First Look! Sideshow 12" Republic Clone Trooper (Utapau)

    Sideshow Collectibles has just shipped out their first Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith Militaries Of Star Wars figure and we can barely contain ourselves and our excitement! The Republic Clone Trooper (212th Attack Battalion: Utapau) is an absolute masterpiece and we are hard pressed to find any complaints, except that we wish we could get our hands on more for army building! Click through for our first impressions and cool photos! Sideshow is guaranteed to give Medicom a run for their money after this one!

Republic Clone Trooper (212th Attack Battalion: Utapau)

Review by: Paul Harrison
Photography by: Chuck Paskovics

We finally have our first 12" Utapau Clone Trooper! And this brings us a lot of joy since they played such a prominent role in the final prequel film. Sideshow continues to impress us with their attention to details and their ability to capture such authenticity and "clone like" exactness from a two dimensional film into a three dimensional collectible. We are so impressed with this figure, we are overwhelmed on where to begin raving about it! First and foremost, the weathering, yellowing, and battle-damage on this figure is nothing short of stunning. It looks as if it has been pulled right out of the film from battle and into your hands. Every speck of carbon-scoring is perfectly placed and every piece of armor looks as if it has seen quite a few battles and yet aged gracefully.

The body glove is detailed very nicely, and the only complaint here is that it looks a tad bit bulky in some spots, but this can be quickly overlooked and does not detract from the overall quality of the figure. The orange "Utapau" marking designation is colored perfectly and the trooper's shoes have a wash which show every crease and crevice. There have been some very early concerns with collectors on how the helmet would turn out, since there were some obvious issues with the prototype. The only thing we can nitpick is the visor, but even that can be debated. We researched this trooper on Wookieepedia and have determined that the final version of it is nearly identical to the film version. So we offer kudos to Sideshow for nailing this. This mold will be an excellent template for the rest of the clones no doubt coming soon to our collections!

The Sideshow exclusive is the 212th Attack Battalion specific figure stand. We are not too keen on this exclusive, but we do not know how others feel about it. It seems that something better could have been included, but we come up empty with what that exactly should be.  Both the regular and exclusive versions are sold out but you can get on the Wait List. With a limited combined run of only 4000 pieces, do not expect this piece to stay for a while. This figure retails for $89.99. We expect to see the rest of the Episode III clone troopers announced before the end of the year.  Start saving your pennies now!