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You know we don't like spoilers around here. Folks who thoughtlessly reveal story points are some of the most astoundingly inconsiderate people around. So we apologize ahead of time, because this review is going to spoil some things, and we can't even tell you what it's going to spoil without that itself being a spoiler. Sheesh! Confused yet? So, if you want to be surprised, here's a short version: the figure's nice, but the joints are a little soft. If you're already up to date on the story, or don't care about knowing what happens, here we go:
Anakin Skywalker's apprentice Ahsoka Tano left the Jedi Order before it was destroyed during Order 66. She would reemerge years later as Fulcrum, a leader in the fledgling rebellion against the Empire.
So, yes: after wandering off at the end of Clone Wars, Ahsoka's story was not meant to be over. The creators of the show had a plan to bring her back before the end of the series, showing what she (and a handful of other popular characters) were up to during and after Revenge of the Sith. Cancellation kept that from happening, so it wasn't until Star Wars: Rebels that she showed up again - the mysterious agent known as "Fulcrum" had been helping the team all through the first season, providing intel and guidance and whatnot, until at last in the season finale she finally shed her disguise and properly (re-)introduced herself.
Ahsoka is an adult by the time of Rebels (31 years old, if you do the math), so it's a bit weird to see her looking like an adult rather than the kid we were used to. She still has the white markings on her orange face, but her face is thinner and her montrals are much larger now (though not yet as big as Shaak Ti's were, suggesting they keep growing throughout life).
Cartoon characters don't change their clothes very often, but this figure brings us Ahsoka's third canonical outfit (she would have had another in her solo adventure, but again: cancellation). She keeps getting more covered up with each new version, though if there's one thing we
can say about her for sure, she hates having her shoulders covered up. This outfit is done in darker colors than what she used to wear - all the pinks are gone, replaced with muted tans and browns, suggesting the unhappiness she's gone through since leaving the Jedi.
The style is a nice evolution, though, with her skirt having the same kind of dangly bit in the front that she's had since the beginning. Her gloves come all the way up to her armpits, and there's a bit of silver tech on the forearms. Her boots have the same sort of folds at the ankles as her last outfit, but they also come up to points above her knees. The figure has a softgoods skirt - normally none of us are fans of softgoods at this scale, but it's such a small piece, and one that's intended to just hang straight down, that it doesn't look bad on her. Unfortunately, the skirt is meant to be the same greyish tone as her shirt, while the toy makes it the same brown as her leggings and the armored plate she wears on her chest.
Her articulation is on par with the other Black Series figures: a balljointed head, hinge neck, swivel/hinge shoulders, elbows and wrists (the hinge in the right wrist goes up/down, while the hinge in the left goes back/forth), balljointed torso and hips, swivel thighs, double-hinged knees, and swivel/hinge ankles. One of the ankles was misassembled when I opened the figure, but it didn't even require hot water to get the foot off and reset properly. The cloth skirt allows the legs to move better than plastic would, and her montrals are sculpted to sit far enough away from her body that they don't keep the head from moving.
Her accessories are her lightsabers. Well, her new lightsabers. She lost her old ones before leaving the Jedi Order, and got new ones
somewhere along the way. They have white blades, reflecting the fact that she's not aligned with the Jedi or the Sith, and the hilts harken back to her past: there's a straight one with a short blade, like the shoto saber she'd carried as a Padawan, and a longer lightsaber with a curved hilt, similar to the ones she would have seen Asajj Ventress using. The blades are removable from both lightsabers, and the hilts can hang on her belt.
I completely admit, I'd have rather gotten a Clone Wars Ahsoka than a Rebels Ahsoka, if only because that look is more iconic for her and it's unlikely she's going to get more Black Series figures any time soon. But her role in Rebels is great, and getting any toys from that show is welcome. She may not be perfect, but she is good.
-- 06/13/16
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