Commander Bacara - ROTS - Basic (III 49)

Commander Bacara is a clone commander who works alongside General Ki-Adi-Mundi against the Separatist droid armies on the planet Mygeeto. Though he fights beside the Jedi, his ultimate loyalty is to the Republic and its Supreme Chancellor.

One of the first goals Star Wars collectors wanted to see Hasbro fulfill was the release of all the clone commanders from Revenge Of The Sith. They were good about getting one Clone Commander (III 33) figure out early in the line, but unfortunately that one was an early concept for Commander Bly and never was seen in the film. But towards the end of the year plenty of clone commanders from Revenge Of The Sith made their way one by one onto store pegs. Commander Bly, Commander Gree and Commander Bacara were all welcomes with open arms for the most part. While most were excited to see the release of Commander Bacara, the excitement slowly transitioned to disappointment once collectors saw how Hasbro approached it. Instead of proceeding with what worked so well: super-articulated sculpts and authenticity, Hasbro decided instead to add an action feature which has really affected the level you are going to appreciate this figure. Commander Bacara may initially be a figure you’ll want, but his novelty wears off quickly and you’re going to want another update very soon.

Commander Bacara comes with 15 points of articulation across 11 areas on the figure. Why Hasbro wasted the tooling budget on ball-jointed ankles is beyond our comprehension, but thankfully it isn’t totally wasted here. Bacara doesn’t have a good center of gravity so the ball-jointed ankles play a very important part in keeping him upright. The heavy kama wants to push him backwards but a new angle of the ankles will prevent this from happening. Aside from the very awkward left arm (which contains the action feature), Commander Bacara could certainly be worse. He lacks other points of articulation that could have aided in the figure being better than it came out, like knees joints for example, but this figure obviously is only intended to be a placeholder in the line. And logic dictates that Hasbro will update this figure soon in the line. (Editor’s Note: A brilliant update to Commander Bacara was released in 2008’s TAC Battle Of Mygeeto Battle Packs set with a very dirty paint job and then a clean version was released as 2009’s LC Commander Bacara (BD47) figure.)

The head sculpt of Commander Bacara is very simple. Something seems ever so off about it, but it still looks very good. As a Collection 1 figure he comes without a stand (which would have benefitted him greatly) and instead comes with a few interchangeable weapons. What collectors need now are Galactic Marines to accompany him so the Order 66 sequence on Mygeeto can be recreated. (Editor’s Note: Hasbro released this clone as 2007’s TAC Galactic Marine (30 02) figure.) The Revenge Of The Sith line is quickly filling in the gaps for mains characters that need to still be made based on it. Some of the most important characters came towards the end of the line, but it goes without saying many more will be coming as the line look changes each year. And the best news is that Hasbro moves away from action features during non-movie years, so we should rest easy knowing that we’ll be getting some stellar action figures in the future. Commander Bacara certainly serves a purpose now, but we bet you’ll see he loses luster over time.