It’s Double Sith Wednesday!  Following our review of Emperor Palpatine, we now have Count Dooku, AKA Darth Tyranus.  By the way, I’m not well versed on the lore behind what’s on screen, but how do these guys come up with Sith names?  Palpatine seemed ready with “Vader” when it came time to anoint Anakin.  Did he think of that on the fly?  Did it seem appropriate at the time?  Or did he have it in his back pocket should the time arise. Was it only suited for Anakin, or would he have named Jar Jar the same if the roles were switched?  And if he does come up with this in advance, does he sit at his desk and brainstorm names?  Were there a bunch of crumpled up looseleaf pages strewn about his office when he had moments where his creativity struggled?  So did Palpatine give Maul and Tyranus their names?  Did he have “Vader” in the chamber, but held off for a better candidate?  Was he as proud of this name as Ralphie was when he admired his own efforts on writing his Christmas theme?

Nevermind all that.  Here’s Dooku.  He is a big improvement over his “Blue” Saga figures, and held up well…until it was surpassed by the Evolutions version which was released 10 minutes later.  But technically that was a premium figure, so in the basic carded line, this was one of the best you could get.  Of course all of them were stomped into irrelevance when VC307 arrived into our lives.  The figure had a decent sculpt, with a nicely crafted face that was better than most efforts of the day.  He’s got ball jointed shoulders AND elbows, along with swivel forearms.  He also has a swivel waist, and swivel hips that have some range of motion thanks to the somewhat pliable skirt.  The knees are hinged, but immediately join up with the swivel point of the boots, effectively creating something akin to ball jointed knees.  With ball jointed shoulders, elbows, and knees, it is one of the more well-articulated basic figures of the day.

For accessories, Dooku has a soft goods cape, which is very nicely done.  The chain is just the right length, and is done better than most Vader chains that were released many years later than this one.  The material of the cape is excellent, and while it doesn’t fall as perfectly realistically as one might like, it’s not too billowy and has nice proportions.  Dooku has his distinctive curved-hilt lightsber, but no unlit hilt.  This was an accessory that was missing from every Dooku until VC307 finally corrected the situation.

This is figure #13 in the ROTS line, but the first that was part of “Collection 2.”  The figure was aimed more at collectors than kids or casual consumers, and it shows in the details.  This is bar far the best ROTS basic figure that was released to that point (going in number order).  Also notable, being part of Collection 2, it included a figure stand that was sculpted into an environmental piece that is usually recognizable.  This one looks to be some kind of generic ship floor, and was the most common one offered in the line.  I suspect it is intended to be The Invisible Hand.

There are two “hidden” features of the figure that were spoilers back in the day.  The head is removable, as are the forearms.  So you can recreate the moment where Anakin defeated Dooku in a duel, slices off both hands, and then beheads him.  These features aren’t advertised anywhere on the packaging, but if you messed around with the figure prior to seeing the film, you might think these were intentional removable limbs, rather than simple points of articulation.  It probably passed over the heads of most people, as it certainly wasn’t as obvious Jango’s magnetic head popping off as soon as you opened the package. 

This is a solid figure, and was probably one of the best basic figures you could buy back then.  Dooku has since been improved many times until achieving near perfection with VC307, but for historical purposes, this was excellent.  6/10.