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Assassin Droids (Clone Wars)

February 12, 2011 | By Errex More

As a longtime Star Wars figure collector, I was not too thrilled when Hasbro announced they would be investing resources to produce a toy line based on the then new Clone Wars TV show. Even though the first few waves of figures didn’t really impress me, I began picking one figure here and there, starting with those that could blend in with my preexisting collection without much fuss.

Most of those were droids and from those, the ones that caught my eye were the IG-86 Series Assassins. Hasbro developed the molds for the IG-86 Assassin Droid figure in 2008 as part of the third wave of figures for The Clone Wars line, but the very same mold was repainted and sold in 2009 as Ziro’s Assassin Droid with the fifht wave of figures.

The IG-86 Assassin Droid is reminiscent of the IG-88 and IG-Lancer droid design, with a spindly frame and cylindrical head with multiple eyes. The complete surface of the droid shows canisters, hoses and all manner of mechanical elements that give it a rather cluttered, clunky look.

The differences between both releases are purely cosmetic. The regular IG-86 figure seems molded from dark metallic gray plastic, but was given a fair amount of highlight by drybrushing silver paint all over it, and also a thin wash of orange/brown paint was applied to simulate rust. The end result is extremely effective at portraying the wear one would expect on a piece of equipment left in a warehouse for an extended period of time.

On Ziro’s Assassin, the body was cast from blue-ish silver plastic and lacks the rust effect from the previous version. Instead, it has dark blue markings painted all over it’s surface, with a Black sun crest stenciled in red over the left side of the torso. Overall the finish is noticeably cleaner than that of the IG-86 release, but the blue markings really spruce up the look on this version.

Other than the paint, the aspect where this mold truly shines is in the articulation, which goes like this:

• Swivel neck. Allows for free swivel and since the design really doesn’t call for even a little amount of tilt, so I’m good with it.

• Peg & hinge shoulders. Excellent motion range all around.

• Peg & hinge elbows. Bend 90° back and forth and allows 360° sideways rotation on both arms.

• Swivel wrists. Free swiveling range for both hands.

• Swivel waist. Free 360° swivel.

• Peg & hinge hips. Excellent motion range all around, allowing the figure to do lateral splits.

• Hinged Knees. These bend 90° back and forth, which is good although there is not sideways swivel.

• Peg & hinge ankles. Rather limited range stretching the feet, but decent forward range and free 360° swivel.

• Hinged fingers. The thumb extends from the wrist piece, and the fingers are hinged at the base of the palm, thus allowing the droid to grasp pretty much any accessory with ease.

Both Assassin Droid releases come with a backpack and two droid blasters. The backpacks are cast from the same color of plastic used for each version, and are little more than plain plastic frames that attach to the droid’s back with a peg, and each has four small clips to hold the weapons securely.

The blasters with the original IG-86 release are molded out of dark blue plastic with a light drybrush in silver to accentuate detail, while on Ziro’s Droid the blasters are made from charcoal gray plastic and lack any extra paint.

Given their articulation, these droids can hold one blaster in each hand or adopt dynamic two-handed blaster poses. I only wish the pegholes on their feet were deeper so I could use a display base to support even more extreme action poses, but then again, the feet are probably too thin to have a regular sized pegholes in them.

In short, these are versatile, fun figures that look good on their own or mixed among realistic-style droids.