Star Wars The Black Series Clone Wars ARC Trooper review
In a rarity for the Black Series line, I was watching Clone Wars and realized I didn’t have a figure Hasbro actually made. One quick order through Walmart and that was quickly remedied with the arrival of the ARC Trooper from the Clone Wars Macro Series.
That takes the amount of CW characters I still need to about 57…give or take. Hopefully Hasbro will start to make the Clone Wars more of a priority for the Black Series line. When we do get new characters they tend to be pretty great.
Lets see if that’s the case for the ARC Trooper or find out if this clone is defective.
Packaging: I love this unique Clone Wars packaging. This isn’t as fun as the 2021 series with the die cut clone helmet, but it still stands out from the other Black Series packaging.
This version of the ARC Trooper is based on Genndy Tartakovsky‘s Clone Wars macro series. Fun fact, I refused for years to watch the other Clone Wars simply because I was so fond of Tartakovsky’s version.
Eventually I came around thankfully and the second version of Clone Wars is one of my favorite Star Wars property period.
Likeness: The ARC Trooper is basically a repaint of the ARC Trooper Echo with the exception of the Phase 1 Clone Armor helmet.
He’s got shoulder pads, additional chest armor with pouches, a skirt with additional pouches and unique gauntlet and shin armor.
The ARC Trooper armor looks really cool and it’s one of my favorite of the clone/Stormtrooper variations.
As nice as the figure looks it doesn’t hold up well upon any inspection to the Tartakovsky models even in the translation to a more realistic portrayal. The collar piece should be more rounded and line up with the chest pouch. His holsters should drape on either side instead of crisscrossing.
I also appreciate the texturing with the leather-like sections of the shoulder pads, belt and skirt sections. It gives the figures a more realistic look.
Paint: The paintwork is largely solid — there’s some runoff on the collar pad and some overspray on the helmet.
The ARC Trooper paint job isn’t as elaborate as Echo or Commander Bly, but the red makes for a nice striking contrast to help it stand out.
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Scale: The ARC Trooper should be shorter than Anakin. The helmet gives him a little extra height, but without it he is shorter than the general.
Articulation: The ARC Trooper has solid articulation and can strike some good poses thanks to the semi-floating torso.
His shoulders feature terrific up and down range in large part due to the flexible material used for the shoulder pads.
Not surprisingly, the skirt restricts some of the movement with his legs so you’re not going to get a lot of dynamic kicking or crouching poses.
The ARC Trooper has:
- neck
- ball-jointed shoulders
- elbow (with swivel)
- wrist
- wrist hinge
- torso
- hips
- thighs
- knees (swivel)
- ankles
Accessories: Fitting for a clone leader, the ARC Trooper is loaded up with accessories.
He’s got the two smaller blasters that fit into his holsters on either side.
He also has the longer standard DC-15A blaster. He’s also got a medium blaster so he is covered in terms of taking on Battle Droids. Assuming we could ever get Battle Droids in enough supply to make it look good.
Unlike Echo, the helmet is not removable so we can’t see the altered Jango Fett head sculpt underneath.
Worth it? The ARC Trooper really should be $25 at max, but you’re gonna pay around $35 for him. I suppose some of the cost is with the packaging? Either way he’s not worth $35, but such is the nature of trying to collect Clone army builders…
Rating: 9.7 out of 10
Where to get it? The Tartakovsky Clone Wars series is exclusive to Walmart, but in wonders of wonders the ARC Trooper is actually in stock at Walmart.com. He’s also available at Amazon.
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