Clone Trooper (Halloween Edition) - TBS [P4] - Six Inch Figures

Celebrate the season with specially designed Star Wars figures from The Black Series!

Hasbro appears increasingly desperate to amortize its tooling dollars in the last five years. Now they’re taking the brand into territories not part of the Star Wars universe and instead cobbling figures or repainting them to be holiday-specific. In 2020, they produced a series of Christmas-themed 6-inch figures, and now this year, they’re getting out the 2021 Christmas figures that got lost in the shuffle, in addition to Halloween-themed characters. It’s almost as if they’re taking their cue from the Disney Droid Factory collection. Admittedly, the new Clone Trooper (Halloween Edition) figure is charming. But it isn’t perfect. And we’re going to note its imperfections. Hasbro took the 2020 TBS [P4] Clone Trooper (Kamino) (TCW01) figure and cast it in black plastic. Then they painted a “glow-in-the-dark” skeleton on the front. It’s not a true “glow-in-the-dark” feature, but they disguised it cleverly. Unfortunately, they didn’t paint the posterior of the figure. The whole backside of the figure is all black. It would have been fantastic if they had painted the back of the skeleton on the back of the figure. But for reasons unknown, they went the cheapest route possible. We find it to be the figure’s most notable setback, but you may not care.

Paired with the Clone Trooper (Halloween Edition) figure is a porg painted to look like a vampire, and they did an excellent job doing this with paint and without any new tooling. The porg has spooky eyes and an unmistakable widow’s peak, and they painted the back black to recreate the illusion of a long black cape. Let’s say it works out incredibly well. Also included is a chest that was used with the dreadful and now forgettable Maz Kanata (49) figure. However, they repainted it for this release and stenciled a “ghostly” image of a Hutt, and we presume that it’s meant to represent Jabba. The set, as a whole, works well. It feels like we get a little more value here for our money, evidenced by the extra accessories. But collectors are upset that The Black Series 6-inch figures are creeping up to $30, especially for repacks and repaints. This Target-exclusive figure rings up at $26.49, but it seems that it should be closer to $20. All of the paint operations here look tight and cleanly applied. The tooling holds up well, and the Clone Trooper (Halloween Edition) figure articulates beautifully. We appreciate the efforts to produce a themed character like this for the line. It’s a first, and it works out well for the line.

This buck is quite different from the 2014’s TBS [P1] Clone Trooper (#14) figure. Correctly scaled to fit the figure’s body, the new helmet shows that Hasbro paid close attention to what they screwed up on older Phase II Clone Trooper models. You’ll remember an unpainted “clone head” underneath the helmet. Hasbro has plans to make the most of this sculpt with future releases, including this figure. But adding a ball-socket head with a reverse ball-socket neck gives the figure an impressive range of movement in the head. New to the updated Phase II Clone Trooper tooling, incorporating “butterfly” sliding joints with ball-jointed shoulders gives the figure optimal movement. This articulation system has been holding up well throughout the years. The shoulders don’t roll back as far as we’d hoped, but you get additional movement thanks to the complex articulation in the shoulders. The angle you can pose the arms at the elbows is also mind-blowing. The knee armor is attached to the thigh armor but is detached from the ball-jointed knees. The figure poses well but has some aesthetic issues because of this design. Oh, and Hasbro wants you to know how virtuous they are by boasting the packaging is plastic free. Too bad the figure cancels all that out.