Clone Trooper - ROTS - Deluxe

Certain clone troopers are specially trained and outfitted for aerial reconnaissance and battle. Winged jet backpacks with built-in launchers provide the means for air assaults on the enemy.

For the Revenge Of The Sith line, Hasbro was really good about focusing organized collections of figures by who they’d appeal to and that was divided by “kid” or “collector” focus. In the basic figure line we had Collection 1 figures and Collection 2 figures. But when it came to the Deluxe figure line, a sub-line that was attempted in both the Episode I and Star Wars “Saga” lines, Hasbro ensured that they kept this line for the kids (with very few exceptions) to help augment the already budding line with more depth, character selection and themes from the film. Most figures in the Revenge Of The Sith Deluxe line come with some sort of action feature. These action figures were either part of the actual action figure, or it was worked into an accessory with the action figure. When it came to the Clone Trooper, Hasbro added a firing jetpack which allowed Star Wars fans to add an articulated jet backpack with firing missiles for extra play value. While this iteration of phase II Clone Trooper wasn’t seen in Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith, they do seem loosely based on the one that we saw in Volume 2 of Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars which was a huge hit before and after Episode III was released. The Revenge Of The Sith Clone Trooper Deluxe figure isn’t without merit, but it’s a far cry from what else Hasbro has produced in the line. It’s the picture perfect definition of bittersweet.

Clone Trooper is beautifully articulated below the waist. He is what you could consider super-articulated at that point and below. But where he fails from a collector’s perspective is his upper body. Yes, he looks amazing holding his strapped blaster rifle with two hands, but he also looks ridiculous NOT holding it. Why Hasbro couldn’t have added some additional upper body articulation is disappointing to us, but hey, it’s a figure from the Deluxe line and these truly just aren’t meant for us. The Clone Trooper is all-white and has no color flashes of any type. It must be one of the generic Clone Troopers we saw riding a Republic gunship with Obi-Wan Kenobi and Mace Windu or on Coruscant when Obi-Wan Kenobi picks up his new Jedi starfighter with new droid R4-G9. Again, we didn’t see any firing jetpacks on any of the clones in Episode III. So whether based on an Expanded Universe source or Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars or a Hasbro concept, one things I for sure and that’s we have a very unique Clone Trooper here. While not incredibly loaded with accessories, the Clone Trooper Deluxe figure does come with enough to warrant the $9.99 MSRP which is where that has been set. The figure does offer a nice range of movement, cool accessories (albeit screen inaccurate) and looks great with the rest of the figures in the line. Expect it to be a hit with most Star Wars fans.

We should probably also mention that the idea for the Deluxe Clone Trooper could have been pulled from some early Revenge Of The Sith art concepts. Still, it’s very hard to pinpoint exactly where Hasbro’s inspiration came from for this figure. Let’s quickly run through the figure’s articulation. He comes with a ball-socket head, two swivel shoulders, two swivel elbows, a swivel waist, two swivel hips, two ball-jointed knees and two ball-jointed ankles. Clearly you can see how the figure improves as you move down from his head to his toes. What’s remarkable is that his lower body can be posed in a variety of action-oriented ways and admittedly he looks awesome in these poses. But just keep in mind that if you choose to pose this figure without his gun that he is going to look pretty darn silly. The incredibly awesome 2005 ROTS Clone Trooper (III 41) is a tough figure to beat, so it’s likely that all other Clone Trooper figures will pale in comparison. But if you accept that all of these different figures have been produced for different reasons, it’s easier to rank them and judge them for their purposes and not whether they should be compared against each other. The Clone Trooper from the Deluxe line, again, isn’t the greatest action figure Hasbro has ever produced. But he can move, and looks great. He does indeed serve a purpose in the toy line.