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This set is just all about characters who didn't make it.
Quinlan Vos and Commander Faie are sent to Kashyyyk, the lush forest homeworld of the Wookiees, during the Clone Wars. The Jedi General and the clone commander have an uneasy relationship
given their very different natures, and their ability to work together is made more precarious when the duplicitous Devaronian smuggler Vilmarh Grahrk appears and, predictably, stirs up plenty of trouble.
Commander Faie was originally going to be the biker scout who shot down Stass Allie on Saleucami, but he was replaced by Commander Neyo, and ended up not appearing in the films. He did eventually pop up in the comics, where he still got to carry out Order 66 (or try to, at least), but his look was never pinned down the way it would have been if he'd shown up onscreen. He's worn armor with the yellow stripes of the 327th Star Corps, he's worn a suit that's very similar to Clone Engineers, and he's worn the one seen in this set, which looks like a swamp trooper.
The swamp trooper,
better known as "the camouflage biker scout," was one of the forces featured heavily at the Battle of Kshyyyk, which is why they're all done up in muddy camo. It really does look very similar to the biker scout armor, even more than the Clone Troopers look like Stormtroopers. That means only a minimum of armor - upper arms, lower legs, head chest and groin - over a dark bodysuit. His helmet is entirely removable, not just a flip-up facemask - that allows you to see the two scars on his temple and his unique haircut.
Faie is painted well, with the splotchy nature of the camouflage preventing any obvious gaps in the application when the joints move. The armor's base color is a light gray with just a bit of a green tint, and the camo is brown and dark olive green. The suit he wears is actually a dark brown, rather than black, though he does have black gloves and on the pouches on his legs. He comes with two blaster rifles, and is well stocked with balljoints.
And that's nice and all,
but let's not kid ourselves: it's not Faie who's selling this set. He's paired with his Jedi general, Quinlan Vos. Ever since Boba Fett's backstory got filled in by the prequels, Vos is Star Wars' new Wolverine: he's the mysterious badass with little memory of his past and a tendency to stray toward the wrong side of the good/evil divide. Like Aayla Secura, Quinlan Vos was supposed to make the jump from C-canon to G-canon in Episode III, but his scenes never made it past the storyboard stage. All he got was a namedrop from Obi-Wan: "Master Vos has moved his troops to Boz Pity." Thanks, Ben!
Although, technically, Quinlan Vos had already appeared in a movie. The character is based on an unnamed background extra seen on Tatooine
in Episode I, whose appearance was adopted (or perhaps co-opted) by author John Ostrander and artist Jan Duursema for their story "Twilight" in Star Wars: Republic. He was also going to be on an episode of the CGI Clone Wars cartoon, but there wasn't time to design a new character model - and thus he missed his chance to become "real" yet again.
This is the second Quinlan Vos figure, the first being from his amnesia period. Now he's wearing his Jedi robes. Yes, that's about as much difference as the figures offer. All kidding aside, they actually look fairly distinct: more change than any two random Han Solo toys, that's for sure. QV's got a knee length brown shawl, a tan shirt, and grey wraps on his arms. His face is based on Doug Wangler, same model Duursema used
for Antares Draco, and he has the yellow stripe tattooed across his nose.
Vos has his green lightsaber and a pistol that fits in the holster on his hip, as well as the articulation to use them well. In his arms, at least. There are no joints south of the plain peg hips, and his balljointed neck is impeded by the biggest set of outer space dreadlocks this side of Ronon Dex.
This set also includes a reprint
of Star Wars: Republic #82, which sees Vos and Faie on Kashyyyk days before Order 66. It's a good introduction to their personalities, and the plot takes a lot from Quinlan's intended role in Episode III - with the noteable exception that, since this is just one part of a three-part story, Vos doesn't bite it immediately, butlives on (for now) to be a badass. You know how it is. In the movie, he probably would have just been a-sploded real good, but in the comics he gets to show off for a while.
So both Commander Faie and Master Vos were intened to show up in the movies, but they both got cut. Except that Vos had alredy been in the prequels, and if you've seen one clone, you've seen them all. Still, both figures are decent, so this comic pack doesn't have any clunkers. Interestingly, there are two versions of Faie on the shelves at the same time: the one in this comic pack, in his swamp armor, and a single-carded version in the engineer armor and a poncho. Unintentional overlap? Not bad for a character that never existed.
-- 01/03/09
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