RC-1207 (Sev) - TBS [P4] - Six Inch Figures (GG11)

Star Wars: Republic Commando follows Delta Squad on missions throughout the Clone Wars with Delta 07 "Sev" as the squad's sniper.

Here’s another lazy repaint for the Gaming Greats collection under The Black Series [Phase IV] banner. We’re all getting tired of clones, but more of clone repaint and poor kit-bashes that don’t reflect the screen accuracy of the video game characters. That’s where we’re at with the RC-1207 (Sev) figure. Like RC-1138 (Boss), at first glance, you’ll believe that RC-1207 (Sev) is primarily an all-new figure because Hasbro knows how to dress up their figures to hide the reused parts and tooling. The assessment of “newness” is the furthest thing from the truth. RC-1207 (Sev) is 100% 2022’s TBS [P4] RC-1138 (Boss) (GG07) figure, so you shouldn’t expect anything more here than that. Besides the new paint operations and weapons, oh, and a starkly contrasting paint job, that’s all that separates the two characters. As you can see, it’s not much. But is that enough difference for the discriminating 6-inch collectors waiting for Hasbro to bring forth the latest member of Republic Commando into the 6-inch line? We’d like to see them added to The Vintage Collection, but not if Hasbro will take these garbage shortcuts.

What makes collectors feel pain over RC-1138 (Boss), and RC-1207 (Sev) is Hasbro’s laziness and disregard for the characters in this video game. They brought so little newness or freshness to these action figures, and the finished products don’t meet our particular standards. As expressed, RC-1207 (Sev) is almost a 100% “copy and paste” reuse of Boss’ figure. But the finest of details are the same here as well. The scuff marks on the legs are identical, the backpack is the same, the chest armor is the same, and the arms are the same. Thankfully, the blaster is different. It doesn’t seem right that the only detail that separates the two characters is Sev’s mediocre Republic Commando paint job and sniper rifle. And with such simple augmentations employed here, how is it possible that these figures cost more than figures with all-new tooling? This buck is based on the Hunter figure released earlier too. And to make matters worse, Hasbro did nothing to “cover” or “hide” the knife/sheath attachment spot on Hunter for RC-1207 (Sev). So, Sev has a big hole in the left arm, and it does nothing. Again, we’d love to know why Hasbro can’t do the simplest retooling to ensure accuracy.

The figure has excellent articulation, but the legs still cause some consternation. It’s a bit difficult to pose the figure in a kneeling position. Also, some running or action-oriented poses don’t turn out as you wish, thanks to the complexity of Hasbro trying to work in premium articulation while hiding it under clone armor like knee pads. But if you compare Hunter (TBB01) side by side with RC-1207 (Sev), you’ll be pretty surprised how Hasbro phoned this action figure in and didn’t bother doing anything new. Is this what we have to look forward to with the remaining Republic Commando characters not yet released? Part of the Gaming Greats sub-line between Hasbro and GameStop, it feels like the character’s sourcing makes the most sense, although it would have been nice to see it placed in The Clone Wars sub-collection. What won’t make sense is the complete lack of disregard for the character’s uniqueness in a line where Hasbro has the widest profit margins to tweak things here and there to freshen things up a bit. But they’d instead rinse and repeat. And a business model that takes collectors’ interests for granted will do nothing to help Hasbro in the long run and ultimately hurt the Star Wars brand.