Mace Windu/Galactic Marine - TAC - Order 66 (2 of 6)

Why is everything that is remotely related to Mace Windu purple? Samuel L. Jackson must be one special person because all he asked for was to carry a purple lightsaber and everything since then has become purple too. His clone battalion, his Jedi starfighter and even his astromech droid are one form of purple of another. Actually, we think it’s pretty cool. Consistency often lacks with characters of the Star Wars universe and Mace’s own purplish uniformity is a bit refreshing. His purple color flashed clone army was established first by Hasbro in the 2006 TSC Mace Windu’s Attack Battalion Battle Packs set released as a TARGET exclusive. Then the floodgates opened for more purple flavored related stuff to hit the marker like his starfighter and 2007’s TSC R4-M6 (Mace Windu’s Astromech Droid) (SAGA 074) figure. Interestingly, the 187th Legion was first established in Chapter 1 of Tartakovsky’s Clone Wars micro-series. In fact, the 187th Legion was seen in over a half dozen episodes and they were all wearing all-white armor. So the chance Hasbro took on coloring white clones in a purple color scheme was very risky. The good news is it worked. So Hasbro continues the trend in the Order 66 TARGET exclusive two-packs.

This time Hasbro presents collectors with the 187th Legion Galactic Marine. Although just like the standard 187th Legion Clone Trooper, the Galactic Marine can’t be sourced to any official Expanded Universe source as it’s a Hasbro concept. Thankfully that doesn’t make him any less cool of a Galactic Marine. While some collectors feel it’s a big stretch that every clone “type” appears in the same color flashes as the standard clone troopers, we think the extrapolation is quite curious and downright believable. Utilizing the same exact sculpt as 2007’s TAC Galactic Marine (30 02) figure, Hasbro has repainted the figure in purple and white to keep that color palette going for clones that serve under Master Windu. The design of the patterns in the color flashes is a tad askew on the figure, but we attribute that to rushed production more than anything else. In fact its design is so interesting that we bet you’ll probably never see a Galactic Marine this artful ever again. But once you situate him with the rest of the Clone Troopers and Clone Commander from the Mace Windu’s Attack Battalion Battle Packs set, you’ll see that he fits right in with them nicely.

The Mace Windu figure included in this two-pack doesn’t fair quite as well. Hasbro took 2005’s ROTS Mace Windu (III 10) figure and gave him an ill-fitted soft-goods outer robe. While the inclusion of soft-goods is always nice, it probably would have been best if Hasbro saved this extra material for a future better version of Mace Windu. Actaully, it doesn’t quite matter because Hasbro released a very good update to Mace Windu as 2007’s TAC Mace Windu (30 06) figure. So just give the soft-goods robe to that action figure instead. Together, this duo makes for some interesting interaction. Mace Windu has a built in action feature, so if you do execute Order 66, he has some defense to conquer the Galactic Marine that once defended him. Altogether, the Galactic Marine is the reason why you would purchase this set anyway. Getting new clones is always a driving force that Hasbro milks time and again when making exclusive products. This isn’t a knock at them of course. It’s rare to find a collector who doesn’t love and want every version of clone available. But with the Order 66 sets, Hasbro gives us six new reasons to go clone crazy. The Mace Windu/Galactic Marine set isn’t the most innovative. But interesting it is and it helps build up the 187th Legion for your collection.