Good, but not great.  I feel like I said that a lot on these reviews.  This is an otherwise decent figure that is undermined by what is, in my opinion, one fatal flaw. It’s deflating. By borrowing the lower legs from Morgan Elsbeth, this figure incorporates the tiny, diminutive ballerina feet that do not flex upwards. This is an anathema to dynamic opposing. And when I think of an Asajj Ventress figure, that is exactly what I want to do. Because the feet cannot flex upwards, the knee articulation cannot be used for meaningful poses. When the knee is bent, the foot needs to flex upwards so that it stays flat to the surface, otherwise the toes are pointing down which precludes things like, oh, I don’t know, STANDING!

Since using the ankle articulation in that manner is impossible with this figure, many of the dynamic poses I wanted to put this figure in could not be achieved. Additionally, because these feet are about the equivalent of a lady’s size 2, even completely neutral standing poses prove more challenging than they needed to be. Keep in mind that’s a relative phrase. It’s not challenging, it’s just more challenging than it should be. What I have just described is pretty much the bulk of my reasoning for the 7 out of 10 score that I have given this figure.  Incidentally, scoring these figures is increasingly difficult in light of Bret “5 stahs” Nomadscout’s recent run of Revenge of the Sith reviews.  This Asajj Ventress is probably more than two points better than Cat Miin, but it’s definitely three points worse than VC318 - Kanan Jarrus which is one of the best saber dueling figures in the history of the line.

The lack of utility with the ankle articulation has me completely disappointed in this release that I’ve been looking forward to for years, but that is not the end of my frustrations with this figure. The other issues are the thick hilts, which have the relative gauge of the barrel of a baseball bat. I assume our old enemy, “minimum wall thickness”, is to blame here.  In order to facilitate the peg that allows the two hilts to connect into a double bladed configuration, the diameter of those hilts had to be increased. This presents a very thick appearance. Additionally, the hands on the figure are not very big, being that it’s a female character. I had difficulty even getting the sabers into the hands at first. I had to pry them open with my fingernail and then insert the hilt into the hand, but it is achievable. The good news is that once in the grip, the sabers are fairly secure. I did knock them out a couple times, but that’s normal during any sort of “aggressive posing”.  Next, I’m disappointed with the range of motion of the head. Because of the angled neck post, which I feel is accurate to the character, the most elevation you get out of the head is looking straightforward. That’s fine if you’re just going to pose the figure in a somewhat static position. But once you try to get the figure into any sort of aggressive fighting crouch (that is any crying crouch the feet will allow), you’ll find your figure is hopelessly naval gazing.

The unlit hilts plug into the front of Asajj’s belt, which gives me a vague impression of the Deadpool symbol due to the peg holes.  As Tim from Bossk’s Bounty might say, it’s a little fidgety to get them in there. One saber can be plugged in easily. But if you have adult sized fingers, getting the second one in without knocking the first one out is a bit of a challenge, but it’s doable. I believe that on-screen, Asajj actually carries the hilts in the sashes on the side of her skirt.  This can also be achieved with this release, only I am not bold enough to try that repeatedly with the soft vinyl on these figures.  I’ve had the flight traps on my Luke X-Wing break too many times. By “too many times”, I mean twice.  I have two Luke X-Wing pilots in my broken figure bin. I did test to make sure this Asajj could store the hilts this way, but that was before the shutter was clicking.  Once the photography started, I wasn’t bold enough to temp fate a second time for fear of breakage.

Why the issues I mentioned above frustrate me so much is that Asajj Ventress is one of the most dynamic fighters in the Star Wars universe. If you watch any of her lightsaber fights, it’s a gymnastic effort against her foes.  She does climb walls (thank goodness she has elbows).  This figure cannot do service to the on-screen counterpart dues to the lower half, but the upper half is fantastic. The torso operates on a ball crunch and allows you to pose her in very serpentine-like stances, which is befitting the character. The arms, specifically the elbows, bend to just beyond 90 degrees. So all manner of incredible dueling poses would be achievable if it weren’t for the blasted feet. It’s so dispiriting to me when such a minor fixable issue sinks and otherwise very good figure.

One thing you will note in watching The Clone Wars is that Asajj does a lot of her battles without the her skirt. She actually throws it at Obi-Wan at one point, and that’s all I’m going to say about those two. I assume that if you pop the torso out, you could remove the skirt to recreate those scenes, but the legs are unpainted.  The wraps on her legs in the cartoon are alternating white and dark blue (or maybe purple). Hasbro did not choose to paint the legs accurately, presumably because they’re intended to stay hidden by the skirt.  So, if you were bold enough, you could probably get this figure into a “no skirt” configuration, it would not be accurate due to the legs which are cast in a light blue plastic.

When I was originally looking at this figure in the package, my immediate thought was that I’m going to request a Clone Wars 2D repaint of it.  I enjoy my Clone Wars Microseries display more than my Clone Wars 3D display. In my opinion, the Tartakovsky series has the best of the unique Clone Wars characters like Roron Corobb, Voolvif Monn, the ARC Troopers (red and blue).  I love it.  I would like a Asajj Ventress with the more muted colors and brown skirt as she appears in the Clone Wars 2D, but I do not want a repaint of this exact figure. If Hasbro were to do that, some new, larger and feet with better range of motion would be needed.

I’m sad that Ventress will probably no longer place highly in fan polling.  We have Last Figure Standing coming up in just a few weeks. She was the most typoed character that I think I’ve come across. It seems that fans know that two letters in her first name are doubled up, but they can’t be bothered to look up which ones. Hopefully, by looking at this review, you all know it’s the J’s, but fans would spell Asajj with double S’s or A’s. My favorite one of all time was the person who doubled up the S’s and then dropped one of the A’s. So it became Assj. I then took that name a little further, and started calling her Assy J, which is my favorite nickname for Ms. Ventress. I also have to assume it’s one of the many nicknames for J-Lo. Farewell, Asajj Ventress Typos. You will be missed.

To wrap up this TL;DR review, It occurs to me that there are primarily two types of collectors. There are those whose principal concern is that the figure looks good. Does it look like the character on screen, and can it be posed in some sort of basic pose beyond a 5POA figure? If that’s you, this figure is a home run. It looks great. The sculpting on the torso is fantastic, and you can display her in a basic combat pose. And there are those collectors for whom dynamic posing is critical, especially on Jedi and Sith figures and troopers. That’s the camp I’m in. It’s who I am as a collector, and it’s why I’m disappointed in this Asajj Ventress. I had such high hopes.  Your personal judgment will greatly depend on which of those two camps you belong.