CLONE TROOPER Coruscant Landing Platform The Legacy Collection Basic Figures
Item No.: Asst. 87535 No. 89594
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: #BD17
Includes: Blaster, antenna, droid part
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $7.99
Availability: September 2008
Appearances: Revenge of the Sith
Bio: Clone troopers are stationed on Coruscant to maintain order and provide for the many distinguished visitors who come and go from the planet. The troopers must be constantly vigilant against plots and attacks from the Separatists and their supporters. (Taken from the figure's cardback.)
Image: Adam Pawlus' desk.
Commentary: You know what I can't get enough of? Clone Trooper figures.
...is what I would have said in 2005. Today, it's a little less exciting to hear yet another clone announcement, even if it's a new deco, or a more articulated version of a previous figure. This grey-striped trooper has been done before, twice in 2005-- both times with inaccurate deco. So I guess this one is exciting because they have all the stripes and dots now, which they were lacking previously. It's also based on the super-articualted body, which is still the gold standard for Revenge of the Sith-style clones. So with that in mind, you basically know exactly what to expect from his construction-- 14 points of articulation, and lods of poses are now easy to get. The bad thing is that the packaging really did a number on his legs, distorting them a little so on my two samples, he stands kinda funny. But hey, that's why Hasbro gave us articulation-- you can fudge that by reposing him a little bit. The figure holds together as well as any other based on this mold, so hey, that's a plus.
The stripey deco is pretty excellent. He has little squares on his arms and torso, lots of stripes, and basically everything you could wish for short of dirt and smudges. As a clean trooper, he's awesome-- I like the deco here a lot. As an added bonus, Hasbro, for the first time ever, painted his antenna. It's removable, as always, but now it has silver smudging on it which looks really neat. It'd look better had the clone been given smudges and damage marks, but hey, it's a start. Nice idea, Hasbro designers! Army builders will no doubt like this figure, and Clone fans, well, you know what to expect. It isn't bad, but it's getting a little old, these movie clones. Maybe we can move on to more multi-colored Stormtroopers as we move forward.
Collector's Notes: In 2005, Hasbro released an Evolutions Clone Trooper loosely based on this design. Also, they had a Battle Pack with a clone also loosely based on this design. Of the three, this one I'm now reviewing has the best articulation and deco as far as marking accuracy goes. Although I will say the Evolutions version had amazing dirty marks that are so impressive you should get one. Yes, even you. I can see you reading this.
Day 929: January 5, 2009
4 comments:
The leg distortion issue on this and other figures, I have found, is fix-able by simply taking one of the elastics that he already comes with, holding him in the package for example, and wrapping it tightly enough around the two legs at about shin level so that they come together better (but not touching). Leave it like that for a week or so at least and it should fix it pretty good. I found I had a similar issue with the TAC Death Star Trooper and did that and it worked miracles. No boiling water required! I've even found them on display having had that elastic for about a year now and it doesn't seem to hurt!
Clarification: "found them on display" on my shelves at home where I set them up...did not mean to make it sound like I meant in the wild at TRU or anything.
"Maybe we can move on to more multi-colored Stormtroopers as we move forward."
Bite your tongue!
Although true that we have seen many Clone redecos, I think this is one of the better ones and was happy to see it. I think Hasbro knows they've gone to the well about all they can with this design; lucky (for them) they still have Clone Wars animated to play with.
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