Nicanas Tassu/Count Dooku - LC - Geonosis Arena Showdown (2010 Edition) (5 of 6)

The Jedi Knights rush to Geonosis to rescue Obi-Wan, Anakin and Padmé from execution. The Jedi brandish their lightsabers against the Geonosian warriors and the massive army of battle droids, super battle droids and droidekas. All hope seems lost that any Jedi will survive this battle, then Yoda arrives with an army of clone troopers. Although many Jedi are lost that day, others survive this climactic battle that ushers in the Clone Wars.

You’ve got to go down someplace important in the Clone Wars history books if you were one of the Jedi to give Obi-Wan Kenobi and Anakin Skywalker spare lightsabers during the Geonosis Arena sequence in Attack Of The Clones, right? Well, apparently Hasbro didn’t get that memo early enough and Nicanas Tassu comes to us nearly a decade late. But as with anything in Star Wars collecting, late is better than never. He is finally here, very well made and overall a very good action figure for your collection. You're going to like him very much. He isn’t without his flaws however. Hasbro decided to go with a “painted” face and we all know that this method doesn’t allow for as crisp of detail on this part of the human body. Also, the action figure of Nicanas Tassu looks to be of Asian descent while the movie character does not (he looks more Italian.... or something more European we suppose). We aren’t entirely convinced that this is a good or even fair likeness of this Jedi Knight, yet something about him looks good. The hairstyle and outfit however are pretty much spot on and we think Hasbro did a fine job in this area. He is made from the body of the 2007 TAC Mace Windu (30 06) figure which has been a popular mold to build many Jedi, especially in the Geonosis Arena Showdown sets. Overall, this figure may not excel, but it certainly passes well enough to satisfy this character being made as an action figure. He comes with a unique blue lightsaber and comes with the soft-goods cloak that has been seen on figures ranging from Mace Windu to Anakin Skywalker.

Count Dooku is the surprise figure in this set and that's saying a great deal since we have a never before released character in this set that we're seemingly stealing the limelight from here. Instead of Hasbro just throwing in the same old Evolutions Count Dooku/Darth Tyranus figure, they have done some tweaking which really makes him look a lot different than ever before. Don’t let us confuse you. Hasbro has not reinvented the wheel with Count Dooku, but they have given him a different looking head (a portrait that confuses us to the point that we don’t know if it’s recycled from somewhere else, but it is at the very least new on this sculpt). We believe it's an all-new head sculpt for the record. It makes him look a bit younger than previous action figure versions we have already purchased of him (maybe a bit too young for authenticity to Episode II). Perhaps it even affects the continuity of this figure a little bit. But the most puzzling thing about this “new” head is that we don’t know why Hasbro would go through all this work and give the Evolutions sculpt a new head for an exclusive. Don't get us wrong, we honestly like the effort Hasbro put forth here very much. But maybe the paint job on it was rushed because it just makes him look ever so slightly weird and different. Ironically, at some angles the figure looks exactly the same to how Dooku looked in Episode II. It's very perplexing. How is that for an oxymoron? We know this doesn’t really make too much sense, but that is likely how you’ll feel once you have this figure in your hands. Count Dooku has the same old Evolutions body (which is a great choice) and his soft-goods cloak doesn’t look any different from part versions either, although the material feels thicker with this round.

The Nicanas Tassu/Count Dooku set pairs two characters together that never interacted with each other in Episode II. But we are confident that the pairing of the figures are not meant to be scene specific. It’s simply a medium to get out 12 characters from this sequence out to collectors to help build their Jedi, droid and Separatist armies. Overall, we’re in love with this sub-line and we hope that the interest in it doesn’t die down. The 2010 Edition series has given us some really cool new surprises and we think that is Hasbro can do this a couple more times for us. There is still a plethora of popular and obscure Jedi that can be done and we hope they do sell well enough to warrant a few more editions. Speficially, we would love to see Fi-Ek Sirch updated into super-articulated status. (Editor's Note: Hasbro released this character in The Vintage Collection as 2011's TVC Fi-Ek-Sirch (Jedi Knight) (VC49) figure.) He saw a lot of screen time in Episode II and we think he deserves and update now. And we would like to also see another Expanded Universe Jedi get updated as well like the blue Twi’lek first available in 2003’s Clone Wars Deluxe multipack. And we think that Hasbro could even sneak in a few Tartakovsky-specific Jedi like Sha’a Gi. You know you all want that Jedi Knight too! But now is the time to enjoy the sets that are available and you should because they are pretty awesome. The Geonosis Arena Showdown sets are fairly priced and give collectors something new and well-made for their collections. Be sure to jump on this bandwagon.