This is the first of the 6 Walmart Exclusive Clone Wars Microseries-inspired figures we are reviewing at Banthaskull.  There are a few things to discuss, but I’ll spread the wealth over some of the other reviews which will come soon.

The point I’ll hit here is something that probably won’t surprise you if you follow the site.  Hasbro dropped a surprising reveal a few months back as it seemed there were no real rumors about these figures hitting the pipeline.  The fact that they were inspired by the awesome Genndy Tartakovsky Microseries characters is also pretty surprising, since that source seemed to be something Hasbro was avoiding - either by their choice or at the behest of LFL/Disney.  These figures are being released as the cartoon series was recently added to Disney+.  If you have not watched the cartoon, you’re an animal.  If you have, the odds are you enjoyed them. 

I’ve written often about my disdain for 3.75” figures that are not realistically styled, in both sculpt and paint, as if they were based on a live-action character.  So I was not all that excited when Hasbro opted to repaint 6 existing realistically-styled figures in colors/schemes that more closely resemble their respective appearances in the cartoon.  I’m really not a fan of this.  While I respect the thought process, I’m basically buying figures that don’t really go with my collection.  Each figure ranges in “severity” as to how far away from live-action they appear, and whether or not they are worth rebuying if you have the original releases.  Fortunately, after getting a closer look at them, I’m not put off too much.  As someone I used to follow closely in the toy community used to say, these may be different enough to make you mad.  In the case of Aayla, maybe not.

Back when we originally reviewed VC58 in May of 2012, Chris gave the figure a 10.  After a second look in 2018, I gave it a 9, to better account for the “Force” sculpted hand, which at this point, most of us would prefer be in a more pose-friendly neutral grip.  In my VC58 sample, you can see that the face paint apps were pretty terrible.  Normally I’m not that much of a stickler for this type of thing, but my figure suffered greatly for this miss.  So I was probably looking forward to the Aayla release the most out of the bunch, as the PhotoReal tech would be worlds better than my older sample.  Sure enough, that is the case.  The face looks great, and I’m grateful to have this figure.

That said, the coloring is a little weird, as the light blue skin color is off from her live action look.  I don’t mind the bits of color added to her outfit as much.  Being a straight repaint, the “Force” hand is still included, so a basic THWG (Two Handed Weapon Grip) is something that’s a bit of a struggle to manage.

Since Hasbro didn’t change the sculpt at all, they missed a major aspect of this character’s appearance from Clone Wars.  You can see clearly in the card art that Aayla’s outfit is different.  Instead of the basic crop top with the left sleeve that she sports in the films, the cartoon version has a single shoulder crop top with no sleeves.  It always annoys me when the figure doesn’t match the image selected for the card - aside from the realistic styling, of course.  I wasn’t looking for an animated figure, but the outfit should be the same.  Clearly Hasbro wasn’t looking to spend any tooling dollars on these Walmart figures, so I get it, but of the 6 chosen for the special wave, Aayla probably was the most suitable candidate for a partial re-tool for the sake of matching her proper appearance.

The figure is great, and has been so since 2012.  Despite it missing the full suite of Jedi-Level Articulation (JLA) that we have come to expect from figures in 2022, this one definitely stands the test of time.  If you can get beyond the cartoon-inspired colors, than you’ll love this figure, and you’ll be able to display Aayla in your film-inspired displays.  For those of you that collect carded figures, the artwork is a delight.  I almost didn’t want to open this one.  Almost.