Darth Sidious/Yoda - R - Mission Series (MS04)

Jedi Master Yoda discovers that Chancellor Palpatine is really the Sith Lord Darth Sidious, leading to an explosive duel in the Senate Chamber on Coruscant. Their intense battle tears apart the chamber in the final hours of the once-great Republic.

Here we come to wreck your day! (Make sure you sing that to the tune of the theme song from Mighty Mouse.) What in the world is happening to the Star Wars toy line? Paint operations are for the birds now. Hasbro’s cost-cutting measures are beginning to backfire big time. Action figures, no matter super-articulated or simply articulated, have some of the worst paint jobs we have ever seen in the history of the line. Even the modern line’s earliest efforts in The Power Of The Force “2” are works of art by comparison. You’ve heard it before from us. Hasbro is being "penny wise and pound" foolish, and as droves of collectors who are frustrated beyond belief dump the hobby like a hot potato, even the contrarians who were once on board are beginning to see the devastating effects of this new horrid approach. It’s no secret that we’re not fans of the revamped Saga Legends and new Mission Series lines. Five points of articulation (more or less) just isn’t for us. But even if we look at this line objectively, and we do, we still don’t think it’s cutting the mustard. We’ll give it to Hasbro that some of the sculpts in these lines are rather good. We understand the connection to the original Kenner era. But all that is cast aside once you look at the paint operations. All we ask of Hasbro is “please don’t pee on our leg and tell us it’s raining.” Get the deco up to snuff please, or just give these lines a rest please.

The Darth Sidious/Yoda (MS04) Mission Series set is a straight repack of 2014's SW [DV/ROTS] Darth Sidious And Yoda (Senate Duel) (MS10) Mission Series set. So, why did we need to see this again after a few short months in Rebels packaging now? This two-pack may have had the greatest potential of all the Mission Series sets to date, but fails miserably thanks to dreadful paint operations and sculpting that is impractical for robed figures. There is a strong connection to the original 1984 Kenner The Emperor figure. His “robe legs” are the key factors that bring you back to 1984. While silly, Hasbro even took the time to tool “real legs” inside of the robes. That will either do two things. Wow some collectors because of the extra detailing, or frustrate other collectors that this figure has no real legs like he has pretend ones or something. Either way, most of you won’t be able to get past the face sculpt and deco either. When was Darth Sidious a Klingon? The face is a separate piece (permanently glued in place). So it seems in our opinion that Hasbro could have really sculpted a pretty amazing likeness of Darth Sidious, but they didn’t. This Darth Sidious looks like he wants to be your friend and certainly not possessing a demeanor of trying to kill Yoda. And then his hands are so white that they resemble a ghost. The only saving grace is his outfit, which honestly doesn’t look half that bad.

As Hasbro continues to cut corners, collectors will be disappointed to know that the Mission Series sets are getting lazy too. Typically they contained two all-new figures, but lately, Hasbro is carrying-forward a previously released figure into each set. Why the repacks, Hasbro? Getting a repackaged figure (slightly repainted or not) is not a good thing in this line. In the case of Yoda, he is a straight repack, we have noticed slight variations in the color of his robes and skin color from the 2013 SW [DV/ROTS] Yoda (SL07) figure. Yoda is one of the nicest figures in this newly envisioned format. It's a surprise a figure can look this good with such simple articulation. When displayed together, Darth Sidious And Yoda looks curiously good battling each other. They each come with their respective lightsabers, but you’re severely limited with how you’re able to pose these figures. Collectors of this line will be happy to know that Darth Sidious comes with extra articulation: two swivel wrists. We’re happy about this upgrade, and it really does more for the action figure than we think Hasbro realizes. We hope they continue this trend with future figures if these lines continue. Again, the Mission Series line isn’t for us, but if Hasbro can improve deco, they have decent sculpts that could be made to look great. And they need to stop repackaging sets they've already done. It's going to bottleneck the line at retail.