When this figure was announced I wasn’t sure I wanted it and waited so long to pre-order that it was sold out at my usual spots. I did get an order in at Target of all places and ironically this is the only figure I’ve got from the wave so far. That pre-order lottery can be a fickle thing. Let’s take a look at the Elite Squad Trooper from the upcoming The Bad Batch cartoon!
The packaging is what we have come to expect from the new normal, but I do like the contrasting maroon so much that I decided to take a bunch of photos with this guy in red lights. Another neat feature is that the bio actually gives us information that we didn’t know before. Turns out these guys aren’t Clones, but rather first in a series of Imperial conscripts. With the black armor and green visor combo, I was expecting these guys to be prototype Death Troopers, but the trailer and this now makes me think they will be back up to Tarkin’s Col. Decker as he chases down the A-Team, I mean Bad Batch.
This trooper comes with the smaller standard clone rifle that we’ve seen in dozens of these figures. Probably appropriate, but not terribly interesting. The body is mostly re-use of recent clone trooper figures with a twist. They ditched the incredibly awful swivel/hinge knees in favor of double hinged knees. I hated the way the knee pads looked when you bent the knees on the swivel/hinge knees so I’m really thankful to see them go.
The recent clones have removeable helmets that are glued down to an unpainted head and it looks like that’s what is happening here as well, but I feel like the detail and sharpness of the sculpting on this helmet is a little better than the Kamino or Ahsoka clone figure helmets. The upper body is more narrow than the original Clone figure, so it does make the helmet feel a little too large.
The articulation is decent with:
- Ball and socket head, lower neck, and mid-torso
- Swivel/hinge shoulders, elbows, wrists, hips, and ankles
- Double hinged knees
- Thigh swivels
- Butterfly hinged pecs
The neck does get really nice tilt and good looking up movement, but oddly doesn’t look down very well. The hip movement is pretty limited because the thigh armor butts up against the crotch armor. You can kick the leg forward, but you have to turn the thigh to the side, so kneeling poses don’t work well. I could see why Hasbro wanted to implement the swivel knee on this figure, but the knee pad was always askew, so it would look weird. If any figure cried out for drop-down hips, it would be the clones.
The paint is minimal with the figure being cast mostly in a glossy, dark grey plastic. The T-visor and silver helmet nozzle details are pretty clean. Overall the figure is decent and I like how it looks better than the other recent clones, it’s just not especially exciting. Still, I enjoy a good shadow armor trooper, they look cool in a squad, and I’m thinking I’ll like these guys a little better after I see them in action.
