Count Dooku

Height: Approx. 10.5cm to top of head.

Articulation: 18 total points of articulation: ball-jointed neck; 5 points in each arm- double-jointed shoulder, double-jointed elbow, forearm swivel; swivel waist; 3 points in each leg- swivel hips, double-jointed knees. Removeable head and right hand.

Accessories: Cloth cape, Lightsaber, base.

Colors: Molded dark brown, black, fleshtone, clear red, and dark metalflake gray(base). Painted dark brown, gray, pale pink(lips), white(eyes), black, silver, tan, and blue.

Release Data: Released April 2nd, 2005 for an MSRP of $5.99. This item is still in production as of this writing (April 15th, 2005)

Gallery: 7 images.

Author: RAC

The Figure

After my positive experience with the Clone Trooper, I decided it was a good time to get some more Revenge of the Sith figures. My next purchase was Sith Lord Count Dooku, AKA Darth Tyranus. He's not bad- pretty nicely articulated, but he's not quite as impressive as the Clone, and he has a few issues of his own.

The figure does, unfortunately, give some clues as to the fate of the Count, as will be seen in Revenge of the Sith starting in May. But considering that there is no sign of Count Dooku in Episodes IV-VI, I think most of us were figuring on something like this anyway.

The Head

The head is pretty well-sculpted, and would be a fair likeness if not for the paint. The eyebrows are the slightest bit too thin, and the pupils too small. It probably can't be helped, but the overall effect looks more like Vincent Price than Christopher Lee. Otherwise, the ball-jointed head has a good range of tilt, and unrestricted swivel.

The ball-joint is part of the neck, and the socket is molded into the torso, so the head can be removed without harming the look of the figure. I believe that's significant.

The Arms

The arms are pretty much equal to the Clone Trooper's, with the same type of hinge-and-swivel combination in the shoulder and elbow giving an excellent range of movement. Without the elbow armor restricting the movement, Count Dooku's elbows can assume pretty much any pose you want- including some pretty unnatural-looking ones. The wrist swivel is replaced by a forearm swivel, due in part to the figure's removeable right hand. That hand's a bit loose on my figure, and sometimes pops off the arm too easily.

Dooku's right hand is shaped to grip his Lightsaber, but doesn't quite do the job. I don't know if the Lightsaber was re-used from a previous figure or if this is plain sloppiness on Hasbro's part, but there are basically two ways he can hold it- by the end of the grip, which seems awfully unwieldy and not a good grip at all, or near the front in a position which would mean he was in danger of burning off his index finger. Normally in a situation like this I'd use the left hand to help brace the weapon, or simply make Count Dooku left-handed altogether. In this case, though, Dooku's left hand is outstretched, I assume to look as though he is using the Force, and isn't terribly useful for either approach. The hand doesn't look bad, but I'd like to see Hasbro take a page from Bandai's book and include some optional hands in the future.

The Torso

The torso has the one thing the Quick Draw Clone lacked: a waist joint, which swivels freely and easily. Also, the lower half of the tunic is made of soft plastic so as to interfere with the legs as little as possible, which is good. Something about the sculpt bugs me, though- I think the belt is too high by a few millimeters, or possibly the tunic is a bit too long. Either way, in some poses the Count looks like some old guy with his pants hiked up too high, as opposed to looking like some dangerous and well-dressed old guy, like he should.

The Legs and Feet

The legs still boast swivel joints at the hip, which means that it wasn't a side-effect of the Clone's action feature as I'd hoped. The hips also seem a bit too close together, which may well contribute to the look of the torso that I mentioned above. And lastly, Dooku lacks ankles, unlike the Clone. You can still get some fairly nice poses out of him, but not as much as a good ball-joint or the excellent hinge/swivel combo would provide, and not quite as much as the Clone Trooper can achieve with ankles. He also needs to rely on his base to make some poses work.

Paint and Detailing

Paint is fairly good overall, the most glaring issues being the Vincent Price Effect that I mentioned above, and the painted uniform cuffs made necessary by the removeable hands. It's less noticeable, and ultimately less damaging than painted hands would have been, but paint and plastic never quite match in terms of finish and texture. Short of making the sleeves and hands separate pieces though, this is pretty much the best solution there could have been. Other than that, there are a couple spots behind his right ear that I'm sure don't belong- less noticeable than the Clone Trooper's smudgy-looking helmet, for sure, but still a painting error. As usual, I'll assume this is a one-off occurrence, but check any figures you buy carefully beforehand, like I should have.

Articulation gets 7/10

Sculpt and Deco get 7/10

Accessories:

-Cloth Cape

Maybe not an accessory in the strictest sense of the word, but this seems like the best place to cover it. The glittery golden brown cloth is pretty standard for action figure capes, and is held around the figure's neck by a thin silver cord. It's not 100% faithful to the costume's details, but a molded plastic cape would most likely murder this figure in terms of poseability, so I think it was the right choice. When Count Dooku's arms are at rest, the cape can cover both his shoulders pretty much as it should.

-Lightsaber

The Count's lightsaber is molded pretty sharply, and pretty nicely detailed and painted for its size as well. The blade is not removeable, and a deactivated lightsaber was not included, though on closer examination there is a spot on the belt where one could be placed. As I mentioned above, I had a hard time getting Dooku to hold the lightsaber, though I did eventually find a couple positions that sort of work. The blade is a bit paler than you'd expect- it almost matches the pink Bandai often uses for Gundam Beam Sabers.

-Base

The base is an interesting piece with a fair bit of detail- it's made of a dark metalflake gray plastic, and has some painted on detail in the form of various plates or tiles. It's made to lock together with other figures' bases on at three sides, using slightly different connectors on each one. Dooku's feet attach to the peg relatively well, though not as firmly as I'd like for display purposes.

Accessories get 7/10

Closing Remarks:

Count Dooku is nicely flexible, though his legs aren't quite a match for the Clone Trooper, and looks pretty decent when you put that articulation to good use. (That is to say, if the sculpt does have problems and it's not just my imagination, they're most noticable when the figure is at rest.) He has a few flaws- some of which probably can't be helped, like the paint on the tiny facial features being a bit off. Some, though, can and should be fixed. It should not be a struggle to get him to hold his only handheld accessory.

Still, for $6 and tax, he's probably worth the money if you like the character, or Christopher Lee. Or Vincent Price. I don't regret buying him, though if a better version comes along later on, I wouldn't object to replacing him either. He's a borderline-Good figure, approaching Could Have Been Better due mainly to his inability to hold his weapon. With a few tweaks, though, he could be Very Good indeed.

-RAC 04/15/2005