BARC Speeder Bike With Clone Trooper Jesse - TCW [SOTDS] - Deluxe

Clone Trooper Jesse pilots a BARC speeder bike to track down General Grievous in the Saleucami wetlands. The one-man bikes are named for the Biker Advanced Recon Commandos who first used them. On the swift, maneuverable BARC speeders, Jesse and his team can cover a lot of ground as they search for the cyborg general.

It seems like there is a chronic, or at best, repeating pattern with Hasbro. With every step forward they make, they take two steps back. This may be too harsh of a criticism, but there is a point we're trying to make here, especially when it comes to the BARC Speeder With Clone Trooper Jesse Deluxe figure set. From the start, it’s been a very obscure to find at retail. It’s the sole new item in wave 4 of the Deluxe line and it appears that is isn't reaching every corner of retail like it should. So that’s the first negative. And second, well, Clone Trooper Jesse just didn’t come out the he should have. Hasbro certainly made strides to improve this clone trooper sculpt, but Jesse is a figure that has a lot of character on his "clone" face and not just the helmet. It is in The Clone Wars season 2 episode entitled The Deserter where Clone Trooper Jesse makes his debut appearance. And his most distinguishable trait was quite large. And that characteristic was a large facial tattoo of the Republic insignia that is on his helmet. The tattoo was HUGE. So what does Hasbro do? They decided to make this action figure without a removable helmet – the only real setback to this release.

Hasbro dug out 2011’s TCW [SOTDS] Clone Trooper Draa (CW35) figure and repainted it. As a bonus, they worked in ball-jointed hips so he can straddle his BARC Speeder without issue, but it’s a shame that we don’t have this figure with the option of a removable helmet. A precedent already has been set by Hasbro and exists in the form of 2010’s TCW [S2] Clone Commander Stone (CW44). So if a sculpt exists, why not take advantage of it here? This figure would have been ideal to repaint (or even slightly retool) to give us a definitive Clone Trooper Jesse. Based on the packaging, evidently Jesse has a major role in The Clone Wars television show. He was one of the more memorable clone troopers in the television series. That large tattoo that runs across most of his face is very hard to forget about which further makes the point that Hasbro should have definitely included a removable helmet for the figure that comes in this Deluxe set. Who knows? Perhaps Hasbro is already working on a figure with a removable helmet for the basic figure line. That would certainly be awesome, because aside from this glaring error, Clone Trooper Jesse is one cool action figure, but he would be ultimately cool if he donned a removable helmet.

We have stated before that the Deluxe line has been hit or miss over the years. How many times can Hasbro reissue the BARC Speeder? (Apparently a bazillion times.) But our point is that the line can get a little stale. But on a very positive note, Toy Fair 2011 has revealed some of the most exciting Deluxe sets Hasbro has yet to release and they’ll be coming our way sometime in 2011. Thankfully the line has progressed long enough for Hasbro to make these all-new sets (new vehicles too, not just repaints). As much as we think this was slightly risky on Hasbro’s part to produce the repaints for so long without getting a nice healthy portion of all-new sets, it seems like it’s all panning out. You’ve heard us exclaim also that getting good things later is better than never. And as long as they decide to keep reissuing a vehicle like a BARC Speeder, at least they are giving us new figures to accompany them. Clone Trooper Jesse fills this requirement and he admittedly rounds out this Deluxe set very nicely. The Deluxe line, while previously just filler fodder in the Hasbro toy line, is now piquing our interest at all new and high levels. We are truly looking forward to where this line is going.