Clone Trooper Lieutenant - TVC - Basic (VC109)

When Hasbro creates a new base clone trooper sculpt, it goes without saying that it’s going to be used countless times to bring the rest of the clone ranks into our collection. A simple Clone Trooper (phase I) sculpt is responsible for bring us captains, commanders, lieutenants, and sergeants. And a base Clone Trooper (phase II) sculpt is responsible for bringing us 501st Legion Troopers, 212th Attack Battalion clones, Shock Troopers, 41st Elite Corps clones and many, many more. The list is nearly infinite. A lot of controversy was created when Hasbro released 2011’s TVC Clone Trooper (VC45) figure. The reason there was controversy in the first place is because Hasbro changed what we previously knew. The well developed 2003 CW Clone Trooper (’03 #50) figure and 2005’s ROTS Clone Trooper (III 41) figure pretty much set in our minds how all phase I and phase II clone trooper action figures were going to look in our collections (respectively). So when Hasbro made the fairly aggressive move to change the shape of not only the silhouette of the phase I clone, but also all of its features and proportions, the outcry was audible enough to be heard all around the collecting community. Now it’s time to start knocking out the different officer. And first up in the Clone Trooper Lieutenant. And frankly this variety of clone hasn’t looked better in the basic figure lineup.

Admittedly, it was very hard for us to get used to the new phase I action figure too. But Clone Trooper (VC45) has grown on us tremendously and we’ve come to accept just how accurate it is to the onscreen character. Keep in mind that with very few exceptions, the clones in Attack Of The Clones were all digitally rendered. So Hasbro has little to no tangible reference to design an action figure based on them. But they did a very fine job with the materials they did have because a careful analysis of the Clone Trooper (VC45) figure will only prove to you how right they got it. Honestly, the Clone Trooper Lieutenant looks fantastic. Inherent but very small issues with the base sculpt will transfer officer to this clone flavor, but they are things you can overlook for the most part. Sadly, getting a perfect clone trooper action figure isn’t something Hasbro has gotten down to a perfect science yet. But we’re pretty darn close now. We’re thrilled about the inclusion of ball-jointed hips, but Hasbro hasn’t finely tuned their functionality and sometimes they can be more cumbersome than useful. It seems that it’s often that case that the legs need to be posed in the same fashion to get the best result for displaying the figure. Another way of saying this is the legs aren’t entirely independent of each other in many scenarios. And we’re not sure why we can explain why this is, but it is certainly a strange phenomenon.

We’re also thrilled to get ball-jointed wrists. Hasbro has certainly found a happy medium to seamlessly blend them into the figure. But the shape of the hand is much too narrow and you’re very limited in how you can utilize the figure holding objects. For instance, it’s very difficult to have the Clone Trooper Lieutenant hold the stock of the gun in a support fashion because of the narrow grip of the hand. And it seems that the only way to get him up, without getting too clever, is to spread his legs out a bit. And this of course slightly limits the full range of motion you’d think we have with a figure this super-articulated. The blue color flashes are very interesting. They look very good, but we have begun to wonder if Hasbro got the exact shade of blue correct. (It seems ever so slightly off in our eyes – but we could be wrong about that.) The chest dots look especially good. They are all even, perfectly sized and all in a perfectly straight line. The maddening “mohawk” running vertically down the top of his helmet has been a point of chagrin for years and Hasbro still is having issues with painting this evenly. We have four samples of this figure in our possession at the moment and the one featured in the photo gallery has the best blue helmet stripe (and you can see how uneven it is). We wish that they would find a paint operation that can do this to near perfection. They have seemingly mastered it in the past with figures like 2011’s TVC ARC Trooper Commander (VC54), so we’re not sure why their figures keep returning with these issues. But all that put aside, it’s cool to start getting the clone trooper officers in this new format. Clone Trooper Lieutenant was a great first choice!