In advance of the Midnight Madness on May 3rd, 1999, which was the launch for Episode I merchandise, Hasbro was working hard at preparing to make a major change to the line look and manufacture enough product to satisfy the anticipated hunger.  In order to pull off a successful debut for these new toys, Hasbro had to help retailers clear space on their shelves that was taken up by aging POTF2 merchandise.  While it’s never been explicitly revealed that this was the case (to my knowledge), it seems Hasbro was able to kill two birds with one stone.  They managed to not only whet everyone’s appetites with a sneak preview figure ahead of the launch, but also helped clear the shelves by making it available through a mail away promotion that required proofs of purchase from several existing toys within a certain time window.  There’s no doubt that fans helped make room by picking up some lingering POTF2 merchandise in order to convert those PoP’s into that sweet Mace Windu figure.

After jumping through these hoops, fans were treated to a “mailer” box arriving at their homes, which was the now familiar white box / white sleeve that encased the specially packaged toy within.  It was a sleeve in the case of Mace Windu.  Once removed, it revealed a pretty neat looking window box that contained a single figure.  While many collectors may have preferred a more standard card/bubble approach, this seemed to give it a more premium feel.  The package art maintained the look of the familiar dark green “starburst” logo that was used for “Phase 3” of POTF2 which continued through 2000 with the Original Trilogy CommTech figures.  Understandably absent was the portrait of Darth Vader, which had graced the cardback artwork since Hasbro resurrected the line in 1995.  This look was perhaps a bit of a transition, as the Episode I artwork debuted later bearing the visage of Darth Maul, along with a red “starburst” logo.

The back of the box gives a brief description of how Mace Windu is revered throughout the galaxy.  The text area is surrounded by a dashed line, and suggests an adult should cut the card out.  But that’s nonsense.  If kids aren’t supposed to run with scissors, it’s implied that it’s fine that kids use scissors as long as they’re not running.  Otherwise the age-old advice would be that kids aren’t supposed to have scissors under any circumstances, whether they are stationary or in motion.  So kids should just cut the things themselves.  Sayings are stupid.  But the point is, why would you want to cut that piece off the box in the first place?  To use it as a weirdly shaped trading card?  I don’t get it.

Anyway, the figure was probably somewhat inspiring at the time.  (Personally, I missed this whole thing, and got mine off ebay shortly after I started my collecting with the TPM figures.)  It was the very first character available from the very first Star Wars film in 16 years.  Plus, it was Samuel Jackson!  It’s all good.  The sculpt is pretty darn good, and looked to set a new standard for the hobby just as POTF2 was beginning to find its legs after a weird start on the sculpting front.  Mace Windu is stoic in his non-pre-posed stance and with non He-Man proportioned human build.  The face sculpt, while not necessarily a perfect Sam Jackson, looks to be one of the best likenesses across the entire POTF2 5-year run. The clothing has nice fabric textures and depth.  The robe is plastic, as was standard at the time, but it was very well done.  The main robe is a separately sculpted piece of pliable plastic, which can be easily removed.  It’s probably not something you’d want to do, however, since the arms of the figure are permanently covered by the robe sleeves.  Removal of the piece reveals the ol’ “baseball shirt” look, which is silly.  So just leave the thing on, okay?  While it doesn’t add any display variations, having the robe be a separately sculpted piece gives the figure a more premium look. 

The articulation is basic 5POA fare.  Nothing was added to Mace Windu in this respect that was any sign of future increases in articulation points that would be manifested later in many of the Episode I figures.  Mace has swivel neck, shoulders, and hip joints.  The inner Jedi robes are a bit rigid, so the range of motion of the hip articulation is very limited.  Of course, without knees and ankles, it would be limited anyway.  This figure is unable to sit, which is something Mace Windu did in 99 percent of his appearances on screen in TPM.  Obviously, we didn’t know that at the time.  The only time he’s seen standing (I believe) is at the end of the film during the Naboo celebration, when he’s next to Depa Billaba.  This figure works fairly well for that particular scene, if you were so inclined to display him that way.

Mace comes with a fully lit lightsaber.  We soon found out that Mace never ignited his lightsaber in Episode I, nor did we ever get a look at the unlit hilt on his belt.  Later, we learned that he had a purple blade. A PURPLE BLADE!  This accessory was a Hasbro invention just to give Mace something to interact with, which admittedly wasn’t a bad move.  It’s not their fault they didn’t know it was supposed to look different! 

Mace Windu is a very nice example of a 5POA figure, but does that make it OK?  No, Randy, it doesn’t.  But things were different back in late 1998.  This may have raised the bar for the sculpting of human figures back then.  It still looks good today, although it is far outclassed by later Mace Windu figures very much to the point where it is obsolete.  I’ll still give it a 4/10, our standard score for 5POA.  While it does have a nice sculpt from head to toe, the incorrect accessory is a bit of a problem.  The appeal of this figure is for the nostalgia, the unique packaging, and its place in history as the first figure from the prequels.