Editor’s Note:  This review has been updated with our second look at TVC…

Original Review:  Chris - 7/03/2013 7:16 PM

A funny thing about the character of Ahsoka Tano is that as the Clone Wars series grew on me, so did the character.  In the Clone Wars “movie”, I couldn’t stand the little punk.  By season five, the little punk was one of my favorite parts of the show. 

Another funny thing as I was compiling a list of my top 20 Vintage Collection figures as a purely random exercise, I was shocked to find myself putting VC102 Ahsoka at number five on my list.  I was wrong.  That’s a tick too high.  I did something that I often criticize others for doing.  I judged the figure based on how it looked standing there on my shelf,  Once I took it down to photograph I quickly realized that the lower body articulation serves to undermine the figure a bit.  This figure begs for ball jointed hips, but sadly swivel joints were used.  This yields too narrow of a stance to have the figure strike any dramatic fighting poses.  A real shame because the figure is a win in most other areas. For this reason, I’m giving the figure a score of 8 out of 10 Bantha Skulls.

Updated Review:  Chris (Mostly) & Bret- 9/19/2018 07:05 AM

Editor’s note:  The following partly consists of edited material from our review of the Walmart TBS release, which was essentially a repack of this figure.

This figure says something about the collector community and marketplace, but I have no idea what that is.  This figure was first released in Vintage Collection as VC102 Ahsoka Tano right before the line went on hiatus.  That wave was only sold online as a shared e-tailer exclusive.  While most outlets sold the wave only as a case, Amazon sold the figures individually.  While the Emperor’s Royal Guard and the Old Republic Trooper would sell out in a few hours, Ahsoka and the other figures were easily available on Amazon while the case was shipping.  Fast forward about a year.  The Vintage Collection has been replaced by The Black Series as the collector line, and that Ahsoka figure becomes the first Vintage Collection general release figure to hit the $100 mark on the secondary market. 

Today, the VC102 figure easily sells in the $150 to $200 range.  It was the ideal figure to be re-released in the Walmart exclusive Black Series 3.75” line, but it has been largely ignored.  At least in our areas (NJ and MA) that is, but other anecdotal evidence seems to support this.  Black Series Ahsoka Tano figures were plentiful, and even up until just this summer, they were sitting on clearance for $4 at Walmarts in NJ.  This feels anomalous.  The Black Series re-release appears to have had little impact of the secondary market value of that Vintage Collection figure (despite having chilled other Vintage Collection re-releases), and the loose figure has only tepid demand.  It’s fascinating, and I don’t have a ready answer.  It’s not the “magic” of the Vintage Collection since that has done nothing to increase the demand for the VC71 Mawhonic figure which was released in the exact same case.  Again, fascinating.  Professors will someday teach classes about this phenomenon.

Okay, we don’t typically do market analysis as part of our figure reviews.  We usually review the figures.  Crazy, right?  So it’s high time we started doing that.  If you read the original review above for this figure, those same criticisms stand today, but even more so.  The figure qualifies as super-articulated due to the 14 areas of articulation, but the hips are merely swiveled.  There are many character types that can pass with swivel hips, but Jedi figures demand ball jointed hips.  Don’t get me wrong.  There are decent poses you can achieve with the figure as is, but ball jointed hips would benefit the figure greatly, especially since it cannot achieve the predatory crouch that Ahsoka would often engage in prior to throwing down. 

The paint applications on the Black Series release are perfectly acceptable.  The silver accents on the belt of my sample slightly miss the mark in a few places.  It’s minor, and I don’t know if it’s specific to my sample or endemic of the production run.  The eyes are actually painted much better than on this VC102 sample.  If you look at the gallery above, you can see that the pupils give the impression of rolling back in the figure’s head.  The TBS Ahsoka eyes match your gaze.  In 2012, I gave this figure an 8.  I was contemplating lowering the score to 7 since the lack of ball jointed hips is more noticeable in the current figure landscape, but I talked myself out of it due to the accessory count.  I will keep it at an 8 since you get two lit sabers and two saber hilts (that you will probably lose, idiot). 

This figure was re-released in The Black Series, and was generally abundantly available.  If you’re in the market for a carded TVC Ahsoka Tano - good luck.  Ebay prices are nothing short of outrageous, with auctions closing at over $150.  Current asking prices are even higher.  Loose samples, or carded TBS samples can be found for very reasonable prices, and if you’re really lucky, you might even still find one at your local Walmart, mostly because Walmart is ridiculous and should have closed out the TBS SKU many months ago.  Unless Hasbro plans on adding ball jointed hips, there’s no need to revisit this figure.  It’s also possible that Hasbro might update the figure to reflect her appearance in Rebels, or some other media in the future.

Updated Review #2:  Bret- 8/15/2022 07:05 AM

There’s some good news and bad news with this re-release of VC102 Ahsoka. 

The good news, is that it’s a chance for carded collectors to grab this on a VC cardback at retail price, instead of paying out the nose for the VC 1.0 version.  Sure, it’s not exactly the same, and it’s not unpunched, but it probably fills the void for some of you out there.

The other good news is that the kind of terrible face is much improved with the updated paint application and PhotoReal.  When placed side by side with the recent VC202 from Season 7 of TCW, as well as VC222 from The Mandalorian, the 2012 version of Ahsoka is pretty terrible.  Well, it’s definitely not as bad with regard to the headsculpt/paint any longer.

So the bad news:  The figure as a whole just doesn’t hold up well anymore.  Again, comparing it to articulation and sculpting standards in 2022, VC102 is pretty weak.  Chris gave the figure an 8 back in 2012, and then kept that score (begrudgingly) in 2018.  Well, the time has come to take it down a notch.

This figure just isn’t fun.  The lack of ball jointed hips and ankles, as well as the awkward leanness of the limbs, really hurts it.  The character of Ahsoka demands full JLA (Jedi Level Articulation), and after adding VC202 and VC222 to my collection, I now kind of hate this figure.  Does it need an upgrade?  Yes.  Is it urgent?  No.  I definitely wouldn’t slot it in the mainline any time soon, with so much else taking a higher priority.

But Ahsoka really does put into perspective how far Hasbro has come recently.  While I applaud the re-releasing of some hard-to-find figures from TVC 1.0 (and TLC, if that would ever happen), I think the main character figures from this era should be retired.  Boba Fett, Captain Rex (from a certain point of view), and now the pipelined Han Solo and Clone Trooper were all re-released recently as part of the Fan Channel PhotoReal program (or LFL 50th for Han), and were then subsequently resculpted from the ground up.  I wish Hasbro would pause before re-releasing these inferior sculpts.  This might have been okay in 2020, but a mere 2 years later, the improvement in figure sculpting/painting technology is really widening the gulf.  When Hasbro announced that the 2007 Revan was coming to TVC, collectors voiced their displeasure with that outdated sculpt.  Well, it seems that even the main characters/troops/Jedi from the Golden Age are no longer up to snuff.  Ahsoka is just the next example.  I’m reducing the grade from an 8 to a 7.