Plo Koon - R - Saga Legends (SL16)

Jedi Master Plo Koon leads Clone Army forces as a general during the Clone Wars.

When did Plo Koon get a gold grill? Does he work part time in the hip hop industry? Was his new addition in a deleted scene somewhere within The Clone Wars that we overlooked? Or has Hasbro developed the inability to decorate figures correctly anymore? Goodness, gracious! From a deco standpoint, the Rebels Saga Legends Plo Koon is a disastrous nightmare. From a sculpting perspective he isn’t half that bad. So where do collectors and fans draw the line. If we MUST get a simply articulated five points of articulation basic figure line, can some extra pennies be thrown into the deco bucket please? Is it really that much to ask? We don’t feel it is. That being said, not only is the gold face mask of Plo Koon extremely inaccurate, but so is his outfit (to a lesser extent) and his skin color (to a greater extent). Let’s forget about deco for a minute or two. Why in the world is Hasbro even making ANOTHER Plo Koon action figure? What is the obsession with this character? OK, so we know Dave Filoni loves him. That’s wonderful. But since new Star Wars figures are so few and far between in our current collecting culture, why not use these slots for characters (including the “we lost count how many” new clones) that they’ve never attempted in the line to date? Again, is it really that much to ask? Again, we don’t feel it is.

The only thing saving Plo Koon from complete failure is the excellent sculpt. But even that may not be enough to save this action figure from certain peg-warming doom. It seems that if online shops are even aware of his treacherous performance in advance as he is already marked down (or the cheapest to locate online). Sure, he only comes with five points of articulation and his robes are part of his articulated legs, but that’s the way these action figures are produced in this day and age. It is something that one will either have to accept or reject, but it looks like this is the way it is going to be for quite some time. This is the first realistically styled Plo Koon action figure we have received. And it’s a shame he is a 5POA action figure. As a result of his realistic approach, Plo Koon has a definitely boxier body type when compared to his curvy The Clone Wars counterpart. (See the side by side comparison issues to see the point we’re addressing here.) His arms are out and away from his body and this helps with posing him with his lightsaber (just a little bit more). The head sculpt swivels nicely and in general Plo Koon looks pretty normal when just displayed on a shelf somewhere, but you will want your money back when you see how off the deco is.

Plo Koon comes with a single lightsaber accessory. The hilt is sculpted quite nicely (and to the best of our knowledge accurately). It can be hold in both hands easily and pretty does what you expect an action figure to do with an accessory. You obviously won’t be able to pose him in any dynamic poses, but oh well. Such is the life of an action figure that comes with only five points of articulation. Please don’t misunderstand our perplexity surrounding Plo Koon. We actually adore the character very much. We just think that he may be the WORST candidate to being into another format when he was readily available in The Clone Wars line with super-articulation. Whether it’s because of Dave Filoni’s affinity for the character or not, it’s evident that Hasbro has an obsession with Plo Koon too. Do you remember when 2011’s TCW [SOTDS] Plo Koon (CW53) figure was repacked for the 2012 Star Wars [The Phantom Menace 3D] The Clone Wars line debacle? This was Plo Koon in snow gear no less. It made absolutely no sense to re-release that figure. The 2011 figure was a peg-warmer and the 2012 figure was an even worse peg-warmer. We hope the same isn’t true for this release. But we’ll forecast its performance at retail early. This will be the next peg-warmer. We doubt we’ll be wrong about this one.