In the long, long wait until the Figuarts Han Solo, there are still other Star Wars Figuarts offerings coming out at a pretty decent rate. It seems like such a short time has passed since Jango Fett arrived. Well, we’re bringing you another Fwoosh team up, as I’m tackling the text and Veebee is on camera duty for the Phase 2 Clone Trooper and Geonosis Battle Droid.
For prequel haters, these might not scratch your itch, but if you’re an across-the-board, all-in fan of Star Wars figures regardless of their cinematic genesis, these are still two worthy additions to the collection.
While these two are not entirely new, there’s enough difference to separate them from the older figures. Unfortunately, even though the good comes along for the ride, the minor issues do as well.
Battle Droids made their first appearance in The Phantom Menace, and as such that version was released last year. As you can see if you read Veebee’s review, it is an excellent take on the lanky design. The Geonosis version doesn’t add anything different to the body at all—it’s a straight color shift all the way, so if you were happy with the original Battle Droid and want to update it in Attack of the Clones colors, you shouldn’t be unhappy.
The color is a nice translation of the on-screen colors, and it has a bit of weathering here and there on the body and at some of his edges, so you can tell it’s been through battle.
For such a gangly thing, the Battle Droid remains an extremely articulated Droid that can get into a ton of poses. He’s really only limited at the hips, which get a very small bit of lateral spread but not a lot. I do appreciate that there is something there, though, because it’s still more than Hasbro’s IG-88, for which I will no doubt be eternally miffed.
Due to the nature of his very tiny feet, he might have trouble holding certain poses for too long, so some type of support stand might be necessary if you want him to stay locked into a particularly challenging poses.
Like the standard-color Droid, this new Geonosis version can get into the powered-down crouch as seen on film before their activation and blasting and exploding and roger-rogering.
For accessories, it comes with a standard blaster. The blaster is a little fiddly in his hand, you really need to clamp his thumb around the handle nice and tight so he doesn’t drop it constantly. Once it’s in there, he holds it nicely, but I’m almost wishing there was some kind of peg that connects the handle to his hand just for added stability. It’s not completely necessary, but even with his thumb clamped the blaster can magically fall out of his hands.
He comes with a separate antenna part that snaps into the hole on his backpack to simulate both antenna up and antenna down. Roger-roger. I wonder if they ever found that “Roger” guy…
Body and accessories are the same, so, other than paint, what really sets this release apart from the previous version? Well, only the first appearance (kind of) of C-3P0 in the Figuarts line.
Yeah…kind of.
Remember that part in the factory where Threepio’s head gets stuck onto a random Battle Droid? Of course you do; how could you forget? Well, now you can recreate that scene anytime you like, with a genuine Attack of the Clones-era C-3P0 head. The head itself is very nice, on-model and not yet the shiny gold that we know and love. Even though it’s just a head, it can still swivel, so it’s about as articulated as a detached protocol droid’s head needs to be. It’s a cool inclusion and, even if you didn’t care for the slapstick elements in the movie, makes for a nice prop piece.
VEEBEE NOTE: Okay, so I actually got TWO of the Battle Droids, and if you watch Robo’s video review, you hear him mention the absolutely bizarre side hip pieces being two different shapes and lengths that hinder the torso movement. Well, in even stranger fashion, ONE of my droids is like that, but the other is just fine and is built exactly like the standard version released earlier in the year. It is way too weird. I have no idea why it is like this. No frikken clue, but here is a picture of two pieces from the messed up version, just so you can see that they are different. Odd. Just odd.
Next up is a Clone trooper. This is a Phase 2 Clone trooper, which means it’s just like the Phase 1 trooper (reviewed by me last year) except the helmet is edging closer to what we recognize as the standard Stormtrooper. The gated mouth is a bit less angular, the eye ports are a bit less stylized, and the shape is starting to get a bit imperial. Say what you will about the quality of the prequels, but the designs were all very nice, and the backwards engineering of familiar into slightly unfamiliar so we can watch it evolve back into familiar is very natural, the same way the Force Awakens Stormtroopers looked like a natural design evolution from the standard Stormtrooper. Am I making sense here? I think so, therefore I am.
The articulation limitations from the first go-around have not been fixed here. The Clone Trooper still does not feature the pull-down hips so his ability to kneel is limited, and his arms can only get a strict 90 degree bend. While that is enough to hold both of his included weapons, you won’t be ale to get the massive amount of expression available in some of the other Figuarts figures.
However, those are the only two major dings on his overall articulation. The rest moves and poses great, with tight joints and a sharp crisp sculpt. The smooth posing ability on nearly every other joint, means there are a ton of other, natural poses he can get into.
He comes with a small blaster and his large rifle. They both fit into his trigger-finger hands easily and stay put, and he looks great aiming them at things.
The Trooper comes with a nice array of hands, including trigger fingers for both hands, a pair of fists, a pair of open hands and a pair of clutching/holding hands for steadying the barrel of his big rammajamma gun. Technical term.
Being that these are just different versions of figures already released, they might not seem as “must-have” as some of the more unique characters that have come along, but if you’re filling out the ranks they do add a nice diversity to the display, so for that they are more than welcome. Now then…is Han out yet?
