Star Wars The Black Series Clone Wars Anakin Skywalker & Captain Rex review

Two allies from The Clone Wars television series, Anakin Skywalker and Captain Rex, fought against Separatist forces as if they were an unstoppable force. While I didn't like how Anakin's behavior was inconsistent with how he was depicted in the Prequels and especially the Clone Wars Multimedia Project (where he went from reckless Padawan to experienced war hero in 3 years), on top of Rex being a substitute for Alpha to avoid having more characters whose names start with A than necessary, the action in TCW was still enjoyable, and I find the show enjoyable if there was a disconnect from the Prequels and CWMMP, with its contradictions not getting in the way of continuity. Oh, and they made cameos in the Ahsoka series because Disney knows that's the sole reason to get people to consoom their shows more than making them meaningful. Anyways, let's see what the Jedi Knight and his trustworthy Clone Captain have to offer for their live-action styled TCW forms!

Here we have Anakin Skywalker in-hand. If you have collected Black Series longer than I have, you may recognize that the tunic is designed differently than the one that was made around 4 years ago. While the dark bluish gray areas on his outfit were sculpted onto him, we have cloth goods this time around. As mentioned before, how Hasbro implements cloth goods into their figures has varied from the amount of cloth used to the overall execution they leave, especially if it's either something as simple as a cape or as overly done as Leia's gown. In this case, it's thankfully well crafted and implemented into the figure flawlessly. Though sculpting the parts that are made of cloth here would have been fine, as was the case with the original TCW Anakin, this is still a good way to do it. The anatomy of the figure captures the physique of Hayden Christensen pretty well, at least as much as the armor and his age during Ahsoka filming can allow. The parts of the figure that are not made of cloth are also well sculpted in using the right amount of wrinkles as well as textures to separate the gloves as boots from the cranberry-ish side of his tunic. And thankfully, his lightsaber can peg into his belt, which I forgot to show on my review for Shaak Ti and Luminara because of their robes. So in terms of looks, Anakin is better than I expected. I also love the Jedi Order logos in his shoulder pads.

His head sculpt is hard to say whether or not I like it. From what I remember with the YouTube clips I saw of Anakin's role in Ahsoka (because fuck buying a Disney+ subscription), this does match how Hayden appeared in the show, yet if you wanted a more TCW-era Anakin in live-action. It also has this uncanny look to how off he sort of appeared in the Ghost World or whatever Ahsoka entered. It does work for an Anakin-If-He-Never-Turned-Evil look. Thankfully, it is a new sculpt and not a reuse of his Force Ghost form. With his lightsaber deployed, his articulation consists of a ball-jointed neck, shoulder rotation, outward arm movement, rotation at the elbows, elbow bends, wrist rotation, hinged wrists, diaphragm joints, ball jointed hips, rotation at the knees, hinged knees, and ankles that hinge and pivot. 

Up next, we have Captain Rex in his spotless Phase 1 Clone armor. We have the same tooling used on prior Clone Troopers, down to the floating torso piece and the integration of shoulder pads. This means he has the same strengths and weaknesses of recent Clone Troopers, but he also has something that annoys me: his shoulder pauldron. It's not glued in place which makes it wobble around a bit more than I'd like. That being said, it's nice to see some mere presentation for a Phase 1 Rex in the live-action style, even if he wore his Phase 2 design in the flashbacks where it was all orange fog. That being said, his skirt flaps are made out of a more rubbery material than the cloth of his old counterpart. How ironic with the consistency.

His helmet appears to be the same sculpt we generally saw with prior Clones in the Phase 1 design, though the points for the visor and mouth grille end more abruptly than with other examples. The antenna/rangefinder is also a nice touch. Articulation is the same as before, and his twin blasters can thankfully be held in each hand without one looking awkward due to the lack of a trigger finger. His unhelmeted likeness to Temuera Morrison is unique for the haircut and it's color being different from the others. It could look a little more seasoned to match the age of the actor during his role as Cody and any other Clones with visible faces during Episode 3.

Here they are with their earlier counterparts, with Anakin representing his Episode 3 appearance and Rex in his Phase 2 armor. I liked both figures well enough, and while the new versions of them aren't exactly the definitive outfits or aesthetics I want, they're still great figures for improving on the articulation slightly and even giving them some high increases. Anakin is a little taller than his EP 3 counterpart while it's more noticeable with Rex, but some kit bashing with their later outfits should make them consistent if you want to explore that field. As it stands, if you're not a fan of Disney media but love Prequel-adjacent stuff, these two will be the only Ahsoka show figures you'll need.

Final ranking: ⭐⭐⭐⭐ out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Anakin)

⭐⭐⭐ and a half out of ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ (Rex)