{"id":27209,"date":"2014-03-05T22:04:20","date_gmt":"2014-03-06T04:04:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=27209"},"modified":"2014-03-05T22:04:41","modified_gmt":"2014-03-06T04:04:41","slug":"star-wars-the-black-series-19-mace-windu-review","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=27209","title":{"rendered":"Star Wars: The Black Series
#19 Mace Windu Review"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a> If we\u2019re going to have a proper 4\u201d Appreciation Week, then it simply can\u2019t be done without bringing some Star Wars into the mix. Even though Star Wars has recently forayed into 6\u201d territory, it has been the 4\u201d power house for nearly twenty years. That\u2019s crazy long for a toy line, even if those 1995 figures aren\u2019t terribly compatible with the figures Hasbro is still cranking out today. <\/p>\n

While the modern figures are vastly superior to those slightly pre-posed, over-muscled 1995 figures I was buying with my own cash back in high school, I have to ashamedly point out that I bought a crapload of those and don\u2019t buy as many these days. It\u2019s mostly a money & attention thing. Star Wars was some of the only stuff I even kinda wanted to buy back then (DC toys didn\u2019t really exist in the 90s, I didn\u2019t buy Marvel, Playmates Star Trek line had died quickly\u2026 it was a dark time)<\/em>. Nowadays, competition for my dollar is much fiercer and Star Wars had ended up on my back burner. Even the 6\u201d line interest has cooled, while certain characters are musts, I\u2019m not chomping at the bit to snag Series 3 right now. (I think they\u2019re out at stores, right?) <\/p>\n

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Anyway, even though I don\u2019t review a ton of 4\u201d Star Wars here, I do still snag the figures now and again when they catch my fancy. I have a lot of TVC Ewoks, even trekking to other cities for the Kmart 2pk. Willrow Hood was a must have, of course. Darth Malgus. Unique aliens with classic looks. Astromechs. Heck, maybe I do buy more than I think\u2026 Recently though, I\u2019ve only picked up one Star Wars Black 4\u201d figure*: Mace Windu. <\/p>\n

* – Whenever Hasbro gets around to rebranding things again, can we get separate names for the 6\u201d line and the 4\u201d line? It\u2019s confusing to have to refer to them with the same title. I like the idea behind the \u201cblack\u201d label, I just don\u2019t know that Hasbro should be double-dipping with it.<\/em> <\/p>\n

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Now, my reasons for buying this figure are rather ludicrous. This figure is from Clone Wars and already gets cool points for being a Jedi with a bit of Clonetrooper armor. I like that look even if it\u2019s minimalist like on Mace here. But that wasn\u2019t it. Clone Wars obviously took the real Sam Jackson and animated him. This figure then, is the animated version made realistic. And while you\u2019d think that would mean the figure should just get a realistic Sam Jackson head sculpt slapped on it, you\u2019d be wrong. It\u2019s the crazy amalgamation. It does have a pretty great resemblance in some ways (As it should), but then cartoon elements also creep in like the slightly more bulbous head. It\u2019s probably just one more example of me fawning over something silly, but excitement trumps pessimism every time, so let\u2019s roll with it. <\/p>\n

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Still want me to dial it back some? Okay, well, there is kinda one big problem. The skintone is all wrong. It\u2019s not accurate to the real Sam Jackson. It\u2019s not accurate to the animated Mace Windu. It\u2019s definitely too light, but also maybe a little too yellow \u2013 I\u2019m not sure. It was actually difficult to photograph and sharp readers have already no doubt noticed that it\u2019s not the same from photo to photo. The sculpt itself is trying hard to make up for it, but I can\u2019t help thinking how much more perfect the figure would be if they\u2019d done a better job on the skin tone. Oh, and let me add the eye color to that too. He\u2019s kinda possessed. Continue to Page 2…<\/a><\/p>\n

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If you\u2019ve noticed that we\u2019re half way through and I\u2019ve mostly been talking about the head, it\u2019s because most of the rest of the figure has been reviewed here before by Vault way back in 2011. This figure uses The Vintage Collection Mace Windu as a base. For the most part, that rocks. The ab crunch is downright amazing and the ball-knees and ball-ankles mostly make-up for the t-crotch (21st Century Hasbro, hello!). The only thing I don\u2019t much care for on the main body is the soft goods robes, but not for the reasons you think. I do still firmly hate soft goods on anything smaller than sixth scale, but Hasbro tried out this exact figure with plastic robes and it didn\u2019t help the leg articulation all that much. With this guy being so fun to pose, I\u2019ll take the soft goods here. But couldn\u2019t Hasbro have done a better job matching the cloth to the plastic robes? What went wrong there? <\/p>\n

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Not all the body was reused though. More new tooling can be found in the arms with the gauntlets and new hands. The range on the ball-shoulders and ball-elbows is comparable to the one Vault reviewed, but what really makes this one shine is the new ball-wrists. The t-crotch hinders some deep posing but the three ball-joints and the great ab articulation really lets Mace get down. Great slashing poses. You almost might be tricked into thinking this guy is a master with the lightsaber. He\u2019s been a blast to play with since I snagged him. <\/p>\n

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Speaking of that lightsaber, Mace includes two, one powered on and one powered off. I kinda miss those days of the \u201cbeam\u201d just plugging in, but whatever\u2019s better for Hasbro is fine with me. The unpowered lightsaber can plug on to the belt while the charged one can be posed in a variety of deadly ways thanks to the awesome new arms. A third accessory, Jango\u2019s helmet is a fun extra piece. It\u2019s very soft, but it can fit on Mace if you want it too. I just need a sad little Boba figure to hold it. <\/p>\n

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Overall, I still lament that Hasbro couldn\u2019t get the pigmentation right and I\u2019ve seen some fans knock this figure around \u2013 it\u2019s technically the third \u201cgood\u201d Mace figure when people are still chomping at the bit for other characters to be made, but I\u2019m happy with this one. The figure is reusing a great sculpt, has new, improved articulation and is just a blast to play with. And I sorta love the Clone Wars versions getting \u201crealistic\u201d figures. I don\u2019t know why. Yeah, I mean, Mace Windu is probably a lock for the 6\u201d Black Series, but if they do him there, it surely won\u2019t be this version, so it was a safe 4\u201d pick-up for me and it turned out to be worth it. <\/p>\n

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For all our Reviews, check out our
\n Review Index<\/a>!<\/strong><\/p>\n

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<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13,"featured_media":27210,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_themeisle_gutenberg_block_has_review":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_options":[]},"categories":[1986,34,10],"tags":[973,24,930,37,2275],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.itsalltrue.net\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/03\/mace00.jpg?fit=480%2C195","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pObc6-74R","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":11981,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=11981","url_meta":{"origin":27209,"position":0},"title":"Vault Review: Star Wars Vintage Collection: Mace Windu","date":"March 9, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"I was a casual Star Wars toy collector. But ever since The Vintage Collection debuted, I\u2019ve been finding myself perusing the Star Wars more and more often. In my weakest moments I\u2019m sorely tempted by the AT-AT in retro packaging. But even at my strongest, I couldn\u2019t say no to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":29630,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=29630","url_meta":{"origin":27209,"position":1},"title":"New Star Wars Black Images from Hasbro!","date":"November 16, 2014","format":false,"excerpt":"","rel":"","context":"In "Film & TV"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":12128,"url":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/?p=12128","url_meta":{"origin":27209,"position":2},"title":"Vault Review: Star Wars Vintage Collection: Gen. Lando Calrissian","date":"March 25, 2011","format":false,"excerpt":"This week I was lucky enough to happen upon wave six of Star Wars\u2019 Vintage Collection at my local Wal-Mart. I was tempted to pick up a Jango Fett to go with my Vintage Mace Windu, but instead I decided to pick a character that I actually cared for. 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The next wave includes Airrachnid, Bumblebee, and Deadend. Also posted are the new line from Hasbro called Fall of Cybertron Transformers Generations. The first wave includes Optimus Prime, Jazz and Shockwave! GI Retaliation Action Figure and Vehicle preOrders\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Toys"","img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27209"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/13"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=27209"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27209\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":27217,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27209\/revisions\/27217"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/27210"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=27209"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=27209"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.itsalltrue.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=27209"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}