing ship. Ventress has battled Kenobi before and yearns to put an end to the Jedi. Kenobi and Vos must work together if they hope to escape these two relentless and ruthless foes. (Taken from the figure's cardback.)

Image: Adam's living room.

Commentary: For a character from the periphery parts of the Star Wars galaxy, Asajj Ventress has had quite a few variations on her design. She didn't look quite the same in the comics as she did on the original TV show, and the new show looks even more different. This figure is squarely based on the comics, leaning more toward her earlier look. With enhanced articulation from her earlier releases and some cloth bits, she's one of the better "realistic" interpretations of the character. However, with a fair amount of brown in her costume and a little less in the way of lipstick, she looks more like some bald dude in a dress with boobs. Nothing against bald dudes in dresses with boobs-- yours is clearly a harder lot in life-- but she could use a little more... uh... something. The smaller a figure gets, the more exaggerated certain details need to be to "read," like skin color, make-up, and of course, knockers. Thankfully Asajj's sculpt looks about right for the comics, as are the unique markings on her head. (These were absent in the first animated series.) Overall, it's a pretty solid design, but since she has a much stronger costume in either of the two animated series, this is one of those figures you should pick up after you got some of the other ones. Although that little probe droid of hers is pretty swell, Tol Skorr isn't exactly a compelling reason to get this one.

Collector's Notes: While not bad, the set is simply not very exciting. Tol Skorr is a really weak choice for this assortment and this pack will probably be one of the armchair scapegoats of people who discuss why the Comic Pack line ended. It seemed Hasbro was banking on the comics themselves to push the figures, which, in theory, seemed like a good idea except you'd probably need to be familiar with the book to care about the set in the first place. Heck, when I heard about this set, I was wondering why Skorr the Bounty Hunter would be packed with Asajj Ventress.

--Adam Pawlus



Day 1,286: May 19, 2010

1 comment:

Bravo said...

If Skorr the bounty hunter had been the other figure, I'd have gotten the pack. The WWE/hair band singer evil Jedi didn't wow me. Also, I passed because of Asajj's lack of leg articulation besides the hips. They gave her soft goods.

Meijer stores got a lot of the wave this pack was in, and are just now putting them on clearance.