Clone Trooper (212th Battalion) - TVC - Basic (VC38)

Is it outright blasphemy to say a figure with less premium articulation is better than a figure that does come with it? If it is, then we apologize in advance, because the 2011 TVC Clone Trooper (212th Battalion) figure just doesn’t deliver in the the same way that the near-perfect 2006 TSC Clone Trooper (SAGA 026) does. Heck, even the 2010 LC Clone Trooper Lieutenant/Clone Trooper Comic Packs set offers collectors a better 212th Attack Battalion member than this new figure does. (And this all goes without saying that The Vintage Collection figure is still a good figure. Hard to believe by our instant complaining, huh?) The biggest problem is that the 2011 figure has a bare bones paint job, just enough to make the figure recognizable as a member of the 212th Attack Battalion, but absent is any reasonable sign that there has been any interaction with a member of the Separatist droid army. The Clone Trooper (212th Battalion) figure is clean as can be and this is one of the major areas where the figure truly fails. If you dig out your old 2006 TSC figure, you’ll realize what a treat the paint job was (and it wasn’t even that accurate in terms of the correct color orange or black dirt/marks). The figure should have had red and brown dirt on him and a less bright orange color used. But the black carbon-scoring just brought the figure to life. You unfortunately won’t find any markings or scratches or battle-damage anywhere on the new figure. And besides, the 2006 figure didn’t have a removable helmet, so the size of it looked extremely authentic to the film. The Clone Trooper (212th Battalion) figure does have a removable helmet and you can imagine what this does for aesthetics. His helmet is slightly out of scale as a result. But the figure has some really good points as well (believe it or not).

It’s implied inference that once Hasbro creates a new base body for a clone trooper that we should soon expect to see every flavor realized in that new sculpt. And that’s exactly what Hasbro has done with the Clone Trooper (212th Battalion). Taking the previously released 2010 Clone Trooper (VC15) figure (which was based on the figure from the Gelagrub Patrol Battle Packs set), it has now been painted in the orange color flashes that are specific to Clone Commander Cody’s 212th Attack Battalion under the direction of Obi-Wan Kenobi. The figure truly isn’t that bad of a figure. But the oversized helmet coupled with a very, very boring paint job leaves the collector definitely wanting a whole bunch more. You know already how we feel about this “premium” version of this clone trooper. When you compare it side by side to the 2006 figure, you realize that we haven’t been treated to a good enough deco and much more creativity towards the paint operations should have been developed before releasing this figure. To add a little bit of more salt into the wound, would you believe that our sample had the beginning signs of that yellow/green ooze forming on the helmet of our figure? Why this is happening again is beginning to perplex us. Hasbro seemed to fix the running change of the Clone Trooper (VC15) as well as later samples and the yellowing was thought to have gone away. It looks like it’s now returning. Hopefully they can fix this figure as well. This drives carded collectors crazy. But Hasbro needs to stop using inferior plastics that yellow in the blink of an eye.

With the February 2011 Toy Fair announcement that we’re getting another (what looks to be new) 501st Legion Trooper, Hasbro is certainly plugging away at updating all of the original clone troopers that had utilized the 2005 ROTS III 41 sculpt. It could be only a matter of time before we see updates to the current Shock Trooper or Clone Trooper (Coruscant Landing Platform) figures and whether they use this same sculpt or not remains to be seen. (The upcoming 501st Legion Trooper looks to be a mostly new sculpt.) One thing is for sure and that’s if Hasbro decides to use the same sculpt for all the figures would make for some impressive uniformity. If they don't, hopefully the figures will be similar enough. There has been some discussion if Hasbro picked the right color orange for this figure. It’s definitely not the shame shade as the recently released Clone Commander Cody (VC19), but is looks similar enough to be considered in the same color family. It is certainly a lot less brighter than the 2006 figure and it’s only a few shades deeper than the Comic Packs figure from the Clone Trooper Lieutenant/Clone Trooper set. We appreciate an update to the clone troopers, but it would really be better if they can find a way to attach the non-removable helmet to the enhanced sculpt. The helmet is so much bigger on the removable version of the clone trooper and it just doesn’t look too authentic. The clone troopers would need heads the size of peas to create a helmet small enough so that it wouldn’t affect how large the removable helmet would be. If your main goal for a clone trooper is ball-jointed hips, then this is the figure for you, but if you want a figure that looks to scale on every part of his body, well, hasbro will need to make a few more adjustments before we call it perfect!