41st Elite Clone Trooper
If you read my review for the Phase I Clone Pilot released in the 3.75-inch Star Wars Black Series, I mentioned how Hasbro designed a basic body mold for these characters and then it is only a matter of mixing and matching accessories with different paintjobs to produce a variety of different figures.
Previously, Hasbro would include just one of these figures every other wave, or at most one in each wave for short periods of time, depending on the production schedule, but in the current Black Series they did include not one nor two, but three very similar characters in the same wave.
This, of course, would invite some criticism even if all of the figures involved were good, but it got even worse due to the production issues found in the 41st Elite Clone Trooper.
The 41st Elite Clone Trooper uses the same basic body mold updated for the Vintage Collection, paired with a Phase II helmet. So far, so good, as the details sculpted onto the armor still look sharp and the articulation is really excellent, consisting of:
• Ball jointed neck.
• Pin & disk shoulders.
• Pin & disk elbows.
• Pin & disk wrists.
• Floating torso.
• Pin & disk hips.
• Pin & disk knees.
• Pin & disk ankles.
Articulation works great for this character and there is really no way I can think of to improve upon this design and maintain the structural integrity of the toy.
The part where things begin to go downhill is the paintjob, starting with the omission of the characteristic gray armor sections on shoulder pads, shin guards and waist. For immediate references to this color scheme, it should be the same as it was on the Phase II Clone included in the Clone Trooper to Sandtrooper Evolutions set, which was very briefly seen in one scene from Revenge of the Sith.
Given the amount of armor customization going on during the Clone Wars era, one could almost dismiss this error as a variant color scheme, but the overall quality of the paint applications is definitely not up to par.
On my figure, I found a number of rubs and smudges on even the few gray lines that actually made it onto the armor, as well as a surprising amount of poorly applied paint on the black undersuit. Luckily, the unhelmeted Clone head had decently painted eyes, but the hairline was also quite irregular.
The 41st Elite Clone Trooper comes equipped with a blaster carbine and his helmet, which oddly enough, appears to be painted correctly.
It is rumored that there are batches of this figure out with a corrected paintjob, but they are either found only in Europe or were made in such tiny numbers that finding one in the wild would be very unlikely.
As it stands, the 41st Elite Clone Trooper is possibly the less exciting figure in its wave, despite the virtues of its construction and articulation design.
Errex Score: 70/100
Category: Featured, Star Wars, Toy Reviews