Emperor Palpatine/Commander Thire - TAC - Order 66 (1 of 6)

When collectors started seeing early samples of the Order 66 sets leak via photos on Star Wars fan sites, many of us didn’t know how to react. We probably expected these two-packs to be screen accurate representations of characters that actually appeared in Revenge Of The Sith. But that wasn’t the case at all. All were Expanded Universe interpretations of Order 66 with many directly born out of Hasbro’s own ideas. No matter your outlook on the approach taken with these TARGET exclusives, it was hard to criticize them because they ended up becoming great army-builder enhancements for collectors and many were faithful to the various battalions already established in Episode III, even if they were just “off screen” enough to be missed. Six individual sets make up of the Order 66 collection and they were only found at TARGET. TARGET has been the purveyor of really good Star Wars exclusives, so it’s no surprise that they jumped on these sets immediately. Some of the figures chosen for the sets are a little bit disappointing, but overall it’s hard to get upset about an all-new clone and a “filler” figure for less than ten dollars, especially since one basic figure is upwards of eight dollars by itself.

The Emperor Palpatine/Commander Thire duo is one of the better Order 66 sets of the six produced. Obviously the star of this two-pack is Commander Thire who isn’t screen accurate to his appearance in Revenge Of The Sith, but very accurate however to his appearance in the Star Wars: Battlefront video game. He’s a very blatant repaint of the Clone Trooper (Fall Of The Republic) figure from 2005’s ROTS Clone Trooper To Stormtrooper Evolutions sets done up in the color flashes of a Shock Trooper (which is part of the Coruscant Guard in case you didn't know). Think Shock Trooper meet clone commander and there you’ll find Commander Thire. The super-articulated figure is decorated very nicely and comes with plenty of accessories to help him execute Order 66. The red color is spot on and he looks great next to your many, many Shock Trooper action figures Hasbro has released non-stop since 2005 (no matter what sculpt was used). Again, although Commander Thire is in Revenge Of The Sith, this particular getup is specific to the Star Wars: Battlefront video game. Gamers should count themselves fortunate to get this specific look of Thire for their collections. He really does look fantastic.

Emperor Palpatine on the other hand is quite a letdown. Based on the action feature laden 2005 ROTS Palpatine (III 35) sculpt, Hasbro tried to doctor him up with a soft-goods cloak, but it doesn’t do much at all to save the figure from staying a total debacle. The figure is slightly repainted, not enough to notice without a side by side comparison, but even that can’t help a sculpt that has already gone done as one of Hasbro’s worst ever. There is some saving grace however. When together, Emperor Palpatine does seem to complement Commander Thire. And you can position Emperor Palpatine in ways where the outer cloak covers up the bad silhouette of the sculpt to allow for a slightly more accurate look. This version of Emperor Palpatine needs an all-new sculpt from the ground up anyway, so it’s not like you should expect to see this action figure get released anymore. At least we hope not. Truly, the reason to invest in the Order 66 sets is purely for the unique clones that accompany the Jedi and Sith. So if you’re looking for more than one reason to purchase them you’re probably going to be disappointed. We can attest to the fact that Commander Thire is worthy of your ten dollars here. It’s a great figure and he’s the perfect leader for your Shock Trooper army.