Mace Windu - TSC - The Episode III Heroes & Villains Collection (10 of 12)

Mace Windu is a courageous fighter and respected member of the Jedi Council. In a desperate attempt to save the galaxy, Mace leads a daring confrontation against Supreme Chancellor Palpatine.

We waited a long time for a decently articuated Mace Windu action figure since it made its debut in The Power Of The Force "2" [FlashBack/CommTech] line. That Mace Windu figure was cool for the time, but has aged terribly now. Hasbro started getting closer with 2005's ROTS Mace Windu (III 10) figure, but they were also a long way off as well. And because of this we're not sure why Hasbro thought it was good enough to include in The Saga Collection's The Episode III Heroes & Villains Collection. Static legs, floppy arms and a bleak expression are only the beginnings of why this figure needs a complete restart. It may be something kids will embrace, but Mace Windu will do very little for collectors, love him or hate him. Perhaps they should have included a soft-goods robe to help hide his awkwardness. Or perhaps they could have kit-bashed a markedly better figure instead and place it in this "greatest hits" collection. Perhaps if Hasbro included a soft-goods robe, he may have become a little more palatable. But who really knows?

Mace Windu is based on the scene when he confronts Chancellor Palpatine along with Kit Fisto, Agen Kolar, and Saesee Tiin. After the latter three Jedi are instantly slain by Sidious, Mace Windu engages him in a powerful lightsaber duel. Anakin Skywalker arrives and Mace believes he’s come to save the day, but Anakin turns on him instead, betrays the Jedi Order and Darth Sidious is able to gain the upper hand and attack Mace Windu with Force lightning. Hasbro may have neglected his outer robes, but they didn’t forget about the Force lightning and they included it as an accessory here. It’s circular and completely encircles Mace Windu’s upper body. It’s an unimportant accessory by all means, but it makes Mace very scene specific and many collectors may wish to recreate a diorama of it in their collections. That’s just they way we’re wired. Mace Windu is one of the most powerful Jedi. We learned that from Anakin Skywalker in Revenge Of The Sith. But this action figure interpretation of him doesn’t show strength, but rather weakness by the way Hasbro attacked it for the basic figure line.

Where Mace Windu fails the most is in the sculpt. And it’s really all due to the silly action feature. When you squeeze Mace Windu’s legs together, it raises his arms and throws off the Force lightning. This was designed for the kids. It wasn’t meant to be authentic or accurate (which it’s not). The problem is that the action feature requires his shoulders and arms to be very loose and makes Mace Windu appear very floppy and not too sleek and agile like he appears in the Prequel Trilogy. What’s worse is that his ball-jointed shoulders are so rounded that they actually look fake. Hasbro didn’t exercise the best judgment to assemble Mace Windu in the way that they did. So he has all of this extremely loose upper body articulation (which works great with his lightsaber by the way), and then his legs only have swivel hip articulation. His legs also seem much too short as well. And he doesn’t have the best center of gravity. Clearly, Mace Windu isn’t the perfect action figure, but he is light years from definitive status. Like all The Saga Collection basic figures, he also comes with a random miniature hologram.