Clone Trooper (Senate Security) - TCW [B] - Basic (Exclusive)

These elite and highly skilled clone troopers are under the comand of Commander Thire. They are assigned diplomatic escort duty for high-ranking officials in the Senate. During the Clone Wars, they also defend the capital city from Separatist attacks.

The 2008 StarWarsShop.com’s San Diego Comic Con exclusive figure is very simple but quite striking. And now that we can look back over a full year’s worth of product, we as collectors may just come to the realization that some of the earliest product was the best. You may ask ‘why’ and we will certainly tell you. Since the television series is called "The Clone Wars" and it is about clones, the focus of the toy line should be well-sculpted and well decorated clone trooper figures. And Clone Trooper (Senate Security) is one of these fine examples. He has brick red color flashes on his armor which is a distinctly different color than that seen on the 2008 TCW [B] Commander Fox exclusive we got from TARGET. His simplistic but awesome color pattern is a fine example of how less is more. But most importantly is his absolutely incredible dirty wash that covers him from head to toe. And it isn’t overdone like the basic clone trooper. It is much more muted and realistic. Boy! How we sorely miss the few clone troopers that had this remarkable finishing touch on them. When you look at Clone Trooper (Senate Security) next to other bright white and clean clone troopers, it really makes you wish that Hasbro would cut the figure’s cost some other way. We don’t know how much longer we can handle clean clone troopers, Hasbro! Look at the marvelous work you have done. Please bring it back

Clone Trooper (Senate Security) is a rework of the basic 2008 TCW [B] Clone Trooper (No. 5) figure that we received in the very beginning of the line. An excellently sculpted figure, we all expected this to be the template for most upcoming clones and it is. Hasbro tends to get the pattern right from the very start when they create their model from which all other clones originate, so we are thankful that we have such great tooling for an intensely popular character. There were certainly quite a few grumbles when this exclusive was purchased by collectors. We believe that it stems from the ridiculously high price of $14.99. As of this posting, the figure is still available for $12.99 at StarWarsShop.com. A troop builder with an awesome paint job shouldn’t hang around this long, but we have all quickly learned that exclusives today become nonexclusive tomorrow. It is so easy to find other avenues to get these figures and for lower prices if we wait long enough. As a group, our attention span tends to be very short and we quickly move on to more impressive things. As a result, high priced items (including exclusives) coupled with low value ($14.99 for one figure!?) get pushed to the backburners and then the stock sits. But with anything, Hasbro will soon learn to make less and less until exclusives truly become exclusives! Unfortunately, this is the nature of the collecting beast

Clone Trooper (Senate Security) has a wonderful 25 points of articulation and comes armed with a DC-15 blaster rifle. It doesn’t fit in his hands as well as we had hoped, but with a little more futzing than normal, you can get it posed to look very cool. As a security guard, we think he has the perfect accessory, just one blaster to fend off immediate threat. He is not a battle clone trooper, so it is refreshing to see a figure that isn’t over accessorized. (We don’t know about you, but we can barely keep track of all of our projectiles!) His packaging is nothing too new other than a clam shell is included with it. And since he doesn’t have a number on him, it is easy to tell that this is an exclusive figure. Overall, we encourage you to give this figure a second or third glance. You will likely appreciate him more now than you did when he was first released. He ages quite well in our books! As a result, the Clone Trooper (Senate Security) happens to be one of our favorite clones from The Clone Wars line. There are certainly many more clones with more impressive patterns and color on their armor, but the substratal nature of this figure is what indeed makes him special. He is reminiscent of the clone troopers we saw in Episode II, so perhaps that’s why many are drawn to him, including us.