Utapau Shadow Trooper - TAC - Saga Legends

Utapau shadow troopers have played an essential role in helping the Jedi fight the Separatist force's massive droid armies, but their allegiance changes after the secret declaration of Order 66. They are armed with a blaster rifle and protected by hard black armor.

Ah, the Utapau Shadow Trooper. TARGET loaded us up with exclusive figures one after the other in 2005 during the Revenge Of The Sith line and the original release of the Utapau Shadow Trooper was the third in a series of five exclusive basic figures to celebrate the final film in the Star Wars Prequel Trilogy of the same name. Interestingly, we got the Utapau Shadow Trooper a whole year before we got the regular [Utapau] Clone Trooper (SAGA 026) from The Saga Collection that was actually seen in the film. Starting off life as simply a cool Hasbro concept, the Utapau Shadow Trooper was “retconned” into Star Wars lore via the Expanded Universe and the sources ranged from the Wizards of the Coast games to The Force Unleashed. It is a very cool clone trooper to say the least and it makes perfect sense why he is such a great seller. There is no denying that this clone trooper belongs to some facet of the 212th Attack Battalion as evidenced by the pattern of his unique armor markings. The TARGET exclusive figure was an immediate seller and quickly flew off store shelves. Some found it on clearance, but these findings were few and far between. Apparently demand wasn’t fulfilled in 2005's Revenge Of The Sith line as the Utapau Shadow Trooper was one of five winners in the 2007 Saga Legends poll that made it back onto store shelves in early 2008. And by his performance at retail, it seems that collectors put their money where their mouths were.

It's really simple here. The 2007 TAC Utapau Shadow Trooper Saga Legends figure is a straight repack of the 2005 ROTS Utapau Shadow Trooper TARGET exclusive. We are unable to find any differences at all between the two and this is a good thing. Paint variances count as “new” to many collectors so there is no need to worry about that here. There may be a slightly different red color used for the visor, but even that is a stretch. But there is a bonus to the 30 (77-07) figure because included with it is a black Expanded Universe coin. (This same coin also made it into the packages of the TAC Saga Legends Shadow Stormtrooper that also was one of the winners in the Saga Legends poll.) It is definitely a neat pack-in premium to this figure because up until this point collectors only saw silver and gold coins. This figure is a repaint of the very first TARGET exclusive Clone Trooper painted in the 91st Recon Corps Saleucami style. This figure utilizes the body of the 2003 CW Clone Trooper (’03 #50) body with a new Episode III clone trooper head. This of course makes it a great figure and it has plenty of articulation to make many fans happy. The black army is extremely shiny and the dull gray accents provide a rich visual texture for the figure. His visor has been painted in red, but it is not vibrant enough to stand out. We wished that a deeper blood red was used to make the visor pop out a bit more. He comes with a DC-15 blaster rifle and pistol and the black guns looks awesome against his black armor.

The Utapau Shadow Trooper still sold through very well in the 30 (77-07) line just like it did the first time as a TARGET exclusive. It appears demand still isn’t satisfied and another run of them may be needed to do the job. Interestingly, the same clone trooper concept was applied to a 2008 Jedi Con exclusive (later made available at StarWarsShop.com) that includes superior figures but didn’t sell nearly as well as the basic or exclusive figures did. The 2008 TAC Shadow Troopers exclusive contains the very popular 2005 ROTS Clone Trooper (III 41) figure sculpt as well as the 2005 ROTS Clone Trooper To Stormtrooper Evolutions Clone Commander figure sculpt repainted in the Utapau Shadow Trooper concept. And those two figures have a significantly much better paint job too. But this didn’t seem to grab collectors much. We assume the packaging harmed the success of this set too. Contained in a cylinder very similar to the 2007 and 2008 TAC Order 66 sets, the basic carded versions of these troopers seems to be the one fans want more. It is fantastic that Hasbro included the exclusive black collector’s coin in the Saga Legends version of the Utapau Shadow Trooper. It makes the repurchase of it that much more enticing. And the packaging for the TAC was some of the best collectors have ever seen. It will be interesting to see if the Utapau Shadow Trooper sees rerelease another time. We think it could use another run, but it will have to be as a basic figure if Hasbro wants to guarantee its success.