Topic: EE Exclusive Montross and Jaster Mereel Comic Pack

[Clonehead]

I had preordered this comic pack in the first two days it was up on the Entertainment Earth site and although it's release date was pushed back 2-3 times, this one was well worth the wait.
  Other than the kind of wonky looking Jodo Kast from the legacy collection and the more recent and more decent K-Mart exclusive Jodo cast we haven't had a decent legacy-style  Mandalorian release of a character other than Jango and Boba since the EE elite forces packs and the Mandalore from the evo pack a couple of years ago.

This pack includes the Comic book "Star Wars Open Season #2" and includes this breif description of these Character's events on the back of the package.

                     "Mandalorian leader Jaster Mereel and his second-in-command Montross play pivotal roles in the
                      dark past of Jango Fett. Mereel and Montross change the life of the future bounty hunter during
                      the Mandalorian Cival War in the decades before the Clone Wars"

In addition to this review, I have shot a video review with my phone and published it to youtube the link to which is below.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X_h9BOLEGI8

[Clonehead]

Lets get started with the Montross figure.
This figure features full articulation with a ball-jointed head, ball jointed shoulders, elbows, knees, and ankles. He has swivel joints at his wrist, waist, and hips.
He has a removable smaller boba-sculpt helmet "complete with the dent", a repaint of a boba sculpt jetpack, a brilliant blue cloth cape with a hole for the mounting peg of the jetpack to pass through. His twin-holstered belt is an impressive sculpt with excellent strap, buckle, and pouch detail. The back of the belt has streamers draping down between his legs that are the same color as the cloth cape. Montross has three weapons. Twin pistols of a new sculpt show great detail, have 4 different colors in their paint scheme, are thick enough to not warp easily, and have a design that is old-school, kind of a steam punk or firefly feeling. The fit sharply into his twin holsters and are pretty firmly held by his hands when the need arises. His rifle reminds me of a sawed-off pump-shotgun with some added details, have a two-color scheme, and is also stout enough not to warp by itself. The figure looks pretty tough holding this scatter-gun.

The figure as a whole is a winner to me with no real flaws, great design, color, and paint apps. And the full articulation and great accessories make this guy a shoe-in to be one of the best Mando figures that we have ever seen.

[Clonehead]

Some more shots of the montross figure.........

[Clonehead]

Now on to the Jaster Mereel figure.

Jaster's articulation is slightly different in that, while he still has a great ball jointed head sculpt ,and has ball-jointed shoulders, knees,elbows,  and ankles. his wrist articulation are up just under the elbow and the gauntleted wrists are attached by way of hoses to these two sleeves above the elbow that rotate around the upper arm as the hand and gauntlet rotates. While this works, rotational movement is slightly hindered when the elbow joint is bent. Like the Montross fig, Jaster's waist, and hip joints are both of the swivel type.

Jaster has a different body sculpt than Montross and the paint apps are pretty cool including a crisp set of markings on his chest and some small mythosaur skull-looking symbols on his shoulder pads. He has a different twin-holstered belt assembly with a great amount of detail that is missing the paint apps for the buckles that the Montross belt had. Jaster also has a removable cloth-cape with a pass-though hole for the mounting peg of the jango-looking removable jetpack.  he also has a removable jango sculpt repainted helmet that is a bit larger than the one that Montross wears.

  The jetpack could do with a longer mounting peg as it doesnt stay in it's peg-hole in Jaster's back very well, even if the width of the cape isn't in the way. Jaster's pistols are of a han soloish design and are small and thin enough to have the warping tendency that we all like to ignore. his rifle has a great shape and design and features a bayonett style blade mounted at the front. this rifle has a shoulder strap and the nice detail of a mythosaur skull symbol raised on either side of the rifle stock. not many colors in this rifle, just the silver detail where the bayonett is. This rifle is fairly thin and is prone to warp on it's own which is too bad plus, I had a hard time getting the Jaster fig to hold the rifle.

He is still a pretty mando, folks, and is exclusive to this set so, if you are a mando enthusiast like myself, you gotta have one.

[Clonehead]

More Jaster shots

[Clonehead]

Another shot of Jaster and his accessories, then a shot of the two of em.

[Clonehead]

Here are some shots that I took of the two of em posed in my POTF Detention block playset.

[hannsfartknocker]

really great review clonehead

[wraithnine]

great review buddy  definatly one of the better comic packs

[dana.raye.smith]

Great pics and a nice review, Clonehead. They are quite a pair. I cant wait to receive mine.
So you are saying the Jaster Mereel fig is basically a Jango repack with a new holster and head and softgoods? That is my estimation.
Also the Montross figure could be a bit more in scale and follow the comic and games a bit more. He looked a monster next to the others in both.
After waiting this long, any offering will be snapped up very quickly.
You didnt mention the comic at all. I thought this series was an excellent offering and provided a bit of needed background when released, and anything with lots of Mando's cant be bad.
Once again, thanks for this excellent review Clint, and I am waiting by my mailbox for mine.

[Clonehead]

I believe that Jaster uses the body of Jango from the 2008 Fett evolutions set with the alternate head and belt as you say. Montross uses the torso, jetpack, and helmet from the Boba that came with this same set while using the legs from the Mandalore figure, also in this same set. Montross' arms, head, and accessories are new sculpts.

Alas, I never opened the pack I got from entertainment Earth so I haven't gotten a chance to check out the comic although I will sometime in the future. The loose figures were acquired from ebay for the review as I was worried that the ones I ordered from ee were going to be pushed back another month and I couldn't wait any longer. Yep, it showed up about 3 days after the ebay ones. That's ok, they are so cool, I prefer to have two pairs anyway.

here are a couple of shots comparing the new figures to the original figures from their sculpts. thanks to rebelscum.com for these.

[dana.raye.smith]

I ordered a set from EE and a set from ebay just to be sure I got at least one for openers.
I already got the set of comics and was just wondering what you thought of it.
If you get a chance, check out the series.
You wont be disappointed. I know i wasnt.

[Luke Sprywalker]

Great review and I agree this is an awesome comic pack!

[SITHHAPPENS]

great review clint now i want them even more will these be available in stores?

[Clonehead]

great review clint now i want them even more will these be available in stores?

thanks.

Sadly, no, these are not going to be available in stores. Alas, Hasbro could make a killing were they to offer these figures as well as the ones in the elite forces packs and the omega squad pack on single cards. The astromechs in those two ee droid packs would also sell like hotcakes were they offered on single cards.