Ki-Adi-Mundi/Sharad Hett - TLC - Comic Packs (16)

Jedi Master Ki-Adi-Mundi is sent to Tatooine to find the self-exiled Jedi Master Sharad Hett, who now lives among the fierce Tusken Raiders. As Sharad tells his anguished story to Ki, the assassin Aurra Sing locates the Tusken camp – and brings deadly trouble to the two Jedi and the Sand People.

Hasbro finished up the Comic Packs with a high note in the blue phase of The Legacy Collection. It was a line for comic book fans (and EU fans too) and Hasbro did their best to make everyone happy by picking character ideas from Marvel, Dark Horse and other comic story lines. The development of these Comic Packs takes some time and it must be quite an undertaking for Hasbro to get the coordination right. Lining up two characters from the same source coupled with reprinting the included comic and utilizing preexisting tooling for save on costs is quite a feat of good planning strategies. For this release, Hasbro delved into the Dark Horse Star Wars series and decided that a new take on Ki-Adi-Mundi was in order. And another new character was to join him, Sharad Hett. Ki-Adi-Mundi gets decent exposure in the basic figure line, but not as much as other Jedi, so it was nice to get an Expanded Universe take on him. We are not so crazy about Sharad Hett. Don't be fooled by his red lightsaber, he is not a Sith, but he is a warlord of a tribe of Tusken Raiders. "Huh" you ask? We ask the same thing too. Not the best story, but the important thing about Ki-Adi Mundi's and Sharad Hett's relationship is that Hett's son A'Sharad Hett became Ki-Adi-Mundi's padawan. But Hasbro did manage to meet all of their goals and culled together a very nice set that ended the line with a bang!

There are a lot of great things about this Comic Packs two-pack. Ki-Adi-Mundi is a sight for sore eyes if you have been burdened by the lack of articulation included in some of our action figures. He is loaded with high quality articulation and while he utilizes the legs of the 2005 ROTS Ki-Adi-Mundi (III 29) figure, the rest of him is all-new. He is colored beautifully and his accessories have been designed to fit him perfectly. His breathing mask is most easily applied by removing his head and putting it on from the bottom up. Once you get his head popped back on you can finish off the look with his awesome hat. These accessories stay in place very well and it gives Ki-Adi-Mundi a new level of personality we never knew existed. Other enhancements include his newly added ball-jointed elbows. This is a great update since we are used to seeing him with cut (or swivel) joints up until now. His face looks a little bit bleached out, but this can be attributed to Hasbro wanting to match the color of his face in the comics (which also looks a little washed out too). Hasbro also included a bit of soft-goods which finishes him off nicely and the final product score high marks in our books. For weaponry, Ki-Adi-Mundi gets a purple lightsaber and it looks great. (And it is very reminiscent to when he was released in the Episode I line with the erroneous purple lightsaber.)

Sharad Hett is a good action figure but we won't make you do cartwheels. Essentially a repaint of A'Sharad Hett from the 2007 TAC A'Sharad Hett/Dark Woman (No. 08) Comic Packs set, Hasbro gives the figure an all-new head and chest section with new accessories. Hett has decent articulation and poses very nicely in an action stance thanks to his (unique) ball-jointed knees. We use the word "unique" because they just look a little different than the ball-joints we are typically used to seeing. The biggest disappointment is his head. It is unfortunately a swivel head joint so movement is severely limited. One of the interesting things we learned from reading this comic is that the Tusken Raiders "eyes" are essentially goggles. While in retrospect this makes complete sense, many of us we're sure didn't put two and two together when looking at our Tusken Raider. Yes, this may be a silly observation, but it is something that made us scratch our heads. The Ki-Adi-Mundi/Sharad Hett Comic Packs set is definitely a great one for your collection and we have to say that it contains one of the best Ki-Adi-Mundi figures money can buy. This doesn't mean that he is movie accurate, but he succeeds on so many levels. This set will also be part of the red phase of the Legacy Collection as a carry-forward set. We think it is a wise choice for a repack (if repacks must happen that is).