Star Wars: Battlefront II Clone Pack - TAC - Exclusives

The battle for the galaxy! Star Wars: Battlefront II gathers together a galaxy of heroes, villains, droids, and vehicles for plenty of intense combat and epic battles. From the Clone Wars to the Galactic Civil Wars, Star Wars: Battlefront II gives you command of the action!

Storm into battle with a squadron of clone troopers, each highly trained in special combat functions and genetically engineered for superior strength, stamina, and skill!

Hasbro has released two multipacks based on characters from the Star Wars: Battlefront II video game, although we feel some of the characters are represented across the first video game too. Between the two separately packaged bunches of figures, collectors are treated to 13 very unique Star Wars characters, but not all are that wonderful. But what makes this slightly tragic is that the marketing of the two multipacks have been cleverly orchestrated. For one, they’re separated by clones and droids, but in order to get one or the other, you have to buy both. Not a bad and clever bit of guaranteeing complete sell through of both sets on Previews’ part, huh? Actually, depending upon who you are, you are going to find this bittersweet, aggravating or just plain annoying. As you’d expect, most of the gems can be found in the Star Wars: Battlefront II Clone Pack. Inside you’ll find six “never-before-made” (this depends upon your point of view) clones that utilize sculpts we have seen before, but have been completely repainted to represent all-new characters, or characters we haven’t seen in that specific particular sculpt yet. This multipack adds a great deal of depth and variety to your already growing clone army, and we’d even go so far as to say it contains one of the best versions of the 501st Legion clone trooper. The video game programmers clearly were inspired by some of George Lucas’ rejected clone concepts from Episode III, and it’s so wonderful to know that they didn’t go to waste and are now officially part of the Expanded Universe. (Editor’s Note: These multipacks were rereleased in 2008’s The Legacy Collection as Toys R Us exclusives separately and sold out very quickly. The Clone Pack sold out significantly quicker than the Droid Pack for clearly obvious reasons.)

The Clone Sharpshooter is a rework of 2007’s TAC Airborne Trooper (No. 07) figure, but this time the figure has been repainted in the colors of the Fifth Fleet Security battalion. This white clone with blue hash marks looks fantastic and nicely compliments 2006’s TSC Clone Trooper Fifth Fleet Security (SAGA 059) figure that was part of the last few Repack & Repaint waves in that line. Hey, now you can pretend you have a clone captain or commander for your army. For good measure, Hasbro throws in what they call simply a Clone Trooper, but we know him much better as a 501st Legion Clone Trooper. Hasbro took 2007’s TSC Combat Engineer Clone Trooper (SAGA 068) and repainted him in the colors of the 501st Legion. We have no problems calling this figure one of our best 501st Legion clones to date. The body is well articulated and the paint job is excellent, save for a little bit of bleeding on the removable helmet. (It’s a crying shame that Hasbro didn’t release this as a basic figure because it’s really well done.) The next figure in the set (left to right) is a Heavy Trooper. It’s essentially a repaint of 2005’s ROTS Commander Bacara (III 49) figure with an all-new heavy assault cannon. it doesn’t fire anything thank goodness, but he can hold it believably well. Next up is a Galactic Marine, which is really just a darker repaint of 2007’s TAC Galactic Marine (No. 02) figure. Interestingly, while his outfit is darker, his skin color is significantly lighter. And it looks as if his face was cast in light flesh-colored plastic and not painted like the original figure from 2007. He also comes with a very large cannon. We’re surprised how many evolutions the Galactic Marine has gone through in such a short time. We are beginning to wonder which is the most accurate now.

The weapons with these figures are a lot of fun and that is a big part of the gaming experience, so we love the faithfulness Hasbro has executed here for that. The versatility here is excellent and it really adds a lot to this multipack. We just wish Hasbro included an arsenal of weapons here so the action figures could “choose” which ones they wanted, just like the game players. Jet Trooper is a flying version of a 501st Legion member. Based on the 2005 ROTS Clone Trooper Deluxe figure (the one that comes with the jetpack), the figure does have articulation, just not the premium kind Hasbro has spoiled us with recently. Of note, this clone has a green visor which makes him very unique the the other 501st Legion clone in this set. But the only figure with new sculpting (not including accessories) is the Clone Engineer. A kit-bashed figure, he is mostly 2005’s ROTS Clone Trooper (III 41) figure with an all-new head sculpt. The head sculpt is stupendous and again we are thoroughly disappointed that Hasbro didn’t make this a basic figure release. The all-new head sculpt is very reminiscent of the one given to 2007’s TAC Concept Stormtrooper (Ralph McQuarrie Signature Series) (No. 09) figure. And then the body of the figure has been repainted to match the body of the 7th Legion, most recently represented by 2007’s TAC Clone Trooper 7th Legion (No. 49) figure. The Star Wars: Battlefront II Clone Pack is excellent and really only has one obsolete sculpt in the whole set. Unlike the Droid Pack, this set is a ton of fun and should make clone lovers thrilled. Your collection needs this set, it will help army build the clone companies you already own.