Plo Koon was the strong, silent type.  Dude never said a word through the entire Prequel Trilogy.  Such restraint certainly would have aided Pong Krell’s character, that’s fer true.  And yet, probably because of his interesting design, he was a fan favorite.  He managed to get an Order 66 death, which cemented his legacy in the Archives of the Jedi Order.  He had much more to say in The Clone Wars, and was particularly close with Ahsoka.  In researching this review, I also learned that Plo Koon was used as a stand-in for early takes and for the drafts of the Mando Season 2 finale, as the Jedi that stormed onto Gideon’s cruiser to take Grogu.  This, of course, was intended to protect the big Luke secret. 

This is a figure, that almost managed to be great by 2005 standards, but fell just short.  First of all, the sculpt is excellent.  Plo Koon’s distinctive Kel Dor headsculpt is very well done, with a lot of texture and paint details - both to the head and the mask.  It was hard to do much better in future versions.  And here we immediately get to one advantage this figure has over the otherwise superior TLC BD45 version.  The mask is part of the headsculpt here, while the TLC figure has it as a separate removable piece.  Now, at first pass the removable mask would probably be thought of as superior, as it give additional details and display options, should you choose to do so.  However, the execution wasn’t great, and, at least with my sample, the mask always falls off if you look directly at it - which is frustrating.  A simple headswap is possible - without causing any undue groinular injury.  (Not that there’s any “due” groinular injury.  Nobody should get hurt down there.)

Next, the figure has decent (not the best) articulation for its day.  Ball neck,  ball shoulders, swivel elbows, wrists, waist, and hips.  And also hinged knees.  Of course, as we all know, the lack of ankles (while not unheard of, was still rare at the time) renders moot most lower body articulation potential.  But even with swivel elbows, you’re able to get some decent lightsaber poses out of the figure.  The hands are cool, and hold the lightsaber well. 

That brings me to the lower articulation.  Aside from the missing ankles, the real problem here is the unfortunate use of hard plastic for the lower tunic/skirt.  While Hasbro had often used softer plastic to allow for hip range of motion, it’s not the case here.  And while for older figures, this can often be overlooked, it’s a problem for Plo Koon because his iconic scene in ROTS is being inside the cockpit of his Jedi Straighter, and getting blown out of the sky by those clone bastards.  He can fit inside the cockpit of his Jedi Starfighter, as seen in the final image of the gallery, but if you notice, he’s basically squeezed in there like a board, pressed up against the cockpit.  I guess he can grab a good look at an enemy fighter if he pulled a Maverick upside down move, but such daredevilry didn’t seem to be his thing.  So he basically fails to do the singular thing he did in ROTS.

For accessories, he simply comes with a lightsaber hilt, and one of those pesky removable blue blades.  Due to divine intervention, mine is somehow still intact.  The unlit hilt fits into a peg hole on his belt.  Which brings me to one other detail that is not covered in the TLC figure.  The newer Plo Koon does not have the peg hole.  The saber included with that figure is a single piece (thankfully), but they didn’t include an alternate hilt, and therefore no peg hole was made.  That’s a bit of a miss on that figure.  But to be clear, this one is most definitely inferior to that one.  Unless Tannith pulls “Tannith Maneuver” and tells us that Plo Koon had a different outfit in ROTS because his underpants had a cornflower blue stripe around the waistband instead of a navy blue stripe.  I’d have to rethink my life if this information is accurate.

Finally, the figure lacks a robe.  Again, soft goods jedi robes were not fully integrated as standard in the line at this time (we’ve come full circle, eh Ahoska, Baylan, and Shin?), nor was ankle articulation.  So we can forgive those misses.  But the hard plastic skirt which prevents Plo Koon from sitting properly in his starfighter is essentially a deal breaker.  Otherwise, this figure could have survived in our collections much longer.

So close, and yet so far.  5/10.