Review – Star Wars Republic Clone Trooper 212th Attack Battalion: Utapau

“Denoted by the orange flashes on their armor, the 212th Attack Battalion operated under the orders of Clone Marshal Commander Cody and High Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi. General Kenobi led the 212th Attack Battalion to the Utapau system, storming the stronghold of Pau City in the hunt for General Grievous.”
— from the box

It’s always a good day when toys are waiting for me after I get home from work, but I’m not sure if I’ve ever popped a package open quite as fast as I did when I saw that the 212th Attack Battalion: Utapau Clone Trooper was at my doorstep. The plain, brown, and very dull Sideshow Collectibles box instantly caught my eye as I walked up to the door and it didn’t take me more than five minutes to have the box open and the Clone Trooper released from the box.

Packaging

This is a massive box, but then it would have to be to carry a 12-inch scale clone trooper. Fantastic graphics, using the same design as the other boxes for the Militaries of Star Wars action figure series, the box features several photos of the toy, stills from Revenge of the Sith, and — once you swing open the magnetically-sealed cover — back story on the 212th Attack Battalion.

The figure itself is held inside a clear plastic shell with everything fitting neatly into custom-shaped compartments. And the window is perfect for those of you who want to keep the figure inside its box. But that’s not me. If you’ve been following battlegrip.com then you know that I open these up and play with them; so let’s toss the box aside and take a look at the figure.

An Amazing Toy

The first thing that hit me as I pulled the Clone Trooper out of the packaging was how solid he felt. Unlike some other high-priced toys I’ve picked up recently, this guy actually feels playable and isn’t merely an art object that’s meant to be set on a shelf and then never touched. Within about thirty minutes of owning him I had the Clone Trooper out in the yard, posing him for photos and not worrying at all whenever he fell over and landed on the rocks. Time and again he toppled over as I tried to balance him in ridiculous positions, and every single time he held together beautifully.

Sculpting

You know, a lot of Hasbro’s newer 3.75-inch stormtroopers — like the Saleucami Trooper that I reviewed a few months ago — are pretty damned cool, but they’re nothing compared to how great this Clone Trooper looks. The sculpt looks perfect to me, with every piece of armor carefully crafted and bringing across the design so nicely that I can’t find a flaw, but I guess that those even pickier than me aren’t 100% satisfied with the appearance of the toy. In his recent review, Michael Crawford writes:

“When the prototype first hit the web, there were lots of complaints about the shape of the helmet. It looks to me like the helmet got tweaked along the way, and I think it looks quite good now.

It’s still a little off, particularly if you compare directly against a still. But without that exact comparison, you’ll be hard pressed to notice any issues.”

If this is off, then I guess I’ll just sit back and be happy with an “off” sculpt. Like I said, I think he looks great.

Accessories

The Clone Trooper comes with two extra hands, a stand, and two weapons — a BlasTech DC-15S Blaster with folding stock and a BlasTech DC-15A Blaster Rifle. The extra hands are nice — you can pose the Clone Trooper using fists or hands that grasp his weapons — but for me it’s the two weapons that really make him a great toy. In these photos you can see shots of the Clone Trooper with the rifle or the blaster, and no matter which weapon he’s carrying he’s cool. Of the two weapons I’m going to have to choose the rifle as my favorite piece; it’s extremely long and looks great when it’s slung over his shoulder (like in one of the photos above).

The photo above shows the Utapau Clone Trooper holding the blaster with the stock folded forward. It’s a tiny detail, but the folding stock really shows the amount of work Sideshow puts into their toys; and the fact that the piece isn’t super brittle makes me very happy, since I can open and close the stock and not have to worry about breaking it each time that I play with it.

Painting

While the stock, generic stormtrooper doesn’t need much in the way of paint, it was really nice when Revenge of the Sith showed us several different clone troopers in different armors and with different coloring schemes, and Sideshow made a great choice when they decided to give us the Utapau design.

And taking it one step beyond the orange details of the armor, Sideshow put the effort into giving us a scuffed, battle-damaged Clone Trooper with dirty boots, scorch marks on the armor, and what looks like grime spread across different sections of the legs and arms.

Did I Mention that He’s Amazing?

So what makes me love this guy so much? Beyond the fact that he’s a stormtrooper (hey, I’ve done a good job of holding off on spending too much time here at battlegrip.com talking about how cool stormtroopers are), this Clone Trooper has excellent articulation, durable construction, fun accessories, and well-sculpted armor. I’m gonna have to resist the urge to grab every single stormtrooper/clone trooper that Sideshow releases, but only because the cost is so high. Not too high for the quality of the piece, though, but too high for me to buy any other toys if I sink all of my money into these 12-inch beauties.

Closing Thoughts

If you absolutely love stormtroopers — and have the money in your budget — you’ve gotta get your hands on one of these. Not the Sideshow Exclusive that I’ve got, though, because the “exclusive” component — the stand — is kinda lame. But if you can find a basic 212th Attack Battalion Clone Trooper then snag him. He’s very fun. And, maybe best of all, he’s a real toy.

Is he perfect? Probably not, but I don’t have many complaints with him. What complaints do I have? Only that some of his joints are a little too loose, which makes some poses difficult to hold. They’re not “flop around” loose, but just loose enough that he slowly sags after you pose him. It’s annoying, but doesn’t kill the toy for me.

More Photos

I was having so much fun with this guy while I was out in the yard that I shot a few more photos than I usually do for a review. Rather than let them linger on my hard drive, where only I would see them, I decided to add the extra pics to this review.

Enjoy!

Philip Reed has been sitting on a 12-inch Stormtrooper that’s been waiting for a turn on the site. Well, after how awesome this guy turned out to be, Philip’s going to have to bump that Stormtrooper up very, very soon. This is an awesome, amazing toy.