Brain Invaders (Ahsoka And Clone Trooper Scythe) - TCW [SOTDS] - The Clone Wars DVD Set (2 of 2)

Ahsoka battles brain worms that infect her comrades, including clone trooper Scythe. The Geonosian worms turn their victims into menacing zombies, as Ahsoka finds out during a flight to a medical station. The Padawan must find a way to destroy the parasite and save her friends.

If you doubt that there exists a major breakdown between Hasbro and retail, you needn’t look any further than the third “wave” of The Clone Wars “Shadow Of The Dark Side” DVD sets (and there are even more examples of this that we’ll hint on in a moment or two). Most of the collecting community who buys The Clone Wars stuff were on pins and needles waiting for these sets to hit Walmart. They never did. And we knew the availability of these sets was very likely of not existing since they hadn’t arrived to Walmart before the great “Shadow Of The Dark Side” purge after the 2011 holiday season. Is this because there is major disorganization at the distribution center level at Walmart? Was it Hasbro claiming that the sets were shipped but in actuality were not? Wherever the blame, it doesn’t ultimately mean much in the end because they have ended up at discount chain TJ Maxx (and some others as well) for a lower price than we would have paid at Walmart. But what does worry us however is that this may make store exclusives become dinosaurs. And that would be a terrible thing. Store exclusives are the products that bring us action figures, creatures and vehicle that Hasbro wouldn’t take a chance on at the mainstream level. So a balance must be found to ensure that items like this don’t get left behind. But don’t ask us how to resolve it. We just want to buy the stuff. Thankfully we can and these didn’t get destroyed which was rumored at one point.

Brain Invaders (Ahsoka And Clone Trooper Scythe) is definitely the more exciting DVD set of the two that were manufactured. We do get an unfortunate reissue of the very first Ahsoka figure, 2008’s TCW Ahsoka Tano (No. 9), but this time we get her with a brain worm traveling up her leg subtly attacking her. We all could have stood another chance at getting another stab at 2011's TCW Barriss Offee (CW50), but Hasbro just didn't do that here for us unfortunately. Hasbro insignificantly tweaked the paint operations on the figure so she looks a tad brighter now, but it isn’t enough to be considered a noteworthy update. The figure to be excited about however is Clone Trooper Scythe, the first clone to encounter the brain worm eggs. In a big surprise, Clone Trooper Scythe comes with a removable helmet, something that Hasbro didn’t clear up when the product was announced in their slide presentation or even from those who found these sets outside of the USA in different tri-logo packaging. Clone Trooper Scythe is very reminiscent of Clone Trooper Kix from 2011’s TCW Hunt For Grievous Battle Packs set. The patterns on their respective armor is similar. Clone Trooper Scythe has a very interesting tattoo on the center of his forehead. And if you read up on him in his Wookieepedia entry, you’ll see a nice clear and enlarged image of it there. Lastly, Scythe has an ornate design on his belt “buckle”. It looks great and matches the insignia on his shoulder. He comes with two brain worms, a removable helmet, DC-15 blaster and the backpack that came with that same 2008 TCW Ahsoka Tano (No. 9) figure.

The Clone Wars DVD set includes a DVD with the complete episode of Brain Invaders from the second season. Also included are two exclusive Galactic Battle Game cards and the obligatory action figures stands and die. You get a lot of stuff packed into this set and since it never had the chance to succeed or fail at retail, you have the privilege of paying $9.99 right out of the gate since its been picked by discount giant TJ Maxx. (It would have easily been more than $15 at Walmart, probably more like $16 or $17 quite honestly.) Again, while this is great for American collectors, this may put a severe damper on the exclusives both Hasbro and retail will decide to do in the future. Most of the exclusive programs Hasbro has brought to Toys R Us, TARGET and Walmart have been successful throughout the years, but in the last few years there has been a worrisome decline in the amount of exclusive that sell through at the intended MSRP. (And this is coupled with the other issue that Hasbro has significantly cut back on the amount of units get produced of each exclusive.) You can imagine why we should all be concerned. On another note, have you noticed how many different “DVD” formats Hasbro has released as exclusives? Not only have they designed two-packs like these, but they gave TARGET both The Hidden Enemy and Hostage Crisis Animated Series Episode multipacks – the ones that looked like Battle Packs with a DVD. It does however look like this idea is now defunct. None performed too well overall – and we wonder if we’ll ever see something like it again.