Hasbro: Star Wars Black Series Commander Cody

I am such a sucker for troopers. All sizes, all ranks, all shapes. Scout, Storm, Clone, Snow — I’m down for all. Stormtroopers are my favorite, but Phase 2 Clones are nearly up there, and Commanders even closer.

So to say I was excited when Commander Cody was announced is an understatement. I said Stormtroopers were my favorite, and they are, but there is just something about taking that same concept and then making them individuals just by throwing different colors and marking on them. The Phase 1 Clones are cool, but the Phase 2 Clones take it to whole other level with new helmets and armor bits, and then the Commanders take it even further. Standing all together they just look awesome. It’s the same concept as the different-colored droids, but Troopers are more likely to shoot you in the face. Or back. Watch out, Jedi!

Standard packaging. Pretty. Same old story. The stark white of the trooper contrasts nicely with the black of the packaging.

Out of the package, Cody cuts a mighty fine silhouette. He just looks tough in most poses. His armor isn’t super bulky, but it just looks a little menacing, like a trooper should, to bad guys and good guys both, as we later find out.

I’m going to change up the order of how I usually review figures and jump to the most obvious comparison to weed out the new parts from the reused parts, and then we can move on.

Cody sports a new helmet, obviously, but he also has a new upper torso, shoulder pads, and right bicep. The right bicep has a new strap on with a canister-type thing on the back. The upper torso has a rank insignia on the left pec, two indented stripes on the right, and then various scrape marks to show battle scars. Oh, and some sort of backpack. The left shoulder pad has an antenna protruding from it, and the right is shaped slightly different than the Phase 1 Clone’s shoulder pad. And then the helmet, like I said, has obvious differences.

The forearms, hands, and everything from the torso articulation down is reused.

Paint here is actually pretty clean, almost too clean as he could use some scuffs and dirty spots, but there are more colors than I expected. Sure, there’s all the orange bits, but there is also the familiar blue stripes on the sides of the helmet and some copper bits on the backpack, bicep strap, and a couple of belt pouches. Silver for the various antennas and even yellow on the ends of the tube canister on the back of his belt. The orange on the knee pads is slightly thin, but I can forgive that, given that some of the orange paint is supposed to be rough like on the torso.

Articulation is the same as the Phase 1 Clone. The double elbows don’t give the range of movement you would expect because of the strap for the elbow pad. The torso doesn’t crunch much because of the armor. I go over all that in my video review.

He comes with two accessories: the standard trooper blaster and the heavy rifle that came with the Phase 1 Clone. They both seem a little more solid in the plastic department than what we’ve been getting, not as floppy. Both are cast in black with no paint accents. A little disappointing but not unexpected.

When it comes down to it, though he looks great by himself, all studly on the shelf, he looks even better with other Episode III figures like Obi-Wan and Anakin.

The Obi-Wan head is an enlarged head cast from Glassman Customs. You can check it out here.

All in all, I am VERY happy with this. After the oversized Boushh and the undersized IG-88, the cloth robes on the Emperor, and the missing articulation on Yoda, the Black Series needed a home run. Not a grand slam, mind you, but this is about as good as you can get from this series. Well, Bossk was pretty good too so it hasn’t been a complete downhill slope. Now, if a Bandai model kit comes along you know I’m snatching it, but if that never happens this Cody is more than adequate. Now give us some more Clones! Especially Gree — I so need a Gree. And a Shocktrooper. And a 501st.