Agen Kolar - LC - Basic (BD43)

Agen Kolar is one of the Jedi who join Mace Windu to arrest Chancellor Palpatine. When Palpatine ignites his lightsaber, Kolar and the rest of the Jedi also ignite their weapons. The Chancellor leaps over his desk and fatally strikes Kolar.

Agen Kolar is another Star Wars character that causes a great deal of unnecessary confusion in the basic action figure line. This is very similar to the confusion 2008's TLC Stass Allie (BD 23) action figure caused. While this action figure is clearly intended to be Agen Kolar from Revenge of The Sith implied by the card back description and billed as a member of the Revenge Of The Sith wave of the Legacy Collection, this particular Agen Kolar is technically sourced from Star Wars Episode II: Attack of The Clones, but even that is somewhat sketchy. Forget about all of the Eeth Koth/Agen Kolar misidentifications for a moment; you do have to admit that when you are splitting hairs on whether a single character is based on his appearance in Episode II or Episode III, it can get a little harried or unnecessarily distressing for sure (especially when he wears almost the same outfit in both – well, almost). The reason that we personally are identifying this Agen Kolar action figure from Episode II and NOT Episode III is for two simple and what we think are important reasons. First, he has a green lightsaber and second, he is without his Jedi outer robes. (Yes, we know he is not wearing the longer lower half of his skirt, but we still remain firm in our identification.) The only time Agen Kolar had a blue lightsaber and cloak was from the “Jedi versus Darth Sidious” scene in Episode III. He appeared without a cloak and a green lightsaber at the Battle of Geonosis (as seen in Episode II). Like we mentioned, this is splitting hairs a bit, but we think it is a better category for this action figure to fall under since its traits favor the details in Attack Of The Clones. We are thankful that the gimmicky plastic molded robes that came apart in three pieces (in the 2005 Revenge Of The Sith line) are history because we thought that was a terrible convention for a Jedi cloak or robe to ever see. It never stayed together that well and it always made Kolar look too bulky. And then forget about trying to pilot him in a Jedi starfighter, it just didn’t work. Four years has passed and Hasbro thought it was time to reintroduce him into the basic figure line, but this time much more enhanced and improved than ever before. Gone are the swivel joints and they have been replaced with ball-joints in addition to new articulation the figure had never seen until now (ankle joints).

The new Agen Kolar is awesome and he complements the TARGET exclusive Geonosis Arena Showdown sets very, very nicely. Agen Kolar is a significant upgrade to the original sculpt that was used on 2005’s ROTS Agen Kolar (III 20) action figure. This time around, the figure has a new head, new arms and new lower legs. The torso and cod section has been reused (and colored almost the same way from years ago). The 2005 figure is of course still by today’s standards a pretty great figure, but by comparison, the 2009 Legacy Collection Agen Kolar is brilliant! The new portrait is great, but he is showing us a bit of a smile in place of what we feel should be a snarl of angst or a puff of grit. We think the sculptors intended to do the latter, but is falls short in the slightest way and makes it seem as if Agen Kolar is smiling to say “hello” instead concentrating on wiping out squads of the Separatist Droid Army or the antagonistic Sith foes with his swift energy while utilizing the power of the Force. That criticism aside, Agen Kolar is spectacularly designed and the ball-jointed points of articulation are not the only enhancements this figure has seen. Hasbro has also lightened his skin color a few shades and it is much easier to make out his facial details. His head paint doesn’t appear as shiny as the first figure and this helps natural light pick up all of the tremendous minutiae that were included with the marvelous detail-focused sculpt. We once again will comment on how amazing a good paint job can make a great figure even better. We think Hasbro is taking note of this too as we are seeing an improved effort with superb paint jobs, especially on the newest action figures. Agen Kolar’s soft-goods skirt has also been revisited. If you recall, the ROTS figure has a very fuzzy skirt that was too long and hugged the figure too tightly that was made from some synthetic fiber. (The reason for this may have been Episode III specific too – but we are not entirely sure.) This time the skirt has been shortened by half and it has been cut from a much better cloth that has a linen feel and Hasbro scored it to give it a perfect lived-in and worn look. While it doesn’t have any stains or dirt on it, we think it nonetheless looks phenomenal. Agen Kolar comes with a green “lit” lightsaber and that is his only accessory.

We would like to see and Episode III specific Agen Kolar made from this action figure (or if you disagree that this IS an Episode III Agen Kolar – more power to you). If Hasbro gives him a soft-goods brown robe and a blue lightsaber (and we would also recommend a new head sculpt with less “smile”), we think we could also quickly get our definitive Episode III Agen Kolar as well. It is a pleasure to get updates on the action figures that we thought were good enough for our collections. But when the upgrades are this impressive and you do a side by side analysis, it does make you realize how much those older figures were indeed lacking. Agen Kolar is certainly not the most popular Jedi on the block, but he has been a part of many intricate and important story lines in the Expanded Universe, most notably Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars. We expect him to make a cameo or two (or even take up a main story arc) in Filoni’s The Clone Wars, but as of this review entry he has not been seen in the television series just yet. The Legacy Collection so far has been an impressive mix of new and revisited action figures. Kolar undoubtedly fall under “revisited” but he also attains the new title of “definitive” now. A re-sculpt at this point is nearly unlikely and to be honest, that is quite fine with us. This figure has been upgraded everywhere it matters and we are confident you will agree. And if you’re not a fan of background Jedi, just know that this is truly an excellent action figure that you can be proud to own. As a character that falls under the same species as Darth Maul (Zabrak), we are surprised that he doesn’t share even a fraction of the same popularity. (Actually we kid ourselves, we do know why he isn’t as popular – he just isn’t as cool!) No matter, we are enjoying him in our collection and we hope you will too!