Aayla Secura - SW [TPM 3D] - The Clone Wars (CW14)

Specialized flight gear comes in handy when Aayla Secura crash-lands during a mission. The Jedi General lands on a planet where a peaceful Lurmen village is threatened by Separatist forces. The athletic and graceful Twi'lek tries to find a way to help the villagers that does not require them to abandon their pacifist beliefs.

Aayla Secura is a sight for sore eyes no matter when she’s released as a Star Wars collectible, and it almost doesn’t matter what collectible format she comes in either. But one thing is for sure, and that’s Hasbro didn’t have an inkling that The Clone Wars interpretation of her would be so popular. Part of one of the last three case assortments in the red phase of The Clone Wars line (that ran from 2009-2010), not too many units of Aayla Secura (CW40) made it out to brick and mortar. A few more units arrived at a few online shops but they too quickly evaporated. And then the demand began. Aayla Secura (in her red packaging) still commands a premium on eBay – and perhaps she should – because Hasbro just didn’t accurately forecast how many of her they were going to need to get out there to satisfy the need. She’s a great action figure. She is super-articulated, she’s sexy (as sexy as an animated figure can be – love the midriff) and she has a whole underground support group always cheering for her in her corner. She started out life in the Expanded Universe and then grew into something rather larger than life, so big in fact that George Lucas added her as a character in Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones. But you probably know that story by heart.

Fans of The Clone Wars couldn’t wait for Dave Filoni to start adding the female Jedi into his property and now Aayla Secura is proudly welcomed into the animated The Clone Wars television show. She shows no signs of losing her popularity amongst fans. We love her, other collectors love her, kids love her, and in some Expanded Universe sources even Kit Fisto loves her. And we love Kit. It really never ends. So a re-release of this figure is very much needed and appreciated, even if she is a misfit of sorts. She’s the only super-articulated figure in wave 2 (wave 26 overall) with wave mates Republic Commando Boss (CW11), Obi-Wan Kenobi (CW12) and Captain Rex (CW13). They all look rather fine visually, but sadly fall extremely short in the area of articulation. That’s Hasbro’s new goal with kids’ figures. (That’s their words, not ours.) She’s a ray of light in a dark place if articulation rules your world and she honestly looks better than ever. The curvy streamlined packaging looks very nice and the “film cell” that serves as the picture for the character adds an extra bit of novelty to the figure. Hey, people even use them as bookmarks so at least they’re utilitarian. Hopefully Hasbro will see the success of the second chance of Aayla Secura and see why it's so important to release other characters in the line that collectors want like 2010's TCW [S2] Darth Sidious (CW45) and 2010's TCW [S2] Commander Bly (CW39).

Here is a little known fact about this version of Aayla Secura. Hasbro “stole” an image from our Research Droids Reviews on the Aayla Secura (CW40) figure and used it in their Power Point presentation to introduce the wave at 2011’s New York Comic Con. You can see the proof of this HERE. Anyway, Aayla Secura doesn’t really differ at all from her 2010 release. If we must comment on something, we would say that we think there's a difference in the way the pattern on her left arm and left side of her chest are painted (we’re specifically talking about white pattern over her dark costume that makes it look like it’s textured). We don’t remember this being so prominent in the original version. She still comes with the same accessories and her articulation allows her to attain some rather impressive images. Some collectors aren’t too crazy about her face, but we think it looks splendid. Her blue skin is on par with the character seen in The Clone Wars and her complete costume is extremely authentic to what was seen in the television show. We still wish her case mates were designed with the same caliber of articulation. We would be remiss not to comment on that. But that’s just not going to be the way things are anymore for this line, sadly. There's no denying the sculpts and paint jobs are astounding, but even we, who don’t feel every figure needs 14 points of articulation, would like to see some increase to maybe a standard minimum of 10 points. But event that seems impossible.