Star Wars Figure of the Day: Day 1,740: Clone Commander Jet

CLONE COMMANDER JET Delayed Action Figure
The Clone Wars Basic Figures
Item No.: Asst. 94736 No. 25278
Manufacturer: Hasbro
Number: #CW38
Includes: Stand, antenna piece, non-antenna piece, blasters, rocket launcher, rocket
Action Feature: Firing Missile Launcher!
Retail: $8.99
Availability: August 2011
Appearances: The Clone Wars

Bio: Clone Commander Jet battles Separatist forces on Geonosis. The gunship carrying Jet, Ki-Adi-Mundi and clone troopers is hit by enemy fire and crashes on the planet. On the ground, jet leads clone troopers into battle against the droid army and Geonosian warriors, fighting to reach the rest of the Republic invasion force. (Taken from the figure's packaging.)

Image: Adam Pawlus' desk.

Commentary: Delays happen. About 1,200 articles ago, I'd probably fret more about a figure disappearing from the release schedule, but by the time we got to Commander Jet in 2011, it didn't bother me so much that the figure was held back for a long time for no obvious reason. It's a neat character based on a season 2 design, and here's what's neat about it: I'm dense. No, really-- I didn't watch the episodes for a while, and I didn't realize that the reason he had this Lobot-like piece on the back of his helmet was to represent an action feature on the show, which I saw on a crappy low-res video months earlier. The idea was that this represents his ability to raise and extend antenna for communications and whatnot. Neat! (At first I thought it was a trooper vs. commander thing. Nope!)

The sculpt is basically 2008 Captain Rex, but with new arms and the aforementioned new head, which was also used of a few other figures. Hasbro got its money worth out of this tool, as the helmet (or tweaked versions of it) have been used on no fewer than 4 clones. The 14 points of articulation are great, but the arm articulation isn't a big improvement. Sure, the elbow armor has been resculpted to be more accurate to the show, but at the expense of the bend-and-swivel wrists. Now they only swivel, which makes me a sad panda. This is by no means a bad figure, but it's always a little depressing when you realize a figure lost some functionality.

Collector's Notes: A delayed figure that's still more or less new due to a slow rollout late last year, the figure's price is still close to retail and you can probably still find it if you're lucky. I don't think people realize he was new, given he came on the old-style bubble and was released with other higher-profile characters on a new packaging style. I like this figure, but I like the whole brownish red Geonosian style. If you're going after those ARF Troopers and clones, get this one too.

--Adam Pawlus

Day 1,740: February 14, 2012