Clone Trooper - ROTS - Collectible Figure And Cup

The genetically engineered clone troopers are a formidable army for the Empire. They are trained in fighting techniques, vehicular skills and battlefield tactics. Some clone troopers receive additional training as pilots, commanders or other specialists. These troopers can be distinguished by their unique armor and equipment.

If there’s one thing true about the Revenge Of The Sith line, it’s that it’s full of clone troopers. Hasbro is going to take every opportunity possible to make all of the differently colored clones from the film, their own unique concepts and concept art and deliver them to us in action figure form. They have to do this. It would be silly otherwise. It makes sense for the Revenge Of The Sith series of Collectible Figure And Cup sets that Hasbro chose a Clone Trooper to round out the line. They chose an all-white infantry Clone Trooper to include in this set, but interestingly there is nary a white Clone Trooper anywhere on the cup. In fact, most of the Clone Troopers on the cup didn’t make an appearance anywhere in Episode III. The ones that didn’t appear in Revenge Of The Sith are concept art Clone Troopers. Regardless, the cup is an attractive collectible because it’s colorful and contains a variety of phase II Clone Troopers. There are still screen-accurate scenes on the glass including AT-TEs and tri-droids, so you get a nice mix of film and concept images that make for a beautiful collage of the events during the Clone Wars. The included figure, however, is not that wonderful. Aesthetically the figure looks about as normal as you might initially expect it to be, but once you discover the features included here you are probably going to be disappointed.

Hasbro released the “all-white” phase II Clone Trooper in the first wave of the Revenge Of The Sith line. As a Collection 1 figure, it sadly comes with an action feature, but the rest of the figure is quite nice despite this. Based on 2005’s ROTS Clone Trooper (III 6) figure, the Clone Trooper has some fairly nice details, and the design is better than average. But in a terrible step backward, the figure comes with an action feature where you have to press the legs together to activate the “Quick-Draw Action!” as the original basic figure packaging boasts. Because the figure has this complex action feature, some of the figure’s aesthetics are compromised and look too bulky. In particular, his shoulders and hips bow out too far from the figure. The disproportion is not terrible, but it is abit glaring. On top of the included action feature, Hasbro added another nugget of play value that isn’t movie-specific at all but yet something extra included here. The left shoulder pad is removable. One is all-white, and the other has the Galactic Empire logo on it. Apparently, this was intended for some scenes that didn’t make it into the final cut of the film. During Order 66, none of the Clone Troopers changed their shoulder armor to reflect the emblem of the Galactic Empire. So this feature and inclusion of an unnecessary accessory is a weird move here.

Although Hasbro released the much more superior Clone Trooper (III 41) figure in the Revenge Of The Sith line, this first wave of Collectible Figure And Cup sets were on the shelf before that figure was available. Unfortunately, the two Clone Trooper figures are separated by a month. What’s more, most collectors already army built the Clone Trooper (III 6) figure by the dozens. (Then again, it certainly didn’t stop them from army-building the III 41 figure either.) It still makes us ponder. Why would Hasbro go through all the work of designing a nearly super-articulated phase II Clone Trooper only to alter it with action features? Instead of the action feature, Hasbro should have added a waist joint, and we all would have been happy for quite some time. Even so, despite its drawbacks, it would be unfair to say the figure is a piece of garbage because it isn’t. But it pales in comparison to the III 41 figure by a landslide. Expect many different flavors of clones never to stop coming into the Hasbro toy line from this moment forward. They’re a staple, and for the most part, Hasbro does a fine job making them. They just need to steer clear of action features, and all will be right in the world of collecting. The Clone Trooper (III 6) figure is just an “alright” figure as far as we’re concerned. But it did play an important role to introduce the world to the Revenge Of The Sith toy line!