Thursday, March 3, 2011

Dead Jedi File #2: Agen Kolar From The Star Wars Legacy Collection Is Pretty Cool.





The Good: Good sculpt, Fine accessories, Good articulation, Good blending of cloth and plastic parts.
The Bad: Accessory coloring and figure coloring are off.
The Basics: A generally good action figure, the Agen Kolar Legacy Collection figure is the latest recasting of a Jedi who was slain pretty easily in Revenge Of The Sith.


I am not, traditionally, a fan of the Star Wars action figures that combine cloth elements with the plastic ones. I wish I could be a lot more articulate on why that is, but I don't, honestly, know, except that I think they usually look doofy. I mention that right off the bat for my review of Agen Kolar because this figure combines the two so well that I had no idea the skirt-like robe of Agen Kolar was cloth until I took it out of the package and began truly inspecting the toy!

For those unfamiliar with Agen Kolar, this is not a surprise at all. Agen Kolar is a Jedi Master seen for a very brief time in Revenge Of The Sith (reviewed here!). Agen Kolar is one of the four Jedi who confront Palpatine in his office and he is actually the first one Palpatine kills. Unlike other esteemed Jedi who are simply knocked out of frame to dispose of them, Agen Kolar actually gets a legitimate death: run through with a lightsaber as he is!

Hasbro has made several Agen Kolar figures, but the 4" Legacy Collection one is my first experience with this particular Jedi.

Basics

The Agen Kolar figure is fairly well-detailed, though he lacks realistic skin tones, a fact accented by the photograph of the character from the movie on the back of the package. The alien Jedi in typical Jedi tunic stands 3 3/4" tall as an action figure. Agen Kolar was released in 2009 as part of Hasbro's Legacy Collection with the Droid Factory bonus. The obscure character is cast in fairly soft plastic, though he is solid enough to stay put in the poses one puts him in.

This toy is a fairly impressive sculpt; for a character that was seen ridiculously briefly, this looks just like the picture on the package! The head is generally good and it includes such things as the tiny horns on Agen Kolar's forehead and his long hair cascading down about his shoulders. The hair is actually quite good as it includes realistic highlights that make the figure look like it has hair as opposed to some form of distorted helmet. The figure's eyes are tiny with brown irises and black pupils, which give the Jedi a fierce look to him. Agen Kolar's skin is monotonally brown, but it is a far lighter brown than the skin of the character pictured. In fact, Agen Kolar's skintones are the same light brown on his face and hands as his boots!. The sculpted details for the figure are pretty minimal outside the face, with the costume having very general details, though the belt does have a buckle and a tiny pouch molded on. The figure's molded details include knuckles as well as fingernails!

The costuming details are decent and the Jedi is wearing the standard off-white tunic. In the front, the tunic has two soft plastic loincloth-like projections over the cloth wrap for the robe's skirt. Agen Kolar's cloth pieces are so perfectly matched to the rest of the figure that it is not evident immediately that he is wearing a cloth skirt! Very cool.

Accessories

Agen Kolar, Jedi about to die horribly, comes with only one accessory in addition to the droid part. The accessory is the lightsaber that is the same 2 3/4" lightsaber as used by many Jedi toys. Unfortunately, Agen Kolar is given a green lightsaber for the Legacy Collection instead of the blue one he is pictured with and used in the film. Still the casting for the light sword is quite good with the silver-gray handle having excellent molded details and the translucent green blade looking deadly enough. The blade does not separate from the handle for this figure.

This figure was part of the "Droid Factory" line of the Legacy Collection figures and the basic premise was that for every six figures you bought, you'd get a seventh which would be assembled from parts in each of the six toys in the collection. Agen Kolar comes with right arm of the HK-50 droid. This is a skeletal humanoid droid (which resembles a metallic blue Terminator!) and the arm is articulated at both the elbow and the wrist!

Playability

The four inch toy line was designed for play and Agen Kolar is quite good in that regard. This Legacy Collection figure has impressive articulation as well as decent balance! Flatfooted, this is a very balanced toy and it is hard to tip Agen Kolar over. Also, Agen Kolar comes with fifteen points of articulation, many of which are not just simple swivel joints (though one is utterly pointless). Agen Kolar has joints at the ankles, knees, groin socket, shoulders, elbows, wrists, neck, head and waist and he twists at any of those points. The shoulders, elbows AND knees are all ball-and-socket joints with hinge joints, offering unreal amounts of articulation! The head is on a ball joint, which allows the alien to nod up and down as well as look left to right, at least in a limited fashion, because the figure's hair inhibits movement. Rather problematically, the neck rotates, but because the head is on a joint atop it, that articulation is pointless.

And for whatever improbable poses one might find where he will not remain standing, there are playsets with foot pegs which fit into the holes in either of Agen Kolar's feet.

Collectibility

Agen Kolar is part of the 2009 Legacy Collection four-inch series, a series of Star Wars action figures that was not incredibly common. Still, this is at least the second version of Agen Kolar to date, so many fans felt free to pass this one by. As a result, Agen Kolar may still be found at a lot of stores and his value is not likely to appreciate anytime soon.

Agen Kolar is BD43 in the Legacy Collection.

Overview

Getting the coloring wrong on the lightsaber and face and the lack of collectible value take the Legacy Collection Agen Kolar figure down into more of the average range, though this is a decent Jedi figure and one worth buying.

For other Legacy Collection figures, please check out my reviews of:
BD17 Princess Leia (Slave Leia)
BD34 Leesub Sirln
BD39 Jawa with Security Droid
BD41 The Utai
BD42 Jeremoch Colton
BD50 Wing Guard
BD52 R2-X2
BD54 Zuckuss
BD55 Snowtrooper

6.5/10

For other toy reviews, please be sure to visit my index page!

© 2011, 2010 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.




| | |

No comments:

Post a Comment