ARC Trooper Jesse - TVC - Basic (VC250)

Do you remember “The Doodle” episode of Seinfeld when Newman gave Jerry’s apartment fleas? As a result, Jerry’s parents were forced to stay in the luxury suite in the Plaza hotel booked for Elaine by Viking Press, a potential employer, for an interview. She was local, and Mr. and Mrs. Seinfeld were desperate for a place to stay. Elaine was to assess a manuscript sent by Viking, but it got locked in Jerry’s fumigated apartment. We’re giving you this episode’s synopsis for a reason here, so please stay with us. Jerry’s parents and Uncle Leo decadently take advantage of their stay at the Plaza. Uncle Leo overindulges in macadamia nuts to the point where he gets sick and needs to lie down on the bed while in agony, asserting, “No more nuts!” We’re Uncle Leo, and Hasbro’s ARC Troopers are the macadamia nuts in our metaphor. We’re sick to death of so many ARC Troopers that all use the same tooling and are inundating The Vintage Collection. It’s not about hate, and it’s not about dislike. We’re fond of The Clone Wars. It’s about TOO MANY in a short period or an overindulgence to complete the analogy here. Though ARC Trooper Jesse is the final figure Hasbro needed to get out as a basic figure from the Special Action Figure Set, we have to admit that one more ARC Trooper will give us a belly ache. We’re ready to exclaim, “No more ARC Troopers!”

ARC Troopers are needed characters for The Vintage Collection, but their addition to the line is either exciting or indifferent, depending upon your point of view. The clamoring for these characters seemingly died down a bit, but it hasn’t stopped Hasbro from releasing MORE of them. Most of us are preoccupied with new characters getting added to the line instead of getting repacks. Still, the 501st Legion ARC Troopers (Echo/Fives/Jesse) Special Action Figure Set is particularly rare and goes for a lot of money on the aftermarket. So the release of ARC Trooper Jesse isn’t a bad thing; it’s just that we have too many of them in the line. You get our point. The response from collectors about characters from The Clone Wars is overwhelming. Although The Clone Wars started before the Disney Star Wars takeover, they grandfathered the series into the canon, and we got a seventh final season out of it. It makes sense that we continue to see new action figures based on these characters in The Vintage Collection lineup. Most TVC collectors will want to add ARC Trooper Jesse to their collections, especially after the other two, but they will also enjoy different clones from The Clone Wars. ARC Trooper Jesse, like the other two figures, comes with four weapons, a removable pauldron (with backpack), and a removable helmet with an articulated rangefinder. That’s a lot of accessories for a 3.75-inch action figure!

Also, we must note that ARC Trooper Jesse has exquisite card art, but it’s the only one of the three that comes on thicker card stock along with the “ring of death” from packaging the thicker cards in the same sized case pack. Will Hasbro ever learn? Hasbro ensured they translated the character’s likeness into realistic style; collectors will love what Hasbro did with it here. The Season 4 episode of The Clone Wars entitled “Darkness On Umbara” made its debut a long time ago, but we’re now just getting ARC Trooper Jesse in 3.75-inch super-articulated status on a single card, a long time after the episode first aired. We’re not entirely sold on this figure, but there should be enough excellence presented here to make The Vintage Collection collectors happy. Multiple things will probably make them feel dissatisfied as well. ARC Trooper Jesse is a straight repack of the figure from the 501st Legion ARC Troopers (Echo/Fives/Jesse} Special Action Figure Set, which was a “convention” exclusive for 2020, and now collectors have the chance to buy multiples of this character as needed for their collections. These figures originally had all-new tooling, but the tooling isn’t aging well. Despite a ton of articulation, the figures don’t have the most incredible movement. Like the other ARC Troopers, we prefer ARC Trooper Jesse with the helmet removed. The figure has more personality without the helmet on its head, especially with the face tattoo. Ultimately, Jesse is a fine release, but we’re over this tooling now.