501st Legion Trooper [Version 2] - TAC - Saga Legends

These clone troopers accompany Darth Vader on a mission to destroy the Jedi. Vader and his highly trained tactical ops troopers storm the Jedi Temple and show no mercy to whomever may cross their path.

The 30 (77-07) Saga Legends line was so much more than a "greatest hits" assortment of figures. It actually gave us quite a few "new" figures and updates to ones we received previously a long time ago in a Star Wars collection far, far away. It also reissued some of the hardest to find figures as well. One of the most eagerly anticipated figures was the super-articulated 501st Legion Trooper. But he didn't get into the line easily. Actually, he was first shown during Comic Con 2005 utilizing the hyper popular 2005 ROTS Clone Trooper (III 41) mold with a beautiful and very accurate paint job. (Click HERE to see this original image.) While most collectors were drooling over this figure anticipating its release, our excitement quickly waned when we discovered that Hasbro utilized the 2005 ROTS AT-TE Tank Gunner (III 38) body sculpt instead and have given the 501st Legion Trooper a very crazy name. Even despite this setback, most of us remained steadfast and clamored for the eventual release of the super-articulated version to Hasbro. We definitely all wanted the figure as originally shown. We thought our waiting had ended with the announcement of the Saga Legends line in 2007. Hasbro set they would revisit the 501st Legion Trooper as a super-articulated figure. But we were once again disappointed when Hasbro rereleased the 2005 ROTS Tactical Ops Trooper (III 65) (Vader's Legion) again! But Hasbro heard our frustration and made good on their original promise and released the best version of the 501st Legion Trooper to date. But the figure is not without flaws.

Since all of you know how awesome the ROTS Clone Trooper (III 41) figure is, the same awesomeness applies to this figure. That isn't where the figure has issues. Hasbro has done a pretty good job, but there are two glaring errors with the current paint operations. One, the blue stripe that goes up the nose to the top of the helmet doesn't fan out as seen in the movie stills. And the double blue striped going up and down both legs in is a lighter blue that just doesn't match the rest of the blue on the armor. These distractions definitely detract from the figure's authenticity and we hope that it will one day be corrected. (Editor's Note: Hasbro has released this figure twice since its debut in the TAC line and still have not corrected these errors.) But the figure scores high marks everywhere else. There are flecks of carbon-scoring throughout the figure's armor and the color flashes elsewhere on the frame are brilliantly painted. It may be hard to believe, but we didn't get a super-articulated 501st Legion Trooper until this TAC Saga Legends release (which came out in 2008). Did we really wait three years to get this essential clone trooper action figure? It's not like we were without any 501st Legion Troopers action figures though. Hasbro issued a few over the years. The very first one was three were released in the 2005 ROTS Jedi Temple Assault Battle Packs set which was a Kmart exclusive. The figures were great for the time but since they utilized the 2005 ROTS Clone Trooper (III 6) figure, they all had terrible action features.

This version of the 501st Legion Trooper is a long overdue figure in the line but will clearly remain a key candidate for release in whatever Saga Legends or "greatest hits" line Hasbro chooses to continue with to keep their gems at retail as frequently as possible. A corrected paint application would be sublime. Note: If you take the head from the 2006 TSC Commander Appo (SAGA 064) figure and place it on this figure, you will almost have a perfect 501st Legion Trooper if you are OK with the different color leg stripes. "Why don't you just use the Commander Appo body in full" you ask? Well, you technically can, but Appo's chest stripe doesn't go all the way up his chest and there s a white space in between where the color stops and the head begins. The flaws we have pointed out are easy to overlook and no matter what we pick at we will be the first ones to admit what an awesome figure this is and that we have bought an armies worth for our collections. Rather than just fix the paint application, we would love to see the 501st Legion Trooper revisited using a retooled and repainted version of the 2008 TAC Commander Gree (08 03) figure. That figure has incredible ball-jointed hips and we think that clone troopers serve collectors best by having this type of hip articulation. While we wait and see if this ever happens, we know that the 501st is a fan favorite flavor of clone trooper and we will continue to pass on our comments to Hasbro that we need an enhanced version of the action figure before we can call it "definitive". (Special thanks to Dan Curto for his unwaivering efforts and prodding to Hasbro that helped ensure that this figure saw the light of day for collectors.)