Clone Commander Doom - TBS [P2] - Basic (#13)

Serving under Jedi Masters Tiplee and Tiplar, this clone trooper commander leads his unit in an attack against Separatist forces in the Battle of Ringo Vinda.

At Toy Fair 2014, Hasbro tried to be very sly and tease an instantaneously appearing and disappearing image of new clones that would be part of The Black Series line. These clones were created to commemorate the sixth season now rolled up into The Lost Missions collection of episodes since the television series was canceled. Due to his brightly colored ensemble, Clone Commander Doom stuck out like a sore thumb on the presentation slide and was easily identifiable just a short while later. The anticipation for this clone was strong. Collectors began immediately calling comparisons to Doctor Doom because, well, that is the character from which he was inspired. Initial production samples shown at various media events showed us that this was one figure that was going to be awesome, but then those darn eBay samples started showing up and began panicking everyone. We’re happy to report that Clone Commander Doom doesn’t look half as bad as what we thought he was going to look like. There is of course room for improvement, but this may be a figure that scratches you where you itch because Clone Commander Doom is well-sculpted, well-painted and overall a good action figure. We wouldn’t describe him as excellent really, but he definitely warrants merit. With better-than-you-probably-expected articulation and a good sculpt, Clone Commander Doom shows that enhanced super-articulation is still possible and is a requirement for the collector line.

Clone Commander Doom is technically a retool of 2015’s TBS [P2] Captain Rex (#09) figure. This time Hasbro has tooled an all-new torso and head sculpt to give Clone Commander Doom his very unique appearance. The figure comes with an impressive 24 points of articulation, most of the being ball-jointed articulation, and to our surprise he has been give ball-jointed wrists which is an enhanced point of articulation we were sure died along with the dinosaurs and the 2011 TVC Clone Trooper (VC45) action figure. Clone Commander Doom does however come with a plastic molded kama. As you know, movement in the hips and legs is indeed possible, but the full range of movement is inhibited thanks to the “blocking” a molded kama creates. Still, it is possible to move the legs forward out from the kama and you can attain some great action poses with this figure. The head sculpt is just alright we suppose. Hasbro has “forced” a great amount of detail into a tiny spot. As a result, you feel like Clone Commander Doom is missing something in the helmet area, or at the very least you feel like the features have been muddled somewhat. Still, if we’re being honest, we’d have to compliment Hasbro on the final product because what they did here works pretty well. (We’re specifically talking about the sculpt here.) The new torso is also nice. Hasbro has etched in a colorful ranking badge and it really looks fantastic. And for the most part, the figure has nice and clean paint operations. But one feature in the deco is sorely missing here.

Clone Commander Doom absolutely needs a dirty final wash. It’s characteristic of his clone armor and the dirt helps to diminish the overly colorful clone trooper. It seems a bit odd that Hasbro has spent time studying the patterns and colors of Clone Commander Doom but then not finish them off with the way he was represented in The Clone Wars. Sure, customizers will have no problems adding this last final detail to Clone Commander Doom, but why should we have to do such things? Other than this missing detail, we think Clone Commander Doom is an admirable effort. Clone Commander Doom comes with two DC-17 blaster pistols which fit perfectly into the functioning holsters hanging from his belt. They fit nicely into his hands and stay in place when you pose the figure. The more we played with the figure the more pleased we became with how the final figure turned out. Clone Commander Doom is sure to interest collectors of all ages. There are still a huge number of fans in love with The Clone Wars. With characters from this source being made across all formats, it’s finally nice to see some produced with super-articulation. Commander Doom may not resonate with everyone looking for an action figure that matches the onscreen character part for part, but this figure turned out much better than we had expected. In fact, we even remember the prototype sporting the torso from the 2013 SW [DV/ROTS] Captain Rex (SL10) Saga Legends figure. Thankfully Hasbro went another route. Clone Commander Doom should impress you.