Photos by Chris / Review by Bret

Agen “Eeth Koth” Kolar is one of those characters that is thoroughly confusing.  After checking out his Wookieepedia page, it’s still kind of a mess.  Basically, it seems that Eeth Koth was portrayed by one actor for the council scenes in TPM (with archival footage used for council scenes in AOTC).  He was then portrayed by another actor for the fight scenes in the Geonosis Arena.  During the editing process, it seems Lucas felt that it seemed the portrayals were different enough that the second performance was then made into a separate character, Agen Kolar.  Since all Zabrak Jedi look the same, nobody thought this was racist at the time. 

Agen Kolar eventually replaced Eeth Koth on the Jedi Council.  It’s unclear to me from Wookieepedia as to why, but Eoth Koth was kicked off the council.  I can only assume this is because they were rounding up all the Zabraks living on Coruscant and putting them in internment camps as a response to the whole Darth Maul fiasco.  But the Jedi were brilliant, and knew that by replacing Koth with another Zabrak that looked almost exactly like him, it would appease the Zabraks across the galaxy, and they would look the other way while their brethren on Coruscant were subjected to internment.  In case you are wondering, I just made almost all of that up.  But it is true the Eeth Koth was booted off the Council for some reason, and replaced by Agen Kolar.

So it was Agen Kolar who answered the call and joined the Jedi Strike Team to rescue C-3PO and R2-D2 on Geonosis.  He fought in Petranaki Arena along with his Padawan, Tan “Beige” Yuster.  Yuster was killed, but Kolar recovered his lightsaber’s kyber crystal, which would be very important to continuity later on.  Kolar survived the first phase of the battle, and was among the remaining Jedi that were left in the “survivors’ circle” before Dooku, in true comic book evil villain fashion, called a ceasefire so that he could relish his impending victory.  In a shocking twist, just before Dooku snapped out of his fugue, the Jedi were rescued in a nick of time by Yoda and the Clone Army, arriving with a massive amount of military hardware which must have been sitting around in a parking lot waiting for the lucky stroke of the sudden genesis of a couple of hundred thousand trained troops to make use of it.  Anyway, Kolar ended up using using his Padawan’s blue kyber crystal in his own lightsaber, allowing him the fascinating ability to switch between crystals, and therefore his original green color to his padawan’s blue.  Kolar was killed in .04 seconds by Darth Sidious in the next movie, probably because he was using his lightsaber switched to blue mode.  We have to wonder if Eeth Koth would have lasted longer.

This figure, while marketed to be the ROTS-era Agen Kolar, is actually the AOTC-era Agen Kolar.  He had a green lightsaber, short tunic (skirt), and lacked a robe.  In ROTS, he used a blue blade, had a long skirted outfit, and wore his Jedi robes.  Therefore, this figure is not suited to be the version killed by Sidious.  There is an existing (crappy) under-articulated ROTS Agen Kolar (not pictured because it’s too crappy), but even that figure came with an improper green blade.  Agen Kolar is not only confused with Eeth Koth by Lucasfilm, but he’s short-changed by Hasbro in action figure form.  He gets no love.

Okay, I guess we’re here to look at the figure.  It’s actually a great looking figure.  Personally, I’m a fan of the face sculpt and paint, even if it’s a bit sloppy in places.  The long hair hinders full movement of the ball jointed head, which is all too common a problem.  Form over function, I guess.  The body sculpt is typical Jedi for the era, which is to say, it’s a good looking sculpt, and while it had the standard super-articulation points for the time, we may be left wanting JLA (Jedi Level Articulation), which should includes at least 2 of the following:  ball jointed hips, ball jointed waist, ball jointed wrists, or rocker ankles.  He’s reasonably posable, however he’s got one near-fatal flaw.  His right wrist is angled awkwardly, making the required THWG for Jedi a difficult proposition.  It can be accomplished in limited positions, but even when posing with a one handed-grip, his right hand just looks strange and upsetting.  The soft goods skirt is nicely done and doesn’t hinder the leg movement.  He does have a peg hole on his belt for a non-existent saber hilt, which is another thing lacking here. 

The hand is a bit of a killer.  The specificity of his appearance in AOTC could be remedied (mostly), with the inclusion of a Jedi robe, and an alternate blue lightsaber. He should also have ball jointed hips (at least) and an unlit hilt.  That would basically give us an ultimate Agen Kolar (except for the long skirt from ROTS). Due to the weird hand, lack of a hilt, and lack of JLA, it’s the best available, but not quite a definitive, version of the AOTC character, but it does still look pretty darn good in a Survivor’s Circle diorama.  We’ll give it a disappointing 6, although it certainly merits consideration for purchase.

Oh, one other thing:  Check out that last image.  Do we need a new ROTS Chancellor Palpatine, or what?

Build-A-Droid 

Agen Kolar (first issue) contains the body of YVH-1, a battle droid developed to help fight against the Yuuzhan Vong.  Source:  New Jedi Order - (Legends).

OR

Agen Kolar (carry forward) contains the right arm of HK-50.  This was a model of assassin droid from the Old Republic era, built by Revan.  Source:  Knights of the Old Republic II - (Legends).

Verdict: Re-sculpt with better accessories (VERY low priority) 

This figure can be had carded for approximately $25 shipped, while loose samples are much less expensive.  It’s a good, not great figure, with some flaws that can be greatly improved down the line, in an alternative reality in which there were TVC slots for such a re-sculpt.

Verdict Guide:
Re-sculpt = The figure is not definitive, and a new version should be developed.
Re-issue = This version is definitive (or close enough), and shows sufficient secondary market demand to warrant a straight repack.
No Action = This release does not require new attention.