Cad Bane w/ TODO 360 (CW42)

One of the new characters introduced in the Clone Wars TV show is Cad Bane, the guy that gets billed as the top bounty hunter in the galaxy after Jango Fett meets his grisly fate at Geonosis.

Overall, the portrayal of Bane in the series has been consistently satisfying, even though he doesn’t appear to be quite a match for the late Jango. However, what he might lack in skills, he more than makes up for in style.

The character design is heavily drawn from inspirations like the 70’s spaghetti western movies, most notably in the look of the villain from Sergio Leone’s “The Good, the Bad, and the Ugly”, as played by Lee Van Cleef.

There were a couple of action figures made of Cad Bane before the one I’m reviewing today, all sharing the same basic appearance. The first version was tempting, being a new character and all, but ultimately the figure design didn’t quite work for me, as it lacked knee joints. The second version was obtainable only in a set with a small vehicle, and even though it had much better articulation, the look was slightly off and I was not interested in the swoop bike included.

However, the one I ended up with is possibly the definitive version we are going to get. This Cad Bane sports the same costume from the first release, but some improvements were made.

For starters, the arms were redesigned to allow for a better range of motion, the lower end of the coat is made of soft goods and this time, Cad Bane has fully functional knee joints. Ankles are still missing, but that seems to be the way Clone Wars figures are going to be from now on, so no big deal.

The complete articulation spread for this version of Cad Bane is as follows:

• Ball jointed neck.

• Pegged hinge shoulders.

• Pegged hinge elbows.

• Swivel Wrists.

• Swivel waist.

• Swivel hips.

• Pegged hinge knees.

The sculpture is still on the rather stylized animation look, but overall Bane would not stand out too conspicuously amidst a live-action style action figure group. For the most part his color scheme keeps to muted browns and grays, with only the bright blue skin and red eyes breaking up the monotony.

Other than articulation, the one feature that really sets this Cad Bane figure apart from it’s predecessors is the accessories included, especially the TODO 360 droid.

In the series, TODO 360 acts pretty much as an accomplice and servant to Bane, and the mini figure included looks spot on like the digital model on the screen. The droid only has articulation at the neck, which coupled with the rather weird mass distribution makes it hard for it to stand unassisted, although a few blasts with a hairdryer should fix that. TODO 360 has very little paint on, but what little there is, is well applied.

The rest of Cad Bane’s gear consists of a satchel, a couple of blaster pistols and his hat. Except for the satchel, which seems to be molded out of brown plastic, the hat and the guns have paint applications on them to match their look in the series. Also, like all the figures in these last few waves, Bane ships with a display base, a blue die and the corresponding Galactic Battle Game stats card.

Distribution has been so irregular of late, that by the time I finally got hold of this figure, it felt more like just marking off an item from my list rather than feeling genuine excitement for getting it. However, by it’s own merits this is a good figure to have, and the mini-droid is a neat addition to the package.

Errex Score: 85/100

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Tags: bounty hunter, Cad Bane, Clone Wars, Hasbro, Star Wars, TODO 360

Category: Featured, Star Wars, Toy Reviews