We started our look at the Tartakovsky Clone Wars Microseries a few days ago with a gallery and review of Saesee Tiin.  He had his moment to shine in the series when, during a brief sequence towards the end of the show, he led a large contingent of jetpack-wearing clone troopers through the vacuum of space in an attack jump from a Republic cruiser towards a Separatist capital ship.  He took over the ship and turned the heavy guns onto other Separatist ships.  However, earlier in the season, in chapter 5, an entire episode was dedicated to the Battle of Mon Cala.  In a series filled with awesome and memorable moments, this battle was particularly cool.  It was teased in the very first episode in a montage narrated by Yoda in which he describes the state of the galaxy as the war between the Separatists and Republic forces spreads.  There was a quick shot of Count Dooku, on a rocky beach, leading a group of Quarren.  A few chapters later, we got the whole battle.

In the episode, it is shown how the Quarren and Mon Calamari species launched a civil war on their shared home planet of Mon Cala.  The Quarren attacked, with support from Battle Droids and other Separatist units that were capable of fighting underwater.  The Mon Calamari were outmatched, and the Republic sent specially trained Clone Scuba forces, led by Jedi Kit Fisto, to intervene and defeat the Separatists.  As the battle unfolded, the Mon Calamari fought along side Fisto and Clones to defeat the Quarren, specifically destroying a superweapon that was wreaking havoc with the Republic cruisers on the surface. Although the Microseries was eventually removed from the canon timeline, The Clone Wars show that followed provided a new take on the battle, explaining that the civil war began after the Quarren refused to accept a child Mon Calamari as their leader in the wake of the King’s murder.  The murder was accomplished at the hands of the Separatist Commander Riff Tamson, a character that absolutely needs an action figure just based on the sheer ridiculousness/awesomeness of a Shark Man.  This version of the battle showed Gial Ackbar as his younger self, as well as Anakin, Padmé, and a force of Gungans. 

This figure is one of several in this second wave of The Legacy Collection (blue) that were created to highlight the events in Chapter 5, along with a Quarren soldier and a Clone Scuba trooper.  This is in addition to the shirtless Kit Fisto which was originally released in the dedicated Clone Wars Saga sub-line in 2003.  It is also one of many different figures based on the Mon Calamari species that spans a wide swath of the Saga, and it happens to be the first, chronologically.  The figure is decent for its day, but isn’t perfect.  The sculpt is overall quite good looking.  The face is expressive, and is painted well.  The body looks good right down to the bare feet.  The soft goods skirt is executed flawlessly.  There is even paint detailing on the soft goods skirt itself.  Hidden underneath the soft goods is a belt buckle in the shape of a trilobite (or horseshoe crab or whatever the Mon Cala equivalent might be).  The figure is articulated in all the key places, although it has two problems, one of which is nearly fatal.  The figure has only a swivel head, which isn’t the end of the world, but if you try to pose it in a swimming action, the head should really be able to look more upward/forward.  That could be overlooked, but the lack of knees is a killer.  The ball jointed ankles are great and even allow you to recreate a swimming pose, while the soft goods skirt is designed to give a full range of motion to the hips.  But the lack of knees really prevents this figure (and just about every other figure with the same affliction) from being posed in a realistic battle stance.

A double-edged sword are the figures 3 accessories.  First, is the battle horn.  It is sculpted with a strap that allows it to sling over the figure’s shoulder, but it doesn’t fit snugly, so it falls off easily.  The figure’s hands don’t grip it well, and it can take a moment or two to get the figure to actually use the horn.  Also included is a large “trilobite” shield.  It is sculpted beautifully, and includes a strap/handle in the back.  As with the horn, the strap and figure’s hand do not work that well together.  You can still get the figure to use the shield, but it’s not as cool of a pose as it could be.  Finally, there is a long rifle.  It is also sculpted beautifully.  Unlike the other two accessories, the figure can grip the rifle pretty easily, and even perform a rudimentary THWG.  All the weapons are colored the same, and look good, although not necessarily spectacular.

Due to the lack of knees, the swivel neck, and the accessories that don’t interact with the figure as well as they should, this figure gets a bit of a hit.  It’s not to say that it’s not a cool looking figure that you should own, especially if you’re a fan of the Microseries.  It just falls short on our grading scale of reaching the baseline 7 for a collector grade figure.  I’ll give it a 6, but I probably like the figure better than that score suggests.  As with many previous figures from this era, there is room from improvement, so we can’t call the Mon Calamari Warrior definitive, but we are in no way looking for Hasbro to make any effort to address the shortcomings.  It’s unlikely this figure, or any others from the Microseries, would get any action from Hasbro anyway.  The series is no longer canon, and there is so much else on “the list” that deserves more attention.  Nevertheless, this is a cool figure, and I’m glad Hasbro made it, along with all the others based on the Tartakovsky Clone Wars.

Build-A-Droid 

Mon Calamari Warrior contains the body for the astromech R7-T1.  R7-T1 was never seen on screen, but was briefly Luke Skywalker’s astromech when he flew an E-Wing fighter during the Black Fleet Crisis.  The droid was mentioned by name in the book Before the Storm.  While it first appeared in visual form with Hasbro’s BAD, the look was made official in other Lucasfilm reference sources.  Of course, all of this was rendered obsolete and relegated to Legends status.  Source:  Legends.