AT-AP (All Terrain Attack Pod) - TCW [SOTDS] - Vehicles

Designed as mobile battlefield armor, the All Terrain Attack Pod is an essential walker for the clone troopers. The center leg gives the AT-AP additional stability for crossing rough terrain, as the clone troopers who operate it blast the enemy with the vehicle's projectile launcher and cannons. AT-AP walkers were used on Ryloth in the battle to liberate the Twi'lek people from the Separatists.

You know, sometimes some vehicles in the mid size assortment are so close to being perfect yet they lack in one area or another that nearly frustrates you to the point of becoming dissatisfied with the entire vehicle. This may sound a little too dramatic for the casual collector, but the AT-AP (All Terrain Attack Pod) is so good in most ways but lacks in one annoying way (you may find other things to complain about too). And what bothers us most about this vehicle is the lack of articulation in the third leg. If you’re really patient, you can get the vehicle to stand on all three legs, but it’s tasking on the nerves. It “almost” lies perfectly flat on whatever surface you place it, but it always seems so slightly off that it drives us mad. Plus, we feel that this appendage should have had more articulation. Since the purpose of the third leg if for extra stability on rough terrain, it should be able to be placed in a variety of configurations. This unfortunately is not the case at all. Even the more articulated outer legs don’t have all the necessary articulation either. What makes it frustrating is that the vehicle appears to have many more joints than it does. This is all thanks to clever sculpting. Where you think there is a joint is really not and you become disappointed that you've been fooled.

The details of the “green” version of the AT-AP are quite impressive. A rework of the original 2008 TAC AT-AP Walker vehicle, it was first released in the 2008 TCW line with the same exact paint job. Now Hasbro decided to reissue this cool vehicle with a new paint job that never appeared in any The Clone Wars episodes. The text on the package claims this vehicle can be seen somewhere on Ryloth. We looked and unless we missed it, Hasbro hasn't expressed the whole truth. The good news is that this vehicle does impress. The details in the paint job are very good. The vehicle has multiple turrets and the upper one where an action figure can sit fires a large projectile. The side doors flip up to reveal to spots where two more figures can “lie”. Reminiscent of some of the best mini rigs of the vintage era, we love how two army-builders can hide inside of it. The technically useless third leg can tuck underneath the body and you may have the best results with this vehicle in this position. It doesn’t get ion the way and you can increase the height of the vehicle by extending the left and right legs. Unfortunately, this is about all the walker can do with its legs. Forget about the flexibility that you have with your AT-ST (All Terrain Scout Transport) and forget about an infinite array of articulation because this vehicle doesn’t have it at all. To its credit, it looks great and appears to offer a lot more than it does. It would be great if Hasbro did a slight retool somewhere down the road.

Back to its paint job, we bet you’ll really like what you see. You find green color blocks in various geometric shapes, Aurebesh and the Grand Army of the Republic symbols strewn about the vehicle. And the green color works nice against the steel gray backdrop of the shell of the vehicle. We find it odd that Hasbro is consistently releasing and rereleasing vehicles that never have appeared in The Clone Wars television series. While vehicles like the AT-AP seamlessly blend in with the look of the overall line, it really pokes holes in their argument that they only want to produce vehicle that have an important role in the film. Perhaps the AT-AP (All Terrain Attack Pod) wins because it’s definitely an aggressive vehicle, but we think Hasbro should be focusing on aggressive vehicles that actually appear in the series. Heck, even Asajj Ventress’ vehicle is aggressive and has at least appeared in the television show. We find their arguments inconsistent sometimes when it comes to mid size vehicle. Obviously, this is a cost-effective vehicle to produce so we really can’t fault them. But we hope that they themselves get a little more aggressive and create some all-new cool vehicles that may have a slight risk. We’ll buy them Hasbro! Don’t you worry about a thing, OK?