Friday, June 15, 2012

Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 1,828: Clone Trooper 501st Legion

CLONE TROOPER  501st Legion
The Vintage Collection Basic Figures
Item No.:
Asst. 37499 No.  98526
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: #VC60
Includes: Blaster, rifle, helmet
Action Feature: n/a
Retail: $9.99
Availability: April 2012
Appearances: Revenge of the Sith

Bio: Celebrate the legendary Star Wars saga that changed the universe forever! This collection brings to life the incredible story of good versus evil that captured our imagination and took us to a galaxy far, far away. Iconic Star Wars heroes and villains are captured with incredible detail and premium features to commemorate each epic tale in the Star Wars saga. May the Force be with you!  (Taken from the figure's packaging.  No specific character information.)

Image: Adam Pawlus' photo area.

Commentary:  I don't know for certain how it will shake out, but so far this Clone Trooper may be one of the shortest-run Vintage Collection figures yet-- yes, shorter than Wedge, and somewhere around the Naval Trooper if he doesn't come back soon.  This figure (so far) only ships in a single revision case, so if you're sitting there saying "Well screw this figure, I don't want it" consider yourself lucky.  My stats show you guys really don't care about clone troopers much these days, and this one is pretty good.  Not great, but close-- the body is a reuse of the 2011 Vintage Attack of the Clones clone body with an existing, and not exactly superb, helmet. The figure has exceptional articulation with 14 joints, spanning bend-and-swivel wrists and ball-jointed hips.  Every joint has pretty much a full range of movement, and the deco is pretty good too.  Sure, it's "clean," but there's a little scuffing on the blue so it looks pretty good.   In this day and age, though, I expect a clone repaint to be great just because Hasbro has been doing such a bang-up job on the cheaper Clone Wars line's paint jobs these days.

If you bought the 2012 BARC Speeder with Clone Trooper, this is fundamentally the same figure with blue paint.   It's pretty good, it's the best overall 501st Legion trooper yet, but a new helmet.  While you no doubt have a vast army of this style of trooper by now... well, here's one more, and it's a little bit better.  Oh, and your chances of army-building with it are effectively zero unless the Asian eBay people get cracking and put these out.

Collector's Notes:  It's my sincere hope Hasbro reissues the snot out of it, because even though they say collectors don't buy troopers any more, all evidence says any non-plain-white trooper seems to sell just fine.  I haven't seen one in the wild yet, hopefully you are far luckier than I am.

--Adam Pawlus



Day 1,828: June 15, 2012

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