Just got Saesee and the Clone Gunship from HTS. ($8.99 each + shipping with the current markdown and CATWEB10 code.) Here's my attempt at a review and pics.

Vehicle Mode
About as faithful a representation of the Delta-7 Jedi Starfighter as one could expect for something which transforms. The fuselage is necessarily a bit thicker proportionally than the movie model. The deco is the same striking orange, red, cream, bronze, and black scheme used on the recent regular Star Wars line's Saesee Tiin's Starfighter, down to the yellow Astromech dome and red representation of his occipital tattoo in front of the canopy. (The color matching on the orange is much better in person than in the first and third ship images.) It's quite stable overall, though there is one minor issue on the underside (see below). The paint job is very cleanly done, at least on mine. The top and sides of the fuselage are detailed with many panel lines. There are three fold-out landing struts which are quite well done, sitting very flush with the underside. The front strut has a rather unique double-hinge-plus-slide mounting, and is painted gunmetal. The rear struts are double-hinged and unpainted orange plastic. The cockpit canopy opens and has a black seat inside.

The ship has no weapons of its own. However, included is a hyperdrive ring, on which the engines double as satisfyingly-powerful missile launchers. The missiles, as with the other Jedi Starfighter mold, are sculpted as lightsabers. The ring attaches to and detaches from the starfighter easily, sliding over the nose and bracing against paired nubs on the top and bottom of the fuselage. The ring isn't really scaled properly to the ship -- it should have a larger diameter to match its depiction in Episode II. (Of course, maybe all Jedi don't use the same hyperdrive rings. We only saw Obi-Wan's....) The ring halves detach from the engines, and the engine mounts rotate -- both of which come into play for mech mode.

There is some visible mech kibble on the underside in the forms of the thighs and arms. The thighs aren't really obvious as such, but the arms are. The stability issue to which I alluded above is that the arms can sometimes droop down a bit, but will stay in place with some fiddling.

As with all other SWTFs, a mini-figure is included -- this time Jedi Master Saesee Tiin, of course. He has the usual articulation points: single-block hips and shoulders which are slightly independently posable. He's rather nicely sculpted and painted for such a small guy -- pink scalp and hands, cream face, tan horns, brown robes, black tunic, red undershirt, and gold belt buckle. He fits well in the pilot's seat, and really doesn't flop around if placed properly.











Transformation
- Remove hyperdrive ring, if attached.
- Pull fuselage halves out to sides, splitting down to the nose of the ship.
- Swing arms down from underneath ship, pivoting and rotating engines in the process.
- Rotate shins around, flip feet up, and stand. (In a nice touch, the peg that holds the nose of the ship together ends up on the sole of one foot, but is hinged to tuck away.)
- Swing fuselage sides back 90 degrees.
- Rotate waist 180 degrees.
- Fold central fuselage up and back, and peg fuselage sides into it.
- Flip rear storage compartment back to reveal mech head.
- Pivot pilot seat back so Saesee can see!

Mech Mode
A well-proportioned body with a mild amount of vehicle kibble on the back. The left hand is grasping with all 5 fingers, but the right is posed with the 2nd and 3rd fingers extended in an I'm-about-to-use-the-Force gesture. It still grasps with the 4th and 5th fingers, though. There are no heel spurs, but there really should have been, as he tends to fall backward in some poses.

The head is a mechanical version of Saesee Tiin's with a nice amount of detail, including metal-plates appearance to the face, circuity bits on the horns, and an angulated version of the scalp tattoo. It all comes off looking quite Jack Kirby-esque up close. The colors are a slightly metallic light gray face with metallic pink scalp, light gold horns and cheek details, and purple eyes. There's a flip-down visor -- styled after the helmet Saesee wore in an episode of the Clone Wars cartoon -- in white with black and gold details.

Articulation is pretty good:
- Swivel neck (360 degrees).
- Shoulders can swing up to vertical, but forward only about 30 degrees.
- Bicep swivels.
- Double-hinged elbows.
- Wrists rotate 360 degrees.
- Waist rotation is present for transformation, but not usable in mech mode due to the way the back kibble pegs together.
- Universal hips.
- Low thigh swivels.
- Hinged knees.
- Ankles with 360 degree rotation, flexion/extension from perpendicular to the shins to fully pointed, and slight side-to-side pivot. During posing, the feet do pop off fairly easily at the rotation pegs.

The mech can hold the lightsabers (which are yellow-bladed) in his hands. The hyperdrive ring can also be attached to his back, giving him mounted missile launchers or a jet pack, depending upon how you rotate the engines. It's designed to have one of the ring halves detached from its normal position and pegged into the center to act as a prop, necessary because he's now quite back-heavy.









Overall
Pretty solid overall, with a good sculpt and striking color scheme, and better-than-average articulation. Bonus points are earned for including the hyperdrive ring and Clone Wars helmet, as well as the non-standard saber color. Quite honestly, I think it's my new favorite among the SWTFs. Easily recommended it at the current HTS markdown price, and still a good buy at the usual $15 price.

 

A few folks have removed the pins from the first Starfighter mold's wrists. The joints stay in place without them, and the restriction on range-of-motion is removed. I haven't done it yet on mine, but intend to.

And the first rumored redeco of this mold is Kit Fisto. His color scheme isn't much calmer, as you can see here.

 

Another great figure. I wonder when it'll be available at retail?

 

Awesome pics, you should do more reviews. I have him on order and can't wait for him. But the helmet will definitely be staying on.

 

Wow, thanks! I'd do more if I got more figures first.

I was about to suggest HTS to you, since they've got them at $9.99, but... you're in Canada, aren't you?
I really don't understand why they don't ship out of the U.S.  

I believe the Toyfare Toy Fair (heh) coverage said that Mace, Saesee, and the Gunship are officially supposed to be April, and that Cmdr. Cody/Tank, AT-AT, Snowspeeder, and the Darth Star are supposed to be August. So, soon, hopefully!

 

I got mine today as well (along with the Republic Gunship), and though it's not my favorite SWTF, it's definitely one of the better ones. I do worry about his ring-stand in mech mode warping under continued use, however, and without his big ring-backpack plugged in, all his other back kibble pieces have nothing to peg into.

 

SWTF Saesee Tiin, Clone Pilot (Gunship), and Mace Windu

Hey all! I just picked my the new molds (plus Windu) at Wal-mart and since nobody else on here has posted a review I figured I should put at least a few words up. So I don't write reviews and I don't have a lot of time here so I'll be short and to the point. Sorry for the lack of pictures but its late. If its demanded that I post some then I'll see what I can do about it tomorrow night.


Saisee Tiin

Paint:

My first impression of this toy, before walking out of the store, was "damn he's bright." The paint scheme on this guy is orange.... almost offensively orange, but I like it a lot. The choice of color matches what I've seen of the prequel trilogy and as with most of the SWTF's the detailing is minimal-ish but enough to give you the right impression... looks very worn and weathered like a cheap-o old republic fighter should.

Fighter:

I really can't say enough about the fighter mode. Holding it in your hands it looks AMAZING even without the big booster ring (which is a very nice bonus piece to this set). The fighter is small and angular and has absolutely zero extra "padding" or kibble. Amazingly enough the designers managed to make use of damn near every square centimeter of volume to squeeze a robot inside that delta shape without having anything hang out in the open. Looking at the fighter from the side it has a nearly perfect profile... again, no underbelly junk. He's even got a really nifty and creatively implemented set of landing skids that completely retract to maintain the flat bottom. The booster ring snaps on and off without any disassembly. It holds on just firmly enough to be flown around a bit without coming loose. All in all, this mode is a real winner and is in my book one of the most faithful representations. Note though, for all my gushing about this mode you can see exposed robot stuff looking at the bottom but at least it all sits in flush and is colored to match the rest of the ships hull.

Transformation:

The transformation was not difficult at all and it was pretty intuitive. It reminded me a bit of a cross between the ARC-170 and the Ep3 Jedi Star fighter molds. Its not overly simple though so it still felt satisfying to me. The booster ring can be partially disassembled and mounted on the robots back as a sort of space maneuvering pack like those you commonly see in Anime. Here again, the booster is a nice bonus feature to this figure.

Robot:

The robot mode on Saesee Tiin is pretty lanky looking but not nearly as bad as previously released photo's have made it look. He's a bit back heavy as a lot of his fighter mode folds up into a big blocky backpack much like the Obi-Wan/Anakin mold, however he balances much better. He has a flip down mask that covers his face and gives him a resemblance to his appearance in the Clone Wars cartoon. As mentioned above, the booster ring can be assembled as a pack for the robot and while it does contribute to the back heaviness it supports itself by having the lower half of the ring form a support strut. I give the Hasbro designers bonus points for thinking to do this, its a very nice feature on an already very nice figure. I'm tempted to call this figure the best of the SWTF line, however not all is good with it..... If you're like me, you care about articulation. For the most part the robot mode is well articulated. He's got ankles, knees, waist, wrist, double elbow, shoulder, bicep, and side to side neck. My one kinda major gripe here is that even though he has shoulders, they're restricted very badly. Poor Saesee can't lift his arms more than about 30 degrees from straight down! How's that for a bummer? He's honestly perfect in almost every other way. All in all, I wish he could move his arms better but I still like this guy a lot and I think he may be my favorite SWTF so far. On another note, his right hand is molded into the shape of him doing the famous Jedi wave with his pointer and middle fingers sticking out, but my first thought was that he was going to fingerbang some fembot.



Saisee Tiin

Paint:
The paint scheme here is nothing to write home about as it consists of the same colored plastic that the first ARC-170 mold sports along with some maroon highlights. It looks very faithful to the prequel movies and is effective even if it is simple.

Gunship:

The gunship mode is squat but somehow sturdy looking. I'll be damned if the central troop carrying compartment on this guy isn't almost completely open and empty just like in the movies. As with Saesee Tiin, I'm utterly amazed that the design team pulled this off at all let alone without really cheating at all. For those wondering no the side doors don't move to enclose the compartment... as cool as that would have been I'm just impressed that it has a compartment at all. The two wing ball turrets do spin around the two side ball turrets are very positionable do to their ball-jointed armiture but unfortunately none of these have any visible gun barrels so they seem kinda pointless. The two little nose guns are also ball jointed, an easy feature to overlook, and though they don't have a huge range of motion its a very nice touch never the less. All in all, I studied this mode of the figure for a good 5 minutes trying to account for where all the robot must be hidden as virtually NONE of it was visible and I gotta tell you, it's almost like Hasbro hired a magician.


Transformation:

The transformation on this guy was unique and fun but all things considered, fairly short. It did leave me wishing that there was more too it even though the finished product was pleasing. Best of all, no part removal besides the two top mounted rocket launchers (which become hand held rifles) was necessary. Simple but very effective is the real defining quote here. I don't want to spoil it much but I will say that after the few few steps when I pulled out the robot modes legs it reminded me of a clown car.


Robot:

Wow so my reviews get shorter as I get more tired... Anyways, the bot mode on this guy is very lanky looking. Even though his legs are on the skinny side he over all looks pretty well proportioned. At the very least, he doesn't look any worse than a guy that does a lot of weight lifting but forgets to exercise his legs. He's got a few bits of backpack kibble that mostly consist of the top of the gunship + wings and the underside/rear of the gunship mode. The underside/rear parts don't really fold up all that well due to the rubberized plastic rear gun turret being caught in the middle of the mess. It can all be pushed down nicely enough if you aren't worried about bending the gun turret barrel. Thought he whole pack thing is a little on the bulky side the fact that it includes his big ass wings makes it feel functionally like a rocket pack as opposed to a bunch of random junk that he sat in. The forearms now each feature one of the gunship nose guns so he's got some nifty wrist blasters. Articulation is ok but nothing to write home about... he's got ankles, knees, hips, biceps, elbows as well as a side to side neck. You notice that I didn't mention shoulders? Well, technically they are there but this time he has 0 ability to move them up and down, only side to side. It blows in a big way because I was otherwise pretty darn happy with this guy. He's got a real nifty look with some neat weapons that'd be fun to pose with except that he's permanently shooting from the hips. Boo I say. I dunno though, based on the transformation and the Houdini act of hiding parts I feel that they still COULD have given him some kind of up and down movement, but they didn't. Did I mention he balances well? He balances well. All in all, a good figure that I really marveled at right up until the shoulder thing. Be warned, the side ball turret guns are VERY easy to pop off as the ball socket isn't very recessed. They mostly stay out of the way though so you should be ok unless you try to fool around with them.



As for Mace Windu, the mold is old news so I'm going to leave it alone. The paint scheme is nice enough if not anything special. Very sadly to me at least, the bot mode head doesn't resemble Samuel L Jackson very much at all and that was really the only reason I bought this guy to begin with. His face mold has a wierd gold painted thing on its right cheek... not sure what thats about but it reminds me of either Dune or the persians from the movie 300. Anyway... I bet he's still a bad mother...

 

Very pleasing review! I'm damn-near convinced to buy Tinn and the Gunship souly from your review.

 

http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/showthread.php?t=128254

http://www.tfw2005.com/boards/showthread.php?t=128242

 

 

Great review and pics. I really can't say I like the robot mode (as usual with a SWTF) but the vehicle mode looks great (another SWTF standard) I may end up getting it...have to see if I find it and impulse buy it 

 

Got him today and the ship detailing is great. Sadly, this guy is a nightmare to balance in robot mode, unless you lean him forward. Without the back-pack attached to prop him up it's almost impossible.

The piece that folds up his back has peg-holes on the sides for the wings to attach.

 

Like the right hand in the force pose. I'll keep an eye out for these guys..

 

It's supposed to be that headset/microphone thing that the pilots used occasionally.

I picked up Tiin and Windu. Windu because I'm a sucker for that mold, mostly. I'll do the wrist fix tomorrow, pushing out the pin with a nail and a hammer so he's got full wrist articulation.

Tiin is surprisingly nice, glad I got it. If we hadn't gotten any version of it before, he'd be great fodder for the pyramid seeker design. To me, he's rather Sunstormish.

I still think they're overpriced by $5. But, what'ya gonna do?

 

Got mine today, I really like the mold and the sculpting. This line keeps improving, and that's good!

 

Just found this guy at Target and it's so far the first and only SWTF to catch my eye enough to buy. Overall I'm pretty pleased with it. The Starfighter mode is fantastic, and the fact that there is an opening cockpit and pilot figure is pure gravy. The articulation is far from perfect, but he really does have a good range and all of the most important parts can move. I thought it was odd that there wasn't a ball jointed head since nothing would have hindered one, but whatever.

Speaking of the head, I'm anxious to take this guy apart and see what TF heads I might have lying around that would look good on him. Has anyone else done a swap yet? I'm assuming his head is held on with a simple screw.

 

Nope, it's a piece of plastic that can slide off once you open the body, I swapped a head, pic to come soon

 

Yeah, I noticed that last night shortly after posting. Strange setup, but at least the sliding piece isn't held with glue and the head is a bit rubbery and pulls right off the peg.

I ended up using Classics Astrotrain's head for my swap. It's the perfect size, the white matches the body pretty well and it only required a little shaving down of the peg. Also, even with the peg shaved down I can still plug the original head back on and it's held tight enough to stay on.

No pics at the moment, sorry.

 

oh, that's a good idea for the head....