These Geonosian Arena sets sometimes try to pair characters that had meaningful interaction on screen.  Mace Windu could have been paired with Jango Fett, but Fett already took Coleman Trebor to the prom.  He could have also come with Count Dooku, but Dooku wouldn’t make an appearance until the 2010 follow up sets.  This pair does make sense, though.  Until I was rewatching the Arena scene closely recently in order to help with some of the diorama shots for our galleries, I hadn’t realized that Mace Windu actually faces off against one of the Battle Droid Commanders.  There’s a moment where he’s running and a commander droid takes aim and fires.  Sensing the attack with The Force, Mace swats away the bolt with a backhanded lightsaber slice as he’s running in the opposite direction, and deflects said bolt right into the offending droid’s chest.  It’s the “Willie Mays Over-The-Shoulder Basket Catch” of Star Wars.  Or maybe it’s more like “The Jeter Flip.”  But screw the Yankees.  Nah, screw baseball.  Seriously.  I SAID SCREW IT!

Hasbro repainted their best Mace Windu figure (at that time) for the set.  It wasn’t perfect.  The face sculpt wasn’t particularly Sam Jackson-y, the joints were weirdly cut with sharp angles in them, the lower body articulation was hampered by the hard plastic lower tunic, and he came light on the accessories.  But it was still pretty excellent for a 2007 sculpt.  Perhaps upon releasing it again in 2009, it prompted Hasbro to make an upgrade.  the VC35 figure was a big step forward, correcting almost every one of the aforementioned issues.  But again, this sculpt was a good one.

The draw of this “3 of 6” 2-pack was the Battle Droid Commander.  It was technically an all new battle droid sculpt, although it was simultaneously released with the basic Battle Droid from the next set “4 of 6” which was paired with Joclad Danva.. We updated the status of that figure to “surpassed” once the TLC2 Battle Droid was released in 2013, but they both have their merits.  In this case, the commander variant wasn’t updated, so as of today, this figure is the best available, and we’ll call it “Close” to definitive.  It’s got a great sculpt, great paint, and a lot of articulation.  The eyes are strangely large, but otherwise the only aspect that needs an upgrade is adding wrist articulation.  As we’ve discussed in the past, it may be a technological hurdle for Hasbro at this point, given the mighty thin plastic forearms, but until we can manually pose a battle droid into a two-handed-weapon-grip (THWG), we shall not rest.

It’s a good set.  Windu is still passable for displays, but VC35 is definitely superior.  Get this set for the excellent Battle Droid Commander, and don’t look back.  Really.  Don’t look back. There’s a ghoul behind you.  Just keep it moving.  7 out of 10 for the set.