501st Legion Clone Trooper - SW [Y/AOTC] - The Clone Wars (CW06)

A 501st Clone Trooper uses a jet backpack as part of an aerial attack. (European packaging)

A 501st Clone Trooper uses a jet backpack as part of an aerial attack. The troopers in the elite 501st Legion, who are led by Captain Rex and server under the command of Anakin Skywalker, achieve many victories during the Clone Wars. (North American packaging)

In a world of excellence, all great things must come to end. But we don’t think any of us were prepared to say goodbye to the animated The Clone Wars line as abruptly as we did. Whether or not we can wholly blame Hasbro for this action is murky at best because Hasbro was fighting against Lucasfilm’s unending shuffling of schedules which in turn made new line looks either canceled or tremendously abbreviated. It may be this reason alone that Hasbro threw up their hands in the air and decided to take an all-new realistic approach with the line. Besides, as sad as this is, the television show is the biggest multimedia event to support the series and the ratings are freefalling faster than you can say Ahsoka Tano. Truly tragic in every sense of the word, it seems that those who began with The Clone Wars in 2008 have shortened their attention span for the series despite it being the best it ever was. Usually a television series wanes as it gets older, but The Clone Wars only gets better. It’s another tragic turn of events in the futile battle to keep this franchise alive. Hasbro has clearly lost interest and going forward they will be releasing realistically styled characters from The Clone Wars instead.

As Hasbro is an American company, USA collectors are offended that the final wave of the animated The Clone Wars figures has been canceled for them. American collectors need to find these internationally if they want them for their collections. It’s cause for bitter resentment how something that is conceived and developed in Rhode Island yet manufactured overseas will stay there and come as close as Canada but won’t cross over into the States. We have always been empathetic for our international friends who have lived years without being able to find everything they want for their Star Wars collections, but we also feel that because Hasbro is an American company that they should ensure that new products make their way to their American supporters. How they can ensure that the reduced Class II assortment, the Class I vehicles and the worst 12” figures to date could get to shelves but not basic figures, the only thing any collector really cares about, is frustrating at best. With technically only one “new” figure in the final wave, (and the only season 5 figure that will be released in the animated line), the others have been enhanced for the better.

The 501st Legion Clone Trooper is the “new” figure of the lot and it likely will be the only animated The Clone Wars figure from Season 5, unless of course Hasbro decides to revisit it in some fashion or another. The 501st Legion Clone Trooper utilizes 2012’s SW [TPM 3D] Clone Trooper (Phase II Armor) (CW2) sculpt. This time the figure comes with an all-new blaster and jetpack and has been painted in one of the various 501st Legion color schemes scene in the Season 5 Sabotage episode. The figure is well-articulated with 18 points and is only missing ankle joints. The figure does look pretty good, but sadly the color flashes are painted on a bit sloppily. Typically Hasbro’s action figures need to experience a bit of a production run before Hasbro has an opportunity to clean things up like this, so it probably goes without saying that there won’t be a moment for this. The “Yoda” line looks is a placeholder until the re-launch of Fall 2013. Instead of producing a random 501st Legion Clone Trooper from the television show, Hasbro should have put together a few different Battle Packs (or something similar) and bang out a couple of squads with their unique members at once. Tragic the turn this line has taken is.