Sculpt--4.5/5
After getting a rehashed Episode I Ki-Adi in the Saga line, it's nice to finally get an all new version of the character for Revenge of the Sith. So what's new with this sculpt? The most notable advancement is Ki-Adi-Mundi's soft goods Jedi robe! In the past, Hasbro has mucked up fabric robes and garments, but it seems like they're actually making huge improvements in this area and this figure is proof. The robe fits very well and doesn't look overly bulky or silly. The removable belt is only slightly bulky, but it doesn't look anywhere close to the horror of Saga Deluxe Anakin's belt, probably because of the much better soft goods.

Underneath the soft goods are Ki-Adi-Mundi's sculpted inner-robes. These look great and have a nice, subtle texture that we've all come to expect. The skirt of these robes are also molded plastic, but thankfully they have slits cut into them so the hip articulation is not hindered too much. However, I do wish that they had used a softer plastic for the "skirt"; as is, it's a bit hard to bend the legs forward, and sitting poses are a little tough to accomplish. Ki-Adi's headsculpt seems to be the only thing recycled from the past figures, except that it's slightly updated with a more realistic ponytail and of course, a different neck joint. I don't mind this bit of recycling; the headsculpt has always looked good to me, and I feel it's one of the best likenesses Hasbro has done.

Articulation--4.5/5
Ki-Adi-Mundi has 12 points of articulation: ball-jointed neck, ball-jointed shoulders, angled cuts at both elbows, wrists, waist, hips, and ball-jointed knees. This is an excellent number of points and allow for a variety of poses. The angled elbow cuts work well here, allowing for straight and bent arm poses. Have Ki-Adi hold his lightsaber with one hand or both hands--it's up to you. The ball-jointed knees are always a nice thing to have, but the lack of ball-jointed ankles limits things a little. But even without the ball-jointed ankles, this figure does a great job at pulling off wide stances and great looking battle poses. The hips are probably the most restricted articulation points thanks to the stiff plastic used for the "skirt" of inner-robes.

Features--NA/5
Yea! No gimmicky action features! You don't need action features to make an action figure. Good articulation and an active imagination are the best things for creating our own action for our figures, not action features that tend to limit what figures can do. Action features aren't selling these toys, if anything they're keeping a lot of people, kids and adults alike, from buying them. I'll get off my soapbox now.

Accessories--5/5
What can I say? I'm pleased. You get the cloth robe, Ki-Adi-Mundi's lightsaber with removable blade, a removable belt, and a Mygeeto/Kashyyyk/Felucia display base. The display base looks loverly with plenty of foliage and tree roots and stuff. It also connects to other bases via jigsaw puzzle-like connectors. Ki-Adi's lightsaber hilt has nice detail and has a peg so you can attach it to his belt. This is always a neat feature for those non-battle situations. The removable belt does its job well and comes undone in the back. I know I've already talked about the cloth robe a little while ago, but it's so good I'm going to talk about it some more. The hood is just the right size and looks good in the up or down position. This is due to the great material Hasbro has chosen for to make the robe; it's thin but heavy enough to fold and hang in a decent fashion. Most likely it will take you a bit of fooling around with to make the robe look good on the figure, but once you get there it looks fantastic. Awesome stuff, and I hope Hasbro continues improving on their use of cloth.

Paint--4/5
Solid job. No more overdone paint washes like on the Saga version, no sir. This time we get a clean paint job with a nice, subtle paint wash on the face and hands to help bring out the wrinkles. The lightsaber hilt is also painted well with painted black lines and buttons. Good job and very little slop overall.

Packaging--4/5
I'm really digging the ROTS packaging. I love the color palettes that Lucasfilm's marketing department chose, and I think that the orange Star Wars logo is a nice change of pace from the silver and gold iterations of the past. The shape of the cards also takes a dramatic step away from the rectangular cards we've gotten in the past. A large Vader helmet looms at the top of the card, looking down at the raging lava below. In the dome of Vader's helmet you can see an image of Obi-Wan and Anakin dueling it out and crossing lightsabers. The bubble covers most of the card and goes right up to the bottom edges of the card. The sides of the bubble are taped to the back of the card which makes it slightly hard to get the figure out of the package in a hurry, but MOC'ers will have nothing to worry about. After opening a couple of figures, I was beginning to miss the old packages that I could just tear into without having to worry about sticky tape. There's also a nice layered effect with the use of two cardboard inserts within the bubble featuring the Star Wars logo and a photo of the character. The cardbacks are likewise well designed with perhaps the best cardback layout design I've seen in years. There a nice photo of the character from the movie, a short description of the character, a photo of the actual toy, and nice cross-sell imagery to get you excited for the other toys in the line. Considering how much less space there is on these cards makes the design all the more successful.

Overall--4.5/5
Soft goods are present on a lot of the Revenge of the Sith figures, and that is a good thing. Hasbro has really started to make improvements to their use of cloth and this figure is a testament to that. I applaud their decision to use cloth and love the execution and end result. This is a great figure capable of awesome action poses as well as static and more "boring" poses. A must-have figure for any Jedi fan.

--Photos and review by Garett Yoshimura
garett@carrotnetwork.com