Clone Trooper - TCW [B] - Basic (No. 5)

Clone troopers put up an unrelenting defense against the hordes of battle that are pouring into the B'omarr monk monastery. The intrepid troopers are keeping the enemy at bay so that Anakin and Ahsoka can rescue Jabba's kidnapped son. The clone troopers use their blasters and thermal detonators with skill, focusing exclusively on ensuring that the mission is a success.

When Hasbro announced that the new The Clone Wars line was going to be done in hybrid animated/realistic style, adult collectors initially wanted to rebel. And in all honesty, it took some time warming up to the figures in The Clone Wars toy line. With time, collectors began to see that the final figures looked so good (with just a rare exception her and there) and we just couldn’t get enough of them. Sadly, Hasbro was behind the eight ball making them and would be playing catch up for years. The new clone trooper opened up the door for a plethora of new clone styles. In fact, the figure has been utilized an unprecedented amount of times already for use in many other basic and exclusive figures and multipacks. This is a wonderful turn of events because it will allow our collections to grow while receiving satisfactory sculpts of the characters. Since the television show is providing us with a nearly limitless amount of clone troopers, we expect to see this sculpt get continued use over and over again. And while there are some inconsistencies with the figure, it is important to remember the fact that all of the figures in this basic figure line are approached with that hybrid pint of view. Overall, the figure pleases us. We doubt that everyone will be entirely happy with every clone trooper figure that comes our way, but this particular figure should satiate most of the whining. This style of clone, a phase I Clone Trooper, not only favors its look from the TV show, but it looks pretty faithful to the Clone Trooper seen in Star Wars Episode II: Attack Of The Clones. The animated version is quite lean by comparison, but so were the characters from Episode II. Really, the biggest differences aside from a more animated silhouette is the fin on the helmet. It is very pronounced and more dramatic. This is the look of almost all the characters in the animated show. Passing in almost every way in our books, the Clone Trooper is a success for us. It sold through very well on opening day (July 26, 2008) and continued to be a strong seller in all the case assortments her appeared. Clearly the epitome of an army builder, you will likely never have too many of them in your collections.

Hasbro utilized a brand new weathering application for this figure. Looking almost as if the figure was dipped in a black wash, it creates a unique pattern on every clone trooper. As a result, technically no two clone troopers are the same. This will be one figure that will be IMPOSSIBLE to “buy them all” as each one is a snowflake. Since every figure is a variant of the next, displays and dioramas will never look better. It will be great if Hasbro keeps up this weathering for years to come, in some shape or way. It certainly isn’t a complaint that one can’t buy every last version of this action figure, but it certainly gives us a truly unique clone army, something that we have wanted for ages now. The dirt patterns are some of the most spectacular accents we have every seen on an action figure ever. They literally cling to every surface and crevice that exists on these figures. It also goes without saying that is something we would love to see standard on most of our trooper and army-building action figures in the collector lines. But as with most things Hasbro is involved with, tooling and paint operation costs outweighed this beautiful finishing wash and starting with wave 2, the application was dropped completely and all the clones starting coming to brilliantly white and clean; they would all become newbie clones. While it worked for the plain white clone troopers, it worked against many of the clone captains and commanders. We feel it was a very disappointing move on Hasbro’s part, but we suppose getting our figures without the final wash is better than not getting them at all. In all honesty, dropping the awesome final paint operations is a disappointment, but the figures still look great without it. Besides, there is so much articulation embedded in these figures it’s likely deco won’t even come to your mind while appreciating the figure. The points of articulation installed here work in favor of the figure’s agile frame. The enhanced ball-jointed wrists are an especially spectacular bonus for which we extremely thankful to Hasbro. Add to that more great ball-jointed articulation, the figure’s only letdown is the inclusion of swivel hips. These characters need ball-jointed hips!

Clone Trooper is an essential action figure. They’re really the “main characters” of The Clone Wars television show. And we can expect to see an infinite amount of them as this show continues. How can any of us go wrong with an action figure that comes loaded with 25 points of articulation? Again, aside from feeling that the figure could have tremendously benefited with the inclusion of ball-jointed hips, there isn’t too much else to complain about here. Since Hasbro could have amortized the tooling costs over a figure that both kids and collectors bought multiples of, it wasn’t the wisest choice to go with swivel hips. In fact, we strongly believe that even more of these figures would have sold if Hasbro decided to incorporate ball-jointed hips. We do hope that if Hasbro decides to make another basic white clone trooper template in the future that they make it more articulated and absolutely not less articulated. We’re concerned that cost may be an issue as proven by dropping these figures’ final washed. For accessories, the Clone Trooper comes with a big missile launcher, a projectile for it and a DC-15 blaster. The accessories also have beautiful weathering (this too was dropped on carry forward figures but not immediately) and are very well designed. Unfortunately, the grip of the gun has been forced into his hand and when you remove it, it is terribly misshapen. Even time doesn’t bring the stock back to its original shape. The form of the hand is a bit too small to fit the gun well and this makes for too tight of a fit. The figure can still hold the gun. It just isn’t a perfect fit. The Clone Trooper action figure has just a few hiccups but overall it scores high marks from us. It would be nice to see this mold be used to create clone trooper officers from Episode II so that we can have animated versions of them at some point. But for the time being, it looks like we are going to get TV show-specific clones. And this is fine with us. Both the dirty and clean Clone Trooper figures are wonderful additions to the line and we suggest getting them both for your collections. Send in the clones! (Editor’s Note: IN a move that made little to no sense, this generic “all-white” Clone Trooper was not reissued in the Season 2 (red) line look or the Shadow Of The Dark Side line look.)