Friday, September 9, 2011

Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 1,628: Clone Pilot

CLONE PILOT Republic Attack Shuttle
The Clone Wars Vehicles
Item No.:
No. 28533
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: n/a
Includes: Gun, stand, very large vehicle
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $69.99-$79.99
Availability: July 2011
Appearances: The Clone Wars

Bio: Clone trooper pilots were special clone troopers bred in the Kamino cloning centers for the purpose of piloting craft of the Grand Army of the Republic and the early Galactic Empire. (Stolen from Wookieepedia.)

Image: Adam Pawlus' toy shelves.

Commentary: This one's different. I know this Clone Pilot from the Republic Attack Shuttle looks like the 2008 Odd Ball, but it's not. It uses the newer body which debuted with Stone in 2010, has a slightly differently painted (and differently molded) helmet, plus he has a chevron on his arms. I won't say it's better, but it looks cool and is different than the existing pilot. It also fits in the ship well-- the figure doesn't need to sit to fit in the pilot's chair, just bend his legs a little bit and he'll slide right in. (This is, of course, good enough for me. If the figure fits, I'm happy.) The range of motion is good, but with only 12 joints he's not as poseable as his 2008 ancestor. I would advise you get him because of the unique deco and, frankly, the big ship is pretty cool. It opens up like the old Battle Beasts playsets, and any time anyone does anything to be more like Battle Beasts, I think we all need to buy it.

Collector's Notes: This drove me nuts: they hid his white blaster inside the ship. There's a gun rack in one of the wings, and the gun is inside the wing when you open the vehicle and not in the plastic baggie of torpedos and the labels. This figure is effectively the same mold as Goji, repainted for your approval. There are two pilot seats, so you'll probably want to make sure you have at least one more pilot to flesh out this vehicle. And another dozen clones to pilot all the gunner and battle stations on the ship.

--Adam Pawlus


Day 1,628: September 9, 2011

2 comments:

Philip Ayres said...

Adam, have you done the shuttle itself yet?

Adam16bit said...

Not yet-- not sure if I'll have time to get to it in a reasonable frame of time.