Moving on from the Battle of Mon Calamari, we take a look at the Battle of Muunilist, as depicted in Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars Microseries.  This was memorable for several reasons.  It was the battle in which Captain Fordo and his ARC troopers distinguished themselves and came to be known as the Muunilist 10.  It was also the scene of a large ground battle in which that crazy two thousand year old bounty hunter, Durge, led a force of IG Lancer Droids on swoop bikes into battle to defend the Intergalactic Banking Clan.  The battle lasted several chapters in the Microseries, and saw a big time showdown between Obi-Wan and Durge, with Obi-Wan the victor...or was he?

The IG droids were developed by the Muun, and were designed to look like their builders.  They were much more effective than the basic battle droids that were used more widely by the Separatists.  A large contingent of IG droids were programmed as Lancer droids.  As such, they wielded medieval style lances while riding on swoop bikes.  This contingent was led by Durge, and struck at the heart of the invading Republic forces, dealing a huge blow to the large SPHA pieces that were laying waste to the CIS droids defending Muunilist.  Obi-Wan Kenobi decided to take matters into his own hands.  He donned a helmet and partial suit of clone trooper armor, and led Clone Lancer troopers into direct combat to meet this threat.  The IG Lancers and Clones fought a tough battle, but the Republic prevailed.  Durge and Obi-Wan dismounted and faced off against each other.  Obi-Wan defeated Durge (temporarily) and the Republic forces moved on to the next phase of the battle.

This IG Lancer Droid is a predecessor to the IG-88 model, and as such, is very similar looking.  Hasbro took the stylized animated look from the cartoon and translated it nicely to a realistic version.  It is a retool of the VTSC IG-88, so you know what you are getting:  something wonderful.  The sculpt is excellent, with a lot of separately sculpted details throughout.  The detail on the droid’s wires, cables and structure are excellent.  There is a lot of articulation packed into this figure, although the thin limbs don’t lend themselves well to this articulation, so beware when posing your figure.  If you are careful, you can pose the figure in a bunch of dynamic positions that are surprising for a droid, as this was beyond typical super-articulation standards for the day.  The paint job is very good, with a nice overall dark metallic. There’s some nice paint wash that makes the metal look well weathered.  It is tall and imposing, and looks great on display.  The legs have just enough range of motion that it should fit on a speederbike or swoop (not included) and joust with the clones.

The Lancer droid comes with 3 accessories:  A rifle, a blaster, and a lance.  The two guns are standard IG-88 fare, and the droid can hold both in either hand.  The real draw of the figure, however, should be the lance, as that was what distinguished it in the cartoon.  But….THE FIGURE CAN’T HOLD THE LANCE PROPERLY!  No matter what it may look like in the pictures above, it just barely works.  There is a “clip” that should allow the lance to snap onto IG’s arm, but this is not the case.  IG’s “doo-dads” on his arms prevent this from happening.  It’s an exercise in frustration to get the clip to stay in place for a photograph.  It’s terrible.

There are some other issues:  The plastic is very soft and bendy, precisely the opposite of what we should expect from a metallic droid.  There is a cable on the left thigh that plugs into a hole in the crotch.  You can barely move the left leg without this coming unplugged, so it’s kind of silly.  The character was straight black in the cartoon, so the figure is perhaps inaccurate in that sense, but it’s not a bad “realistic” interpretation of the animated character’s paint scheme.  All of these problems, but especially the lance grip issue, really take the figure down a few notches, despite all the positives. 

I’ll give the figure a 6.  The frail construction and frustrating inability to secure the lance into a convincing attack position are killers.  Not to mention that the lancer droid needs a swoop bike, and none was released.  You can try any number of other swoop toys that Hasbro has made, but they’re not the correct ones.

Credit:  The carded sample was provided by Randy S

Build-A-Droid 

IG Lancer Droid contains the body for the astromech R4-J1 can be seen rolling in the background in Mos Eisley while Anakin and Padmé arrive in their rickshaw to meet with Watto.  Source:  Attack of the Clones.