This animated-style Palpatine a.k.a. Darth Sidious action figure was released single carded in March 2010 in the basic Clone Wars assortment. Palpatine has had some appearances in the first two seasons of the Clone Wars TV Show, however,
he has only appeared in holographic form, and has yet to be seen as a "real" character in the show.
Sidious was only given 8 joints, which is quite remarkable in times where so many figures are super articulated with over 12 joints or more. The neck is swivel-jointed and can be moved left or right, there are ball-joints in both shoulders and elbows, and swivel joints in both wrists and the waist. There are no joints below the waist, and even though Darth Sidious' legs are molded individually, they can't be moved.
Hasbro included 3 accessories with the figure, Darth Sidious' lightsaber and 2 attachable force-lightning pieces. The lightsaber sits a bit loose in the figure's right hand, and it doesn't fit into the left. The 2 force-lightning pieces can be attached firmly onto both of the figure's arms. Darth Sidious' soft-goods cloak is not removable.
The paint application on Sidious is pretty simple, with black on the clothes and some gray accents on the belt and forearms. There is no weathering to be found.
This Darth Sidious is an interesting figure, because it falls short on quite a few levels, like the very thin "see through" cloak, no articulated parts below the waist, and balancing issues. However, aesthetically it looks
spot-on when compared to the character in The Clone Wars TV show. What's cool is that the hood is not removable, but underneath you can clearly make out a fully sculpted Palpatine head. It definitely adds to the character's mystery.
To sum it all up, it's not the definite animated-style version of Darth Sidious yet, but it looks nice on display next to Count Dooku nonetheless.