Archduke Poggle the Lesser.  His parents really gave him an inferiority complex with that one, eh?  It turns out that Young Lesser turned around what could have been a soul-crushing name into fodder to fuel his ascendancy to the Geonosian throne.  He ran for office using the political slogan “Vote Poggle!  The Lesser idiot than that other guy!”  He won in a landslide, and never looked back, although to be fair, that was mostly because his weirdly shaped head and long tentacle-like beard made it difficult for him to physically turn his head so he could look back.  He was a key player in the design and construction of the Death Star, and eventually was killed like a schmuck on Mustafar. He was eventually replaced as leader of Geonosis by ArchUCONN Snuggle the Generally Lame.  To keep their ultimate power in the universe a secret, the Empire sterilized all the Geonosians, and rendering them nearly extinct just a few years before The Battle of Yavin.  However, a few Geonosians were known to survive in the galaxy, including a force-sensitive individual who joined a dark side cult (and who work a breath mask, obviously) as well as Pehk, a Geonosian hunter, who gained notoriety for being the first person to headbutt a gundark.  Yep, those last few nuggets are real canon, proving that Star Wars is insane.

The original Poggle the Lesser figure was released in 2002 as part of the pair of Geonosian War Room/Chamber sets in the [Blue] Saga line.  At the time, it was an amazing release.  The figure was excellent (by contemporary standards), and came in a world-building pair of 3 packs that included a few uniquely sculpted important characters like Nute Gunray and Count Dooku, as well as some Separatist Glup leaders.  And it came with a very cool holographic battle table.  Today, of course, the figures are mostly outdated.  Despite not looking too bad for a 2002 figure (and actually retooled from a 1999 figure) Nute Gunray is in desperate need of an update, if for no other reason aside from his unfortunate and (probably) unintentional hand positioning - but with a more important reason in that his partner, Rune “Definitely Not NOT Rune” Haako, doesn’t exist in his AOTC outfit, and he needs to be made.  And a modern TVC Rune Haako figure standing next to Saga Nute Gunray would be ridiculous.  It would be like if you had Maxx Crosby standing next to Jamarcus Russell and you said “These guys belong together.  They’re both Raiders.”  Plus, Nute is an important character in the PT, even if he falls short of being a “main.”  Dooku is also in that set, and although he’s mildly interesting because his bizarrely sculpted claw hand can hold the unique Death Star hologram accessory, he’s obviously been done better multiple times, and then mic dropped as VC307.  The 3 other figures are deep background Separatists, and while they are obviously massively inferior figures, I certainly wouldn’t want Hasbro to devote any of its limited resources to updating them. 

Poggle was later repainted slightly and released as a basic figure in the 2006 The Saga Collection line as TSC018.  So it’s been 20 years since the most recent release, and 24 years since the one and only sculpt was released.

The figure is truly outstanding, and as is usual, does just about everything you’d expect/want/demand from Hasbro.  The sculpt is almost flawless, and the headsculpt is particularly nice. The paint applications are beautiful, with the metallic bits of his outfit standing out nicely and the paint job on the face really bringing out the necessary details.  The articulation is top notch, checking all the JLA boxes including ball jointed wrists, rocker ankles, and barbell hips.  The wings are ball jointed, which is an upgrade over the swivel wings from the original.

One incredibly small detail is overlooked.  It’s certainly not worthy of any kind of deduction, and probably would go unnoticed by most.  I only realized it as I was reviewing stills from AOTC, and then comparing it to the original figure.  The set of bracelets on both forearms should fall a bit haphazardly with relation to each other, whereas on the TVC figure, they are neatly and symmetrically stacked.  It’s a nonsense detail, but it just made a tiny bit sad that such a detail was captured properly on the 2002 sculpt, but missed on the 2026 sculpt.  But again, this didn’t affect my overall scoring.  It was just something I noted.

Poggle comes with his signature cane, which he holds fairly well with his right hand, although his left hand isn’t quite as strong in this category.  And in AOTC, he does indeed switch hands, notably on the balcony scene where he holds the can with his left hand while waving to the crowd with his right hand. 

Well, folks, I’ve got a bit of a beef with this figure.  It’s not a popular take, but for me it falls into that category of “What we have is passable, and we didn’t really need the resources to go into a fully re-tooled TVC figure.”  I feel that way about a lot of the resculpts we’ve been getting in TVC.  When the figures are side by side, as in the comparison photo in the gallery above, I struggle to see enough of a gulf to warrant the update.  The paint on the face is what makes the biggest improvement to me, as the original just looked like some green slime was slapped on.  Again, to be very clear, this figure is by every account far superior to the original, and absolutely is not only worthy of TVC, it’s one of the better figures I’ve seen in a while.  I’m just saying, I wasn’t really feeling the 2002 version had yet outlived its welcome, and even side by side, it doesn’t excite me much to retire it into the wilderness, MAKMCSWF-style.

All that said, here’s what would make me appreciate this figure more.  Our current Geonosian Arena is a mess of a wall of melted chocolate loaded with nonsense play features.  But by far the absolute worst part is the balcony, which seems like it was designed and scaled to hold a couple of Micro Machine-sized figures.  I am desperately hoping that Hasbro’s Battle of Geonosis campaign includes an updated balcony.  If that’s the case, I’d be thrilled, and I’d be much happier with Hasbro’s choice to resource this figure.  TVC Dooku, Jango, and Poggle deserve better than that 2002 milk chocolate nightmare.  And then Hasbro should ABSOLUTELY give us a new Nute Gunray and a debut AOTC Nute Gunray.  AND THEN - we must get Kid Boba, who is arguably in the Pantheon of worst figures that need an update.

Anyway, F it.  10/10.