Hunt For Grievous, The - TAC - Battle Packs

A few months after the Battle of Geonosis, a Jedi task force is sent to the planet Hypori to destroy a massive droid factory located there. Accompanied by a reinforcement of clone troopers, the Jedi immediately run into serious trouble when orbital mines damage their ships, forcing them to crash land behind enemy lines. The Separatist leader General Grievous and his massive droid army quickly surround the small group of Jedi Knights. The Jedi manage to send a distress call, and the Republic dispatches an elite squad of fully equipped clone troopers, led by Captain Fordo, with orders to rescue the surviving Jedi.

One of the most successful store exclusives in 2006 was the Toys R Us The Hunt For Grievous Battle Packs set. Arriving in the summer of that year, it flew off of store shelves so quickly that many collectors never even saw it in person. Was it the power and following of Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars fans that made this set so spectacular or was it just a truly awesome set that brought us more cool clones that we wanted for our collections? Actually, it was a little bit of both. To be quite fair, 60% of this set was quite weak. But the newness brought forth into this set made the weak parts feel strong. Hasbro dusted off the 2003 CW ARC Trooper (’03 #43) figure and multiplied it times three. Thankfully, they repainted it to match the ARC Troopers as they appeared in the micro-series. Instead of a grayish-blue, there were now bright blue. These figures look great, but they are severely limited in articulation. It seems that not too many collectors cared because the reason to really purchase this set was for the first time available Captain Fordo and the “all-new” Heavy Gunner Clone Trooper which quite frankly stole the show in the opening chapter of Volume 2 of the Clone Wars micro-series. As a sum, The Hunt For Grievous is a totally radical Battle Packs set and if Hasbro could manage to keep the momentum going with great sets like this, collectors would remain forever happy. Now The Hunt For Grievous Battle Packs set has been reisssued under the 30 (77-07) line look and we believe that the paint operations are significantly cleaner this time around.

We're so thankful that Hasbro is dedicated to Tartakovsky's Clone Wars micro-series and are creating toys so beautifully based on the characters in it. Part of The Muunilinst 10 battalion, Captain Fordo was another show stealer. It's fantastic to finally have him super-articulated. Captain Fordo is indeed the star of this set, and you may be surprised how easy it was to make him. Hasbro utilized the head sculpt from 2003's CW Clone Trooper (’03 #50) figure. This figure of course has been used ad infinitum to bring us every other Clone Trooper action figure under the sun. They also dug out the 2005 ROTS Clone Commander (III 33) (also known as Commander Deviss) figure and placed the Clone Trooper head on it. And then they finished it off with 2005’s ROTS Commander Bacara (III 49) kama. The final result is one beautiful action figure that appears to the collector as all-new since it is cobbled together from so many different parts. To make things even better, Hasbro chose a very bright neon-like red paint that makes the figure stand out from the rest. If Hasbro needed to find ways to cut costs yet bring us awesome “new” characters, then this is the way to do it. They did mess up the stripe on his helmet. The mohawk is painted red, but the line doesn't continue down the face of the helmet, sadly. Still, Captain Fordo is a quality figure and will likely become an immediate favorite to collectors all over the Star Wars galaxy because it's appealing and so well put together. This Captain Fordo action figure will forever remain an excellent take on this character.

We’re also very fond of the Heavy Gunner Clone Trooper. He’s also mostly comprised of the 2005 ROTS Clone Commander (III 33) figure but also utilies the portrait of 2005's ROTS AT-RT Driver (III 56) figure in addition to the kama from 2005's ROTS Commander Bacara (III 49) figure. A first in the Star Wars line, the Heavy Gunner Clone Trooper comes with a G.I. Joe weapon. It’s not accurate to the Cip-quad weapon we saw in the animated series, but we suppose it’s close enough to make a point. And it's a good placeholder since Hasbro didn't have the time to expertly replicate the weaponry from the Clone Wars. It breaks down into two separate parts and we wish it stayed together more easily. He, along with Captain Fordo truly bring freshness to this Battle Packs set to life and make it totally worth the purchase. We so thrilled that we finally have these characters. You're going to love them, too. The three included ARC Troopers (simply called Clone Troopers here) are really just obligatory inclusions and not really essential. But as an army-builder set you’ll get this hard-to-find figure threefold at once. (And you’ll get three removable rangefinders that can serve as back-up since these pieces are so hard to keep track of in your collection.) The Hunt For Grievous set is definitely one of the greatest Battle Packs sets Hasbro has created and a dream come true for lovers of all things Tartakovsky. Captain Fordo and Heavy Gunner Clone Trooper are worth your money of course, so be sure to get them into your collection! And they all look fantastic as a group!