Republic Elite Forces (Mandalorians & Clone Troopers) - TAC - Exclusive

Our review on the Republic Elite Forces (Mandalorians & Clone Troopers) Entertainment Earth exclusive multipack set may create some hate mail (or love mail depending if you dislike these sets too), but we won’t hide our true feelings about this set. Never has there been a worse exclusive in our opinion released to the collecting community than an assorted mix of Skittles-colored Boba Fett-esque action figures and mandalorian specific clone and ARC troopers. And to be honest, we’re not sure which is worse, the actual Mandalorians or the included Clone Troopers with the huge Jaing skull symbol on their chests. (It looks just as ridiculous in this write as it does on the clone troopers.) Interestingly, the included figures may have been a lot more welcomed by us had they been sporadically included in various exclusives (or even the basic figure line) here and there. But the overwhelming multipacks (there are two of these believe it or not people) really turned off hardcore collectors in ways that words just probably cannot explain. The set served more as an ego stroke to various Hasbro employees than anything else. Many of the crazy and almost unpronounceable names are anagrams of various Hasbro employees. And there really aren’t any palatable background stories that are even remotely interesting in the Expanded Universe. Can you tell we despise these exclusive multipacks? Well, we do.

With all of the wonderful background lore on the Mandalorians, it’s mindboggling that Hasbro would decide to create their own unique take on characters that didn’t exist until now. We suppose that if you’re Boba Fett obsessed that you will certainly enjoy some of the figures these sets offer, but it just isn’t our cup of tea and we haven’t met too many other collectors who have embraced them positively either. The Republic Elite Forces (Mandalorians & Clone Troopers) set may be the more inferior of the two. (The only saving grace of the other set is a “shadow� interpretation of the Delta Squad – but called Omega Squad in that set.) The three unique Mandalorians in this set include Mij Gilamar, Dred Priest, and Isabet Reau. Isabet Reau is the only all new sculpt in this multipack and the good news is that she is super-articulated. But unless you want Boba Fett with boobs, she isn’t anything special. Dred Priest has a Boba Fett quality about him but that's because he is made from 2004's VOTC Boba Fett. All the included Mandalorians have all-new head sculpts which have been said to be sculpted after various Hasbro employees. They’re colorful and they’re bright, but cool? No, we can’t say they’re cool. They all have 12 or more points of articulation and there is a healthy mix of swivel and ball-jointed articulation which gives them overall pretty good flexibility.

Perhaps the best figures in this set are the “shadow� ARC Troopers. There isn’t any reference on the packaging of them being “shadow� troopers, but let’s be honest, any clone trooper in all black is sort of neat, right? They are the exact same mold as the ARC Trooper figure that came in 2007’s TAC Obi-Wan Kenobi/ARC Trooper Comic Packs set. These are excellently sculpted action figures of course, super-articulated, and come with nicely fitting removable helmets. The two ARC Troopers are unique to each other because they each have different symbols (painted in silver) on their respective helmets. The Entertainment Earth sets sat for a long time before quickly disappearing out of the blue for some reason. Perhaps there was sudden interest in the sets and they sold out, but we remember seeing them at various Comic Book shows for about half price. And the set you see in our photo gallery were obtained online for pennies on the dollar at StarWarsShop.com. At many Star Wars fan site “year in review� focus session, hosts ripped this set apart and we couldn’t agree more with them. To produce an unwanted and unnecessary set like this instead of another astromech multipack or Ewok multipack or even Rebel or Imperial pilot set is just egregious. We hope something this deep in the Expanded Universe isn’t up for consideration for another exclusive again. There are too many movie-specific characters that need to be made. (Editor's Note: Despite our harsh review, these sets command an unbelievable premium on eBay!)