Captain Rex - SW [Y/AOTC] - The Clone Wars (CW04)

Captain Rex fights beside Anakin Skywalker during the Clone Wars. (European packaging)

Captain Rex fights beside Anakin Skywalker during the Clone Wars. The clone captain is a tough, capable leader who quickly adapts to changing situations and plans – a helpful skill for anyone who works with the inventive and impulsive Skywalker. (North American packaging)

The outcries from the collecting community were thunderous when we discovered that Hasbro was going to be “dumbing down” the articulation in The Clone Wars line. Long awaited figures in the 2012 line including Captain Rex (CW13) (in his Phase II armor), Clone Commander Fox (CW18) and Clone Commander Wolffe (CW17) had been designed to come without wrist and knee articulation which perplexed and angered longtime collectors of The Clone Wars basic figure line. For reasons unknown, evidence now exists that Hasbro may have felt the ripples of fans’ anger and began backpedaling their “new” approach and started adding some articulation back into the sculpts. Although the effort is appreciated, it’s all for naught because The Clone Wars line has ultimately been canceled. Animated figures will no longer be coming and instead Hasbro will be beta testing realistic sculpts with only five points of articulation instead. The future is bleak and the health of the line is grim. So at this point we can only take one day at a time and see where everything ends up. It’s just sad that one of Hasbro’s best lines has been canceled because of the fears that the multimedia support of the franchise is performing below expectations.

Captain Rex has indeed bit upgraded from 2012’s SW [TPM 3D] Captain Rex (CW13) figure. But it may not be everything that you were hoping to see. We suppose we should just be thankful that Hasbro has given the phase II version of Captain Rex a second look at all, but between the sadness of the line reaching its ends and Hasbro not going the full distance with the 2013 updated version this time, it’s not going to be a cause for celebration. The biggest benefit for Captain Rex is the inclusion of ball-jointed knees. This gives the collector (and the kid) more versatility and play value. Because Hasbro now believes that less articulation is kid-friendly, it’s quite an astonishing miracle that they have chosen to take this action with Captain Rex. So be it. Captain Rex is a kit-bashed figure that utilizes the upper body of 2012’s SW [TPM 3D] Captain Rex (CW13) figure with the legs of 2012’s SW [TPM 3D] Clone Trooper (Phase II Armor) (CW2) figure. Despite the upgrade, Captain Rex still only has ten points of articulation, although it’s certainly better than the eight points its predecessor had. Still without swivel wrists, Hasbro also updated the paint job to Captain Rex and admittedly it’s not all for the better.

For the 2013 version, Captain Rex comes with a very clean paint job. Details in the front of the helmet are severely muted this time around. But Hasbro seems to have applied a more jagged appearance to the color flashes running along his armor. Of particular note, Captain Rex’s torso has been given a dramatic (yet faint) zigzag pattern for this release as opposed to the “straight as an arrow” blue lines that shoot off in a forty-five degree angle previously. The blue color flashes are lighter and as far as we’re concerned much more accurate and we’re very thankful for this release that Hasbro abandoned the dark colored rangefinder and painted it in a light color to match what was seen in the television series more closely. We were also surprised to notice that the hash marks (representing successful kills during the Clone Wars) are different in number than the previous release. In particular, there are fewer marks on the legs and helmet and none applied to the arms at all. Obviously this is Captain Rex from a different time that the 2012 version. The best update to Captain Rex is his all-new chain gun, also known as a Z-6 rotary blaster cannon. It comes with an articulated trigger, hinge-jointed handle and rotating barrel. It’s a vast improvement from what we’ve received in the past. Captain Rex is in the middle for us. We appreciate the enhancements, but it seems that more could be done. Perhaps his new weapon makes it worth it all.