Clone Trooper Jek - TCW [R] - Basic (CW38)

Clone Trooper Jek is part of a team that is ambushed by battle droids on Rugosa. He doesn't believe his small group can succeed against the heavily armed droids, but Yoda shows him that his mind is also a powerful weapon and can be used to out-think the droids.

Hasbro is still trying to play catch up with The Clone Wars series. Even after almost two years into the property Hasbro is still releasing character from the first season. Of course it would make sense that we will see "older" characters peppered throughout the current line because The Clone Wars series is as diverse as the films. And at a rate of four to five figures in a wave, it will obviously take some time to get all the great characters out to us in action figure form. Wookieepedia describes Jek as follows: "A loyal yet laconic clone trooper, Jek preferred to let his Z-6 rotary blaster do the talking. Jek used his weapons as an outlet, due to the quiet confines of Senate and diplomatic escort duty. In battle he used a variety of weaponry, including a Z-6 rotary blaster cannon, a blaster rifle, thermal detonators, grenade and a PLEX missile launcher. Yoda advised Jek that his most powerful weapon was his mind, and not the hardware that he lugged around, a lesson that struck a chord with the clone. Jek had a shaved head unlike many of his clone brothers. He appeared to be good friends with Rys." A rather bland description, the action figure complements his personality quite well.

Clone Trooper Jek isn't really a "new" figure. But then again, how many different sculpts do we really expect Hasbro to tool for The Clone Wars toy line? This figure actually first came to us in the Walmart exclusive Screen Scenes assortment, but Hasbro wanted to get him out as intended as a basic figure in the main line. Slight paint application differences exist between them but for all intents and purposes, they are basically the same figure. The figure comes carded to us with very clean armor. If you look at the stills from The Clone Wars episode, you will see that he should be wrought with quite a bit of dirt. This si nothing new with our The Clone Wars figures and we have unfortunately become accustomed to the very clean paint operations. This works against Jek because he then looks like a plain clone trooper. And not that having another plain clone trooper is a bad thing, he should stand out a bit more since he has a specific name. Instead, he looks like any other clone trooper with red color flash markings. Jek looks great amongst the other "red" styled clone troopers, but we don't think there is anything particularly intriguing about him.

Showing up in the very first episode of The Clone Wars television show, Clone Trooper Jek should have been more memorable. But to be honest, we didn't even pay attention to him until he was first released in the Walmart exclusive two-pack first and then later as this basic figure. But that's how many charcaters become special to Star Wars collectors. Their personalities often resonate via the collectibles made of them. Clearly a figure that is intended to help pad case assortments, Jek is ultimately more of an obligatory purchase than a necessary one. He's part of the Coruscant Guard which is made up of clones that are popular with fans of the show already. It will be interesting to see how his role is developed in the television show. Will he remain working alongside Yoda? Will he play a pivotal role in the Clone Wars? Clone Trooper Jek may not seem too exciting of an action figure gauged by our comments. But it is a pretty cool action figure. We're just not so sure why Hasbro would release him so closely to the release of the Screen Scenes set. It is something that just perplexes us. If we had one complaint, we would have wished that Hasbro gave the figure a little more dirt on the armor.