Top 5 Most Needed Vintage Collection Prequel Figures

The Prequel Trilogy followed the Batman '89 model with respect to villains. See a villain. Kill a villain. For two of the three films, the primary forefront villain was dispatched in the same movie in which he appeared. Count Dooku was the exception. He managed to survive a little ways into a second film. Then he was dispatched when Anakin did his best Civil War battlefield surgeon impersonation and went on a spree cutting off Dooku's body parts. You know. For the kids.

We have a passable Count Dooku figure from 2005's The Sith Evolutions set, but it comes up short compared to modern standards. In addition to lacking premium articulation at the hips and wrists, the figure completely lacks ankle articulation. Dooku is perhaps the most important Prequel Trilogy character that has yet to appear on a Vintage Collection card. Additionally a Dooku figure would greatly benefit from ball jointed writs given the curved-hilt saber he uses and the formal way he addresses his opponent with his saber before engaging in battle.

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He's a Jedi Master. He appears in all three Prequel Trilogy films as well as comics and The Clone Wars. He has lines of dialog in the PT. His death on Mygeeto stands out as the actor, Silas Carson, managed to wear a truly emotional reaction on his face even though Bacara and his murdering Galactic Marines weren't actually on the set. Despite this, it's been 13 years since the last movie-based Ki-Adi-Mundi new sculpt. That's almost shocking.

The 2005 ROTS line figure was decent for the time. It certainly has a hall of fame caliber head sculpt. It can perform a THWG grip courtesy of the dreaded swivel elbows, but the pose looks more like the figure should be churning butter. As you might expect for the time, the figure lacks ankles. We've said several times in our Vintage Collection updated reviews that the modern articulation really serves Jedi figures the best. So sit tight. There's probably a few more Jedi coming on this list.

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Like Ki-Adi-Mundi, Shaak Ti has Jedi bona fides through the roof as she was a combatant in, and survivor of, the Battle of Geonosis. She features prominently in The Clone Wars and played a memorable role in the Force Unleashed video game. That latter appearance was the basis for one of the scarcest and most valuable modern action figure which fetches triple digits on Ebay.

In a running theme so far, we do have a somewhat passable version of Shaak Ti courtesy of 2010's Geonosis Arena set. It's a step up from the aforementioned Ki-Adi-Mundi figure as it has ball-jointed elbows, but alas, lacks ankle joints. That figure will do in a pinch, but almost all of you skipped it and it too fetches a premium on Ebay. Shaak Ti deserves better, and a figure with modern articulation would be a home run.

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Did you wince at this one? Are you thinking about 2009's Saga Legends release of Saesee Tiin that became an epic pegwarmer? Well don't worry. 2009 was a different time. The little idiots who grew up with the PT weren't yet collectors, and the big collector idiots in 2009 were angry about the PT. Time has cured these problems. Those little idiots are big idiots now who are angry about the ST. 2009's angry collectors are now old idiots who are more concerned with whether or not their soup is hot. Everyone went down a notch.

As with Shaak Ti and Ki-Adi-Mundi, Saesee Tiin is simply too prominent of a Jedi to be relegated to a dated ankle-less swivel-elbow sculpt. He's another trilogy-spanning Jedi. He's another member of the vaunted Geonosis survivors' circle, a fixture in The Clone Wars, and his light goes out of the Star Wars universe courtesy of Palpatine's saber.

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On the surface, the people of Naboo were pretty stupid. Electing a teenage queen only makes sense if there was outrage over the high sticker tariffs. But Padmé was more than just a politician. She was in the trenches with her police forces to end the Neimodian occupation. That concept of a sovereign ruler joining the front lines of a battle might seem silly, but I say if the United States President and Randy Quaid can stop the alien menace in Independence Day, this sort of thing is fair game.

We did get a marginally serviceable Battle of Naboo Padmé courtesy of the TMP 3D Movie Heroes line. The Movie Heroes line was the equivalent of today's 5POA mainline, except that it occasionally featured additional articulation as in the case of the ball-jointed elbows of that MH17 Queen Amidala figure. I would buy so many more mainline figures if they just had elbows, But that MH17 figure is a lot closer to "frustrating" than it is "definitive". We have gotten numerous Padmé figures in her more ornate and static outfits. We got a great super-articulated figure based on her action-oriented outfit from Attack of the Clones in the form of the TBS01 Padmé Amidala. The same needs to be done for her action-oriented costume from The Phantom Menace.

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For some readers, the fact that our entire Top 5 list is comprised of resculpts might be disappointing, but there are just too many important action-oriented PT characters relegated to inferior sculpts. Way back in the 2011 Fans' Choice poll, Tey How was actually one of Bantha Skull's 5 nominations. Of course in a display of infinite wisdom, I deleted that page, so you'll just have to imagine it. It's fun being me. You should have been here the day I deleted an entire image directory. (Editor's Note: It was hilarious!)

Tey How is one of those quintessentially Star Wars characters. She doesn't really impact the plot and doesn't appear on screen very long, yet she manages to stand out. The cybernetic implants and the mechanical voice push the character to the exact right amount of science fiction grotesquery without becoming so jarring that it pulls you out of the story (I'm looking at you, Decraniated). It's a sweet spot that Star Wars used to have dialed in. Neimodians have been dicey retail propositions for Hasbro, but Tey How is different enough that I don't think she would back up the pegs.

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• Anakin Skywalker (Peasant) - The Phantom Menace - This is Anakin's primary outfit for Episode I and it hasn't been updated since the last century.


• Captain Panaka - The Phantom Menace - We definitely need Naboo's Head of Security to pair with that Battle Padmé. As with Anakin, this figure hasn't been updated since the 1900's!


• Boba Fett - Attack of the Clones - Look, I don't like baby Boba anymore than the rest of you, but it happened. We need a figure with modern aesthetics to pair with our definitive Jango Fett figures. Say, Disney, casting Daniel Logan as an adult Boba Fett in that maybe/maybe not Boba Fett spin-off would go a long way to balancing the young PT Boba.


• Galactic Marine - Revenge of the Sith - The 30th Anniversary figure doesn't cut the mustard, and cutting mustard is pretty easy.


• Geonosian - Attack of the Clones - All of the Geonosian figures we have so far somehow manage to frustrate.


• Nute Gunray - The Phantom Menace - Once again, a key player from The Phantom Menace that hasn't been updated since the CommTech line (which qualifies as POTF2).


• Queen Apailana - Attack of the Clones - The Nabooinians (??)...The Nabooites (??)..The people of Naboo really like their teen queens.


• Depa Billaba - The Phantom Menace - While not exactly a key player, her name is fun to say and her only figure to date is essentially a chess piece. This entry actually should serve as a placeholder for any of the substandard figures from the Jedi High Council sets (Ebay link) that have yet to be updated. And some of those figures can't even sit in the chairs that came with those sets!

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