Surprise!  We told you we were done with our 3 part gallery and review arc for the Tartakovsky Clone Wars Microseries Battle of Mon Calamari.  But the joke’s on you!  We have a bonus 4th gallery and review, for non other than that happier-than-he-should-be Jedi Master, Kit Fisto. After reviewing 3 straight Legacy Collection (blue) figures from this story arc, we complete the figure lineup with the 2003 Clone Wars Kit Fisto.  Fisto was tasked by Yoda to lead the Republic Forces in a military intervention on Mon Calamari.  There, the former senator Tikkes joined up his Quarren Isolation League with Count Dooku and the Confederacy of Independent Systems (Separatists).  The Quarren put their droid armies into the oceans and battled the Mon Calamari in an effort to topple the planetary government.  Once Republic forces arrived, a group of Acclimator class ships hovered above the ocean surface and opened the bay doors.  Kit Fisto dramatically tossed his robes aside, flipped his lightsaber into the air, and dove bare-chested through the air towards the water, catching the hilt in the process.  He plunged into the depths, followed by a large contingent of Clone SCUBA Troopers.  Fisto led the Clones against various Droids and Separatist weaponry in an effort to stop the assault.  Mon Calamari Knights, riding on fast and ferocious keelkanas, helped Fisto and Clones dispatch a number of droids.  The Quarren then delployed their crab cannon superweapon, which crawled out of the rocky depths, took aim, and fired energy beams toward the surface, destroying one of the Acclimator class cruisers.  Kit Fisto, taking matters into his own hands, created a powerful force bubble, and used it to damage the crab cannon and immobilize it.  The Mon Calamari Knights combined the efforts of their keelkanas to topple the cannon back down the depths from whence it came.  Whence.  You’re welcome.

No, we’re not doing a Scene It! of this Battle.  For that, we’d totally need Hasbro to make keelkanas, Manta Droids, Mini-Subs, and the Crab Cannon.  But Kit Fisto does pretty much round out the main character combatants.  If you combine Fisto with several Quarren Warriors, Battle Droids, SCUBA Clones, and Mon Calamari Warriors, you can set up a nice little battle on your shelf in honor of the fantastic Clone Wars Microseries.

This is our first official review of a 2003 Clone Wars figure, which is a sub line of the blue Saga line where even the basic figure numbering continued through the limited line look change at the end of 2003 (#03-42 through #03-51), before restarting for 2004 #04-01.).  For whatever reason, I thought this line look with the Microseries figures and toys was the coolest thing from Hasbro up to that point.  There were several chase variants, which made hunting both fun and frustrating, but overall it was a good time because I was personally able to find almost everything at my local Toys R Us in Times Square (with the exception of one multipack clone variant).  The sub-line had only 10 basic figures (plus one running change), but several deluxe figures, multi-packs, and vehicles.  I daresay the “Microseries” got more collector-grade toy and figure support than all 4 Disney-era movies combined.  That’s a shame for the new media, but it’s cool for Clone Wars.

Kit Fisto endeared himself to fans in Attack of the Clones with his million dollar smile during the Arena battle on Geonosis.  This figure captures the swashbuckling attitude of the character, eschewing the standard Jedi robe, and baring his chest for the underwater battle.  The figure is sculpted to show off the muscular physique of this Nautolan Jedi.  The overall sculpt is outstanding, with the figure’s pants, skirt, and forearm guards showing plenty of textures and folds.  The paint job is excellent, with the skin showing a nice wash to highlight the sculpt.  The head is very good, although later versions of Kit Fisto would be better.  Here the head is painted in such a way as to appear freckled, which is a bit weird.  The face is somewhat plain, but the head tentacles are done well, and positioned to give a bit of room for movement of the ball jointed head.

The figure lacks many of the modern joints, and would fall far short of being called superarticulated.  Fisto has a ball jointed head, swivel shoulders, swivel thighs, swivel waist, and ball jointed ankles.  The ankles are good for helping to make a decent swimming pose, but otherwise the figure is unable to do much more than would a 5POA figure.  His arms are straight, so wielding the lightsaber is fairly unconvincing.  The figure has a loose grip on the hilt, but it’s good enough.  The figure can stand well, which is helped by the articulated ankles. 

Kit Fisto isn’t necessarily a particularly good figure from an overall standpoint when compared to modern figures.  The head sculpt is a bit simple, the articulation is very limited, and he only comes with a lit saber as the lone accessory.  Since his part in the film featured his unlit hilt which he tossed in the air and caught as he dove into the water, an unlit hilt with a belt peg would have been a nice touch.  The other missing accessory is his robe, which he was wearing before discarding with a flourish.  This figure was straight repacked in The Saga Collection in 2006.  Then again, it was repacked in the TAC Droid Factory 2-packs, although the robe was added.  So if you’re interested in this figure, you might consider looking for that TAC version first.  Otherwise, they figures are all exactly the same.  (Thanks to Jimmy for the correction here, as he commented below).

The figure is appealing because of the interesting sculpt and the source material.  It was directly from the Microseries, but Filoni’s The Clone Wars CGI show also featured a shirtless Kit Fisto in that updated version of the Battle of Mon Cala.  So really, this figure is still canon.  The articulation is very outdated and the accessories are meager.  As a standalone figure, it would get a 5, near the baseline 4 for a 5POA figure, but mostly because of the sentimental value, it gets an extra point and a grade of 6/10.