Defend Kamino - TCW [SOTDS] - Battle Packs

ARC troopers and clone troopers from the 501st Legion defend Kamino from a Separatist attack. The elite troopers fight battle droids that swarm the cloning facility. They arm themselves with blaster pistols and rifles to take on the invading army.

A really cool battle sequence in season 3 of The Clone Wars was the defense of Kamino as seen in the popular ARC Troopers episode which also introduced two early versions of characters we have already seen in the show previously. It also introduced a whole gamut of new ARC Trooper characters which quickly became favorites of fans. Thankfully for us, Hasbro is making them a reality in the basic figure line. Interestingly, the ARC Troopers episode serves as a sequel to the season 1 episode Rookies. The jumping around of Star Wars stories certainly isn’t anything new, but as a story that’s relatively hard to sequence to begin with, it certainly confuses those not completely invested in The Clone Wars franchise. Hasbro introduces these familiar characters (namely Echo and Fives) in new outfits and an all-new ARC Trooper in a revised Battle Packs format. The now three-figure sets (whose origins had five) introduce more than you may realize. It’s hard to determine what is exactly in place of a fourth and fifth figure here - we all want more action figures rather than not have them, but the figure selections are in general quite wonderful and the paint jobs are outstanding. And Hasbro is keeping the MSRP at bay with a somewhat fair $19.99 sticker price. $6.67 per figure is not the end of the world. (But we hope this isn’t some introductory price and they creep back up to $24.99. That is kind of notorious in the Hasbro Star Wars line.) Change is in the air for The Clone Wars line and the change is bringing a comforting breeze of fresh air. As a line look switch is imminent in 2012, Hasbro is tweaking their already established formats of some of their most popular product lines and sub-lines. As eccentric fans we’re certainly not imperturbable, so thankfully they’re doing it with aplomb and respect. Trust us, this change could have been a whole lot worse.

Back to the Battle Packs set. The newly revised packaging is simply awesome. The sets are very compact and avoid wasting shelf space. (You should read that as more varied products and more room on the shelf at any given time - if and only if it actually makes its way to retail!) For the 2011 summer re-launch of The Clone Wars line, Hasbro managed to crank out five new Battle Packs sets complete with enough newness in each to make fans smile. The Defend Kamino set will definitely be the hot one in the group. In addition to another super cool ARC Commander (ARC Commander Blitz), collectors are treated to “501st inductee” version of Fives and Echo (who are each repaints of their original releases – give or take). Interestingly, they are incorrectly identified on the packaging and are reversed. As a set, three new clone troopers for under twenty dollars is more than palatable for many collectors and since none of these figures have been issued beforehand, it will likely remain a brisk seller for Hasbro. And why should Hasbro reinvent the wheel when they already have great super-articulated clone trooper sculpts they can already use? It saves them money so tooling can be spent on all-new sculpts. And Hasbro would be wise to keep this particular set carried forward to meet demand. (The ARC Troopers Battle Packs set is a perfect example of one that just didn’t meet fan quota. There are many other examples too.) The Defend Kamino Battle Packs set contains these three awesome action figures as well as the obligatory Galactic Battle Game cards, three action figure stands and a die. It appears this game will be continuing until this line look ends. (But most of the older collectors could care less about the Galactic Battle Game.) It’s all about the action figures and this Battle Packs set provides so much goodness at once we bet you’ll find it very hard to complain about it.

ARC Commander Blitz is an action figure that captivates your eyes. Painted in a striking yellow and black (and gray) color scheme, he will absolutely stand out from amongst the rest of your clones. His kama is quite interesting and is white with a black diamond pattern. At first glance you might think his boxer shorts are showing, but it is nonetheless a cool look for him. A rework of 2011's TCW [SOTDS] Clone Commander Colt (CW52) with new parts, you know this is a great action figure. The paint job is nearly flawless and it seems that Hasbro has really fine tuned the paint operations on figures in the 3.75” The Clone Wars line. You’ll be hard pressed to find mistakes in the paint jobs on these figures and that is quite a testament to just how right Hasbro Hasbro has their factories in order. Clone Trooper Echo and Clone Trooper Fives look very similar. Echo has a tribute insignia which in Aurebesh reads "FOR HEVY" on his right shoulder and Fives has this same one on his left thigh. They are both super-articulated and come with the standard DC-15 blaster. One point of interest is that a second DC-15 blaster comes packed with both of them. Whether the figures are meant to hold two blasters in their hands or not is not really known, but you have a back-up should one get lost in the shuffle of your own collection. Or perhaps it's just Blitz's alternative weapons. Defend Kamino is a sign that great things are to come in the Battle Packs line.Hasbro has been forthright that all Battle Packs set going forwrad will contain either all-new, retooled or repainted figures, or all straight repacks. That certainyl makes things easier for the loose collector. But the packaged collector may have a bit more anxiety now. Also, more good news exists because no old Battle Packs will get repackaged in this format because they now come with one less figure. It’s “all-new” from here on out baby!