Clone Trooper Officer [Captain] - TLC - Saga Legends (SL 12)

Clone trooper armor is marked with color-coded flashes. At the beginning of the Clone Wars, the colors signify rank (red for captains, blue for lieutenants, green for sergeants). By the end of the war, the flashes come to identify specialized units such as the Galactic Marines and Shock Troopers.

The 30 (77-07) Saga Legends was unprecedented. It was always meant to be a line to get out core characters to the market so that they would “always be available” and so Hasbro didn’t have to “waste” space in a new basic figure lineup for them. It also was a line that was collector-friendly where Hasbro actually polled real Star Wars collectors to ask them what favorites (or harder to find) figures they’d like to see get out to retail again. A massive polling tournament was actually held at Rebelscum.com and there were enough winners selected for Hasbro to release whole cases of “Fans’ Choice” figures. It was an extremely exciting time to collect and it was more incredible to see many action figures again which were considered by many the “cream of the crop” released and made available again for the first time opportunity to purchase them, or for quick army building needs. Saga Legends was instantly embraced by the collecting community and it was probably one of the most clever sub-collections Hasbro has ever brought to retail. And what a blessing that their unique Assortment Number didn’t interfere with “all-new” figures in the main basic figure line either. Hasbro now tries to follow fan demand in The Legacy Collection Saga Legends line and has re-released all of the Clone Trooper Officers for 2008.

As you probably know well, now, all four of the Clone Trooper Officers started out as part of the extremely popular Entertainment Earth four-packs released in 2005. Now they're all generically referred to as as Clone Trooper Officers. Instead of creating four unique packages (which is something we would have loved to see instead actually), Hasbro placed an image of the phase I Clone Trooper Lieutenant on the card front and then subsequently released the other three officers as running changes to this figure. The captain, commander, sergeant and lieutenant all saw rerelease for the first time since they made their debut in the Entertainment Earth exclusive Clone Trooper (Troop Builder 4-Pack) sets; sets that were a blink-and-you-missed-them success. But the figure were revisited in a couple of ways and are not straight repacks as you might assume. The Clone Trooper officer [Captain] figure has received an all-new paint job. The red color flashed are thicker and brighter. And perhaps most importantly, the white plastic that he’s sculpted from is bright white. There isn’t a yellow hue at all to it. Most of us are more than aware how badly the Entertainment Earth clones have yellowed after only a couple years out from their release. It look like this won’t be an issue with the ones in the Saga Legends line.

But there are few more aesthetic enhancements made as well. The Clone Trooper Officers were released initially with the chest dots very tiny and barely noticeable. They were also in a position too low on the chest armor. In mid-production, Hasbro released a running change with thicker chest dots repositioned in the correct portion of the armor. This means this is the best Clone Trooper [Captain] money can buy now. The figure has bright white armor (this one is right off of the assembly line obviously) and the red color flashes are extremely vibrant and stand out very much. Hasbro definitely was a little bit too generous with the red paint and its definitely too “wide” running up the center of the helmet and “fin”, but it still looks better than any clone trooper captain released thus far by Hasbro. The Legacy Collection Saga Legends action figures come with a cardboard locker of six extra weapons with them. It’s nice to get extra weapons, but they've become redundant much too quickly. If you’re army building clones, do you really want six of the same weapons each and every time, many of which are irrelevant to the character? The Clone Trooper Officer [Captain] is a great action figure and we’re so happy that Hasbro updated the look of it instead of just repackaging the same exact thing from a couple of years ago.