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Review |
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| Sculpt: |
| The inter-galactic grunts of the CLONE WARS, the Clone Troopers, are represented in this lone figure. Of course, since they're all clones, you can just buy more than one to build your troops! The animated design of the Clone Trooper is actually pretty close to those seen in AOTC--I almost said "the live-action version," but even those were CGI-animated. The cartoon version is more streamlined, naturally, and the limited articulation (I'll get to that shortly) actually allows for a sculpt that is pretty true to the Paul Rudish design. I guess my only complaint is the very static nature of the pose, which limits the articulation to almost just one viable pose for display purposes. For that reason alone, I can only see my way to giving this sculpt an 8 out of ten. |
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| Paint: |
| let's get serious here: it's a Clone Trooper! There are two colors, white and black. It's molded in white, and the black areas are painted on. Oh, alright, There are two different colors of gray on the belt and environmental comtrol unit on the back, for a total of a whopping three paint applications. At least on my sample, they were all perfectly applied, so it's getting 9.5/10. |
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| Articulation: |
| Here's where this figure falls flat on its helmeted face. A ball-jointed neck and both shoulders are the full limit of articulation for this figure. The left arm is cocked at the elbow, yet that's the arm that holds the Republic blaster rifle. Had they given this figure wrist joints, it might have made all the difference between this truly being an "action figure" and basically being a mini-statue: 5/10. |
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| Accessories: |
| The Clone Trooper comes with an all-black Republic blaster rifle and the same figure stand as the rest of the animated figures: the STAR WARS: CLONE WARS logo, with one peg for attaching the figure. The rifle looks pretty close to the cartoon version, although the illustrations on the packaging make it look more dark gray than black: 8/10. |
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| Packaging: |
| The same CLONE WARS card as the rest of the line, with profile-view Clone Trooper helmet and orange fireball on the front, and a full-figure shot of the character, plus some sketches in a "film strip" display and a description of the CLONE WARS animated series. on the back. There are also tiny pictures of all eight figures from waves one and two. The inserts are die-cut portraits of the individual figures, with the Clone's featuring an action shot of several troopers in action. By wave 2 the novelty was gone and we were getting tired of seeing nothing but these figures at Target while the Saga basic figures were impossible to find, but this card's use of multiple Clones was visually exciting enough to merit it 9/10. |
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| Availability: |
| Army-builders have been gobbling these since they first hit the shelves in early January, and they are still the hardest of these Target-exclusive figures to find. Hard, but not impossible, so if you're willing to do a bit of traveling--or pay a bit higher price from an e-tailer--most likely you already have one of these: 7.5/10. |
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| Conclusion: |
| Some collectors aren't at all impressed by the cartoonish depictions of the familiar STAR WARS characters from ATTACK OF THE CLONES, while others feel that the limited articulation doesn't justify the $6.99 price that Target is charging. Basically, this is a line that you are either excited about, or you're passing on it completely. The Clone Trooper appears to be the lone exception to this rule, however. If collectors only get one animated line figure, it's the cloned sons o' Jango. Despite its popularity, this figure falls far short of its Saga-based cousin, the CLONE WARS Super Poseable Clone Trooper, which brings this version's rating in at a mediocre 7.8/10. |
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