AT-RT With ARF Trooper Boil - TCW [SOTDS] - Deluxe

Clone trooper Boil pilots an AT-RT during the battle to retake Geonosis. An AT-RT (All Terrain Recon Transport) is a one-man walker armed with a repeating laser cannon. With its height, mobility and speed, the walker allows Boil to support the embattled Republic forces as they fight waves of battle droids and Geonosian warriors.

As we have pointed out countless times before, the Deluxe “vehicle with figure” line is really hit or miss. With the third wave in the “Shadow Of The Dark Side” line look however, Hasbro really gets it together and released three great sets for kids and collectors alike. They provide collectors with great quality figure and vehicle combinations while still reigning in tooling costs. Yet at the same time Hasbro has made these sets refreshingly new. The Innocents Of Ryloth episode introduced Clone Trooper Boil in a very powerful way and he has since made further appearances in The Clone Wars television series. This is certainly welcomed by all because that was not only an action-packed episode, but it also was touching in many ways. Boil really developed a tight relationship with the young Twi’lek girl Numa in that episode and it is a relationship that has obviously helped him forge his way through the waning days of The Clone Wars. We’ll get to that more in a moment. But we have to point out how refreshing it is to see some humanity in these clone troopers. It's also nice to get different armor on characters we are already familair with as well. This set reintroduces a fan favorite clone with an "off screen" vehicle. It's a pretty cool set.

Another exciting episode in The Clone Wars during the second season was Landing At Point Rain (from which this set is based). In that episode, we see Clone Trooper Boil don an ARF Trooper’s armor set in the same colors as the 2010 TCW [SOTDS] Flamethrower Clone Trooper (CW26). The results are nearly spectacular. Hasbro repainted the extremely popular 2009 TCW [S2] ARF Trooper (CW10) figure (as they just have for the 2010 TCW [SOTDS] Jungle Camo ARF Trooper (CW24) figure) in brilliant mauve and orange colors. And just like the Flamethrower Clone Trooper, ARF Trooper Boil just stands out from the rest of the collection. The paint job is excellent and we couldn’t be more excited to have another action figure accompany the Flamethrower Clone Trooper. And they look fantastic together. Hasbro also took the 2010 TCW Deluxe AT-RT and repainted it in colors specific to this episode. And just as you would expect it too looks phenomenal. We are quite fond of the AT-RT vehicle anyhow, but it just looks so much cooler in these colors. Together, this set will give collectors quite a stunning display for their collections. We hope that you’ll be able to appreciate how well it has been decorated. Hasbro has recreated the decal of little Numa’s head on the right side of his helmet as seen in the episode. We love it!

And the fine details like this just don’t stop there. Yakface.com has pointed out that the Aurebesh on the AT-RT translates as “bug stomper” in English. We think that is totally awesome. We love the little Easter eggs Hasbro includes in their vehicles. They know we actually take the time to figure these things out! And it does make collecting that much more fun. Although we got Boil in the 2009 TCW [S2] Assault On Ryloth Battle Packs set, this is the first time we are getting him in ARF Trooper gear. (We got him in standard clone trooper gear in that Battle Packs set.) We really hope Hasbro is able to keep this high quality up for the Deluxe line. There have been some sets in recent history that leave a lot to be desired and overall do not seem to be worth the prices they command. We know Hasbro takes any opportunity they can to repaint their existing sculpts to help save on some costs. They have done that here for the AT-RT With ARF Trooper Boil Deluxe set, but it has been done so well that we think we’re going to consider it as all-new. Hasbro really did a great job here. This set will likely be the hot one of the group and it should be. It’s one of our most favorite Deluxe sets to date and we hope that even better ones are forthcoming!