The Attack Of The Clones Clone Trooper Figure Has Some Real Perks!

The Good: Cool accessory, Decent figure coloring, Great idea, Relatively inexpensive
The Bad: Poor balance on its own
The Basics: The Clone Trooper is a cool figure that is a must-buy for fans of the expanded Star Wars Saga.


When Attack Of The Clones premiered, one of the fundamental merchandising bits that was introduced in the process was the Clone Troopers. The Clone Troopers became a gamechanging character type that have now appeared in more hours of the Star Wars Saga (thanks to the animated Clone Wars) than even the Stormtroopers. And as far as merchandising goes, Hasbro actually got something very right right off the bat with the creation of the Clone Trooper action figure. Technically the second Clone Trooper figure (the first being the Sneak Preview version of the character on the green card), the Attack Of The Clones Clone Trooper holds up even today!

For those unfamiliar with the Clone Trooper, these were the armored soldiers of the Republic that went to war in Attack Of The Clones (reviewed here!). The forerunners to the Star Wars Stormtroopers, the Clone Troopers are generic soldiers of the Republic the do battle to prevent the Jedi from having to do all the fighting.

The 4" Clone Trooper figure is a pretty impressive action figure, even by today's standards, given that it comes with a tripod cannon!

Basics

The Clone Trooper is a good support figure for anyone's Star Wars action figure collection as it is a generic Republic toy. While there have been a slew of Luke Skywalker, Han Solo and even Chewbacca figures, it is hard to play with more than one at a time without some serious suspension of disbelief. The figure stands 3 13/16" tall to the top of his helmet. This is a decent replica of the Clone Trooper and it is pretty incredible for a representation of a virtual character. This Clone Trooper has red paint on the armor that indicates which division it is a part of. Outside that, this is a completely clean white, black and red figure.

This toy is an awesome sculpt, looking precisely like the Republic Clone Trooper. The Clone Trooper is good in its coloring detail, but is very basic in its sculpting. This figure is made to look assembled and it succeeds with that. The figure’s belt includes molded details, presumably for ammo, and the back of the figure actually looks remarkable, too. The back of the helmet has what looks like a port and that level of detailing is very cool!

Accessories

The Clone Trooper is mostly bought for its cool accessory, the Firing Tripod Cannon, though it also comes with a blaster rifle and chunk of ground. The 2 3/4” tall and 3 1/4" long cannon has three legs which make for a weapon with a 2 1/4" wide footprint. The gun has two grips for the figure’s hand. The Clone Troopers hands are molded to grab both handles on the cannon and when it stands behind the cannon it looks great and seems like it is ready to take aim. While the cannon is amazingly detailed for the molded details, it is monotonally colored in all black plastic, so it is not as impressive as the actual figure is in that regard.

The Attack Of The Clones Clone Trooper has a 2 3/8” long black speckled blaster rifle that fits in either of the figure’s hands. The butt of the gun is similarly speckled over the brown highlights Hasbro put on it. The gun looks good held in both hands and this rifle is a big honkin’ gun that has great molded detailing.

The Clone Trooper also comes with a 1” by 3/4" brown chunk of rock with a peg to be plugged into the hole in either of the Clone Trooper’s feet. This accessory allows the Clone Trooper to stand up better.

Playability

The four inch toy line was designed for play and Clone Trooper is very good in that regard. The figure is well articulated, though it has poor balance, especially compared to the subsequent incarnations of the figure. When detached from the heavy blaster, it may still be stood up, but it really is ideal with the piece of the ground that comes with the figure. With the holes in the figure’s feet, it may be posed in outlandish positions, especially on other playsets or vehicles.

This Clone Trooper has twelve points of articulation, with swivel joints at the groin socket, shoulders, elbows, wrists, head and waist. The knee articulation comes from hinged ball and socket joints.

What increases the figure's playability even more, is the launching missile. The Clone Trooper has a 3 1/4" missile which is pressed into the cannon and is launched by the touch of a button. The missile launches about 3' away and even after a decade of play this still works as well as it ever did!

Collectibility

The Clone Trooper is part of the Attack Of The Clones four-inch series, a series of Star Wars action figures that was exceptionally common. This was a pegwarmer at the time, but only because it was massively overproduced. It remains one of the least expensive figures to find from Attack Of The Clones

The Clone Trooper is Attack Of The Clones figure number 17.

Overview

The Clone Trooper may be slightly off balance, but the cannon it comes with more than makes up for its few deficiencies!

For other 2002 Star Wars: Attack Of The Clones action figures, please check out my reviews of:
#01 Acklay Battle Obi-Wan Kenobi
#02 Arena Escape Padme Amidala
#04 C-3PO
#05 Kit Fisto
#10 Shaak Ti
#13 Kamino Escape Jango Fett
#15 Geonosian Warrior
#18 Zam Wesell Bounty Hunter
#19 Royal Guard Coruscant Security
#23 Yoda
#26 Luminara Unduli
#27 Count Dooku
#35 Orn Free Taa
#38 Obi-Wan Kenobi Jedi Starfighter Pilot
#39 Supreme Chancellor Palpatine
#40 Djas Puhr Bounty Hunter
#41 Coruscant Attack Padme Amidala
#48 Destroyer Droid

8.5/10

For other toy reviews, please click here to visit my index page!

© 2012 W.L. Swarts. May not be reprinted without permission.

| | |