Meena Tills - ROTS - Basic (III 47)

Meena Tills represents a planet torn by civil war. He watches in concern as Chancellor Palpatine gains more power and appoints regional governors. He is an ally of Senators Bail Organa and Padmé Amidala.

Admiral Ackbar set the stage for our unfathomable love of the Mon Calamari species. But honestly, what vintage figure didn’t do that to us? A no-brainer species for the Prequel Trilogy, aside from Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars, the Mon Calamari didn’t make a huge splash in Star Wars folklore until Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith. (We are not trying to demean the Expanded Universe and are aware of plenty Mon Calamari throughout it. We’re talking mainstream multimedia events and the films.) Meena Tills is a senator of the Calamari Sector during the Clone Wars. His freedom and his peoples’ freedom was ultimately important to him and he staunchly fought for it during the crumbling of the Republic. Meena Tills had a much bigger role in the deleted scenes of Revenge Of The Sith, but you can see him near Ask Aak in the beginning of Episode III after Anakin Skywalker and Obi-Wan Kenobi return to Coruscant with Chancellor Palpatine who was being held hostage by General Grievous. Unfortunately, Star Wars fans didn’t get the full impression of Meena Tills that they should have. So, a great deal of creativity may be needed for the action figure to develop a “personality.”

Meena Tills greatly succeeds as an action figure because of its gorgeous sculpt, but ironically, sadly lacks because of its minimal articulation. The figure starts off great with a ball-socket head and ball-jointed shoulders, but then it’s pretty much all downhill from there. In fact, after its swivel torso, it has no articulation in the legs at all and is essentially a statue. As a display piece, Meena Tills is perfect. And let’s be honest. he really didn’t do anything more in the film than what the action figure can do as an.... action figure. The paint job is one of the finest in all of the Revenge Of The Sith line. There are a ton of details throughout his robes and even more on his head. The cranial pattern and the details in his warm eyes are just spectacular. Hasbro didn’t hold back on the multiple colors used or the finely detailed nuances that give this action figures its character. There is a great deal of stuff here to appreciate despite it not being able to contort in ways that super-articulated figures can. Meena Tills comes with a blaster and an environmental action figure stand. Its useful because Meena Tills has no leg articulation and you don’t have the freedom to adjust for balance.

Meena Tills is also available as a rare variation. The earliest samples of Meena Tills come with a different paint job. There are a few notable differences between the first version and the corrected version. For the record, the first version has been referred to as “cream faced” and the second and corrected version has been referred to as “salmon" or "pink faced." The way they’re referred should clearly explain how they differ, but the very first version of Meena Tills (and the version that appeared in press photos and other things of the sort) comes with a creamy white face color. This yellowish cream color has also been used to decorate the broken rib pattern of his robes. On the corrected version Hasbro changed this to white. Lastly, the yellow color used around the neck area and the inside of the sleeves is slightly different in its shade. You can bet that Hasbro will likely never revisit this figure again. Thankfully this one isn’t half bad. (Editor’s Note: In an ungodly move, Dave Filoni changed Meena Tills’ sex from male to female for The Clone Wars. Because Meena Tills was based on Lucasfilm, Ltd. employee and friend of Filoni, Tina Mills, and in that light Dave Filoni expressed that it would make no sense for Meena Tills to be male. We just can’t reconcile that. Whatever is established should stand across all Star Wars sources.)