Star Wars The Black Series The Mandalorian Super Commando review

The Clone Wars Series 7 was better than I could have imagined. Its final four episodes felt like a movie as it intertwined with Revenge of the Sith. In the opening chapter, Darth Maul was running Mandalore and he had his unique brand of Mandalorian Super Commando troops at his side showing their affiliation to the former Sith Lord.

This made for a tremendous visual and of course the second I see something that looks cool, I want it in figure form. Hasbro has a similar mindset and revealed the Clone Wars Mandalorian Super Commando for the Star Wars Black Series line.

The only catch was it was part of a Walmart exclusive series. Booooo hiss. After the initial sellout, I got an email using the get in-stock alert that the Mandalorian Super Commando was back online and I was shocked when the order came through. Let’s see if I’m feeling super after reviewing these guys.

Packaging: I like the more orange yellow color choice for the Clone Wars characters. I’m thinking it’s a nod to Ahsoka’s skin tone?  I shouldn’t be so concerned with completing the mural from the side panel artwork and naturally I have the two figures in this wave that don’t connect. Hopefully, I can secure the Mandalorian Loyalist and Ahsoka soon.

As usual, the bio is very well done explaining the significance of their look. I always feel like the SWB bio writer takes pride in summarizing the state of the character with the figure.

Likeness:  The Mandalorian Super Commando really has a sweet outfit. Like the Clone Troopers, this figure allows for some very cool variation on the standard Mandalorian armor.

While most of that is handled through the paintjob, the helmet does reflect the Darth Maul allegiance with protruding horns attached to the top. This is such a cool, intimidating look that makes the Mandalorian Super Commando come off like an incredible bad a$$. The shoulder pads also have some protrusions as well in case there was any question of their side.

The rest of the figure seems to share a decent amount of parts with the Gaming Greats Jango Fett figure at least from the waist up. That means they’re a bit thicker and wider than they were portrayed on the Clone Wars. The belt pouches have more of a panel setup while the thighs are different — there’s no armor piece there and the holsters don’t carry over from the belt.

It’s a sharp looking figure with the creases and folds of the jumpsuit and the armored components.

Paint:  This is one of the cooler aspects of the figure as the Mandalorian Super Commando features a Darth Maul-inspired red and black color scheme.

The paintwork came out very nice and like the clones, features a decent amount of random damage and scarring. I like this style choice as it shows the war aspect of this period and no one has time to polish up their outfits.

And it’s the one occasion where any paint flaws can be written off as “battle damage.”

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Scale:  The Mandalorian Super Commando doesn’t need to tower over anyone as a grunt. I’m hoping we get some more of Death Watch’s leadership and a true Clone Wars Season 7 Darth Maul for these guys to flank.

Articulation: I was a little caught off guard by some of the limitations with this buck. It’s got good enough poseability, but it’s not as surprisingly smooth as The Mandalorian. Some of that is just due to the bulky nature of this mold, which was fine for Jango Fett since he was stockier.

Cartoon characters are typically portrayed leaner and their physical movements are exaggerated. Most of my issues with the articulation is the stiffness particularly with the shoulders and ankles.

The ankle doesn’t have enough range to support the weight of the figure for deeper poses and the armor creates a firm stop point for the arms. This also impacts the elbows, which lack the deeper range despite the single-joint elbows we’ve come to expect from newer figures.

The Mandalorian Super Commando has:

• neck
• ball-jointed shoulders
• elbow (with swivel)
• wrist
• wrist hinge
• torso
• hips
• thighs
• knees (swivel)
• ankles

Accessories:  The Mandalorian Super Commando gets the WESTAR-35 pistols we’ve seen previously with Sabine. They don’t feature the same two-tone wash as Sabine’s, but they turned out just fine.

Also, he gets the jetpack from Jango Fett. This doesn’t need to be anything special and it’s pretty basic yet effective.

Worth it?  Due the exclusive setup, these guys were $25 apiece. That’s an unnecessary price gouge as there’s nothing extra about the figure. Beyond the limited nature of the figure, I held back on getting more than two due to the price.

Rating:  8.5 out of 10

The dated articulation setup is really the only thing holding this figure back. Still, with a couple flanking Darth Maul this should make for a cool setup in a Clone Wars display.

 

Where to get it?  Wal-Mart supposedly had these guys actually available in stores, but I was only able to get them from a rare moment of them being back in stock on their website. Of course you could always pay above retail price on Amazon.