Captain Rex - SW [TPM 3D] - The Clone Wars (CW13)

During the Clone Wars, Captain Rex is Anakin Skywalker's second-in-command. The tough, free-thinking soldier commands the 501st Legion in many battles against the Droid Army. A seasoned fighter, Rex opens fire with his blaster, destroying one Battle Droid after another in the fight to save the Republic.

Boy oh boy. What is happening to our action figures Hasbro? With less than two dozen figures based on The Clone Wars television show each product year, it seems that the basic figure line should be knocking it out of the part. Instead, fabulous sculpts are being compromised due to their lack of articulation and it’s really putting a bad taste in collectors’ mouths. The loss of vision for The Clone Wars line couldn’t come at a worse time. The Movie Heroes line is taking over store shelves as Hasbro tries to repackage figures that date as far back as 1999 and sell them like they’re brand new in 2012, for an escalated cost no less. And now many of their all-new sculpts have less than ten points of articulation. We do want to make it clear that new figures like Captain Rex in his phase II armor appear brilliant at first sight. Hasbro has taken deco to new and very exciting levels. Since these figures can be considered hyper articulated statues at this point, we can assure you that they won’t look better in your collections as such. Extra paint operation details added to Captain Rex’s paint job is nothing short of incredible, so to receive a figure like this makes us feel equally impressed as we are saddened. They say everything changes at some point and it certainly appears that The Clone Wars line is changing for sure and not in the best interest of collectors. It may just be Hasbro’s way of preparing us to say goodbye to the line as we know it for good.

Captain Rex is essentially an all-new figure, save for the recycled upper arms and torso from 2012”s SW [TPM 3D] Clone Trooper (Phase II Armor) (CW2) figure. But what a shame it is that Hasbro didn’t use the rest of the figure to complete Captain Rex. What is so perplexing to us is that they have great tooling already, so why not make the most of it. The 2005 ROTS Clone Trooper (III 41) figure has been utilized more times than we care to count and it hasn’t lost collectors’ interest. The same would be true for the Clone Trooper (Phase II Amor) figure as well. What collector wouldn’t want a super-articulated phase II Captain Rex? It’s just maddening that Hasbro is making the cuts they are especially since it really doesn’t make that much sense. Whether they want to admit it or not, kids do prefer articulation. They are being raised in a collecting community that puts so much emphasis on why it’s so important for an action figure to be thoroughly articulated. We almost have to shake our heads in disbelief that Hasbro has decided to take this route for The Clone Wars line. As if less than 20 figures a year aren’t bad enough, now we have to juggle that disappointment with unfortunate shortcuts taken with the figures’ articulation. Maybe the cuts in articulation aren’t totally in vain, but updated deco really doesn’t replace super-articulation. We’re not claiming that Hasbro needs to give us 14 points, but for Captain Rex to come with no articulation in the legs except for his hips is beyond unacceptable.

We’ve talked about the updated deco, but we think it’s worth pointing out how impressive Captain Rex looks because of it. On his forearms, lower legs and helmet are various hash marks. These tally marks looks absolutely incredible and quite frankly it’s our favorite part of this new Captain Rex. This unary numeral system also makes Rex’s battle feel real world as well. The tininess of their size, yet the clarity of their application are beyond impressive and it adds an incredible amount of authenticity to his phase II appearance. We’re of the opinion that Rex’s phase II helmet is too wide. It still looks pretty fantastic, but we think Hasbro could have done a better job getting its proportions exact, especially since it isn’t removable or house his human clone head underneath of it. Rex comes with 2 DC-17 blaster pistols which fit very nice into his unarticulated wrists. You guess it. You have to move his ball-jointed elbows around to pose his aiming in various configurations. (Yes, we know – it’s very upsetting.) And lastly, Captain Rex also comes with a very old accessory, the missile firing cannon chain gun that we saw introduced into The Clone Wars line back in its infancy in 2008. There is a really awesome dirty wash that covers Captain Rex entirely below his helmet. But his helmet appears much cleaner by comparison. As far as how the figure looks, Captain Rex is amazing, but you’ll likely be unable to get past his lack of articulation. And that is sad.