This wave of figures was solicited and sold out with no prototype pictures, just stills from 2-D animated Clone Wars micro-series. Everybody who ordered was taking a risk, so I was keeping my expectations low. Fortunately this version of Mace Windu is pretty good! Let’s take a look.
The retro packaging is a lovely tribute to the old Clone Wars micro-series wave, though mine came a bit bent up since Walmart shipped in a box just ever so slightly too short for the full card.
Mace comes with his lightsaber and that’s it. The blade pops out and can attach to his belt, which is nice since he does that in the box art. It would have been nice if he came with an alternate force-push hand since he does that a ton in his episode.
The figure re-uses a lot of the original Black Series Mace Windu with new forearms, belt, and an armor overlay. The overlay is one piece with the shoulder armor attached to the chest armor via very small pegs. The armor is pretty soft plastic, so the arms can move, but the softness loses a little detail and what is supposed to be a hard surface looks a little bendy on the chest.
The armor is glued down to the body, so it holds the soft-goods cape in place well and they added some stitching that shapes the cape and helps it hang more naturally than these things sometimes can. I almost want to get a second one so I could take it apart and see how those forearms look on this body without the cloth robe. It might be useful for more Jedi Clone Wars armor. One thing I don’t like is the parting line is pretty noticeable on his head and there is almost a dent where the line is.
Articulation is Black Series standard, but he gets some nice movement at the ball and socket neck and waist joints and this was before double-knees were eliminated, so his legs look and move well. Mace has:
- Ball and socket head, neck, waist
- Swivel/hinge shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, and ankles
- Double hinged knees
- Swivel thighs
- Butterfly pec hinges
The paint is pretty sparse, but clean. I think the shoulder armor could use a wash of some kind because it is pretty crazy bright white and the details get a little lost. Unfortunately the head is a lot glossier than his original figure, which is frustrating because the first Mace has a much nicer face print and finish.
Overall I’m pretty happy with this Mace. He turned out a lot cooler than I was expecting, the soft goods are surprisingly nice, and the figure makes his Clone Wars micro-series design look cooler than I thought it looked in the show. The main drawback is the glossy finish on the head.
