Star Wars The Black Series 13th Battalion Trooper review
Hasbro hasn’t made clone army building in the Black Series line easy. Between scattered releases, inconsistent supply and making them store exclusives you’ve gotta work to amass a decent size army.
The 13th Battalion Trooper is part of the Gaming Greats line though I fully intend to just place him alongside Commander Bly to join his squad and fortify the mustard yellow ranks.
Let’s see if this reinforcement was worth grabbing or if he’s just going to be better served as battle droid target practice.
Packaging: Hasbro got inspired with the packaging. I love the mural artwork and the specific accent colors. Gaming Greats gets a aqua blue accent color, which stands out nicely against the basic black.
As always, the bio is terrific explaining the 13th Battalion’s role during the Clone Wars and their ties to Cal Kestis.
The package art is terrific with the trooper and Clone gunships in the background. The bio is also very nice explaining this unique look for the clones.
Likeness: I love the new Clone body more so for its articulation, but it’s smooth and sleek.
While it basically looks like the same body as the Clone Troopers Hasbro has used back with the #14 clones, but it’s an upgrade with sleeker arrangement and positioning of the armor plates.
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Paint: The fun with the clones is the various paint getup applied to the largely simple pre-Stormtrooper armor. For this one, the 13th Battalion features a mustard yellow with a prominent V in the center and wraps around the biceps and thighs beyond the typical helmet and shoulder pad arrangement.
The mustard yellow has the usual distressed paint applications that are the norm with the clone armor. I appreciate the randomness of the paint chips as it shows how the war has taken its toll on the troopers’ armor paint.
It’s also helpful for Hasbro as any paint flaws can just be attributed to war damage.
Scale: Most of the clones are shorter than most of the Jedi, but their helmets give them a height boost.
Articulation: The Clone Troopers aren’t getting into big brawls, but it’s still key to be able to hit convincing aiming, squatting, crouching and otherwise getting decimated by battle droids.
This body has the added bonus of including the more modern articulation with butterfly shoulders joints and wider hip joints.
The 13th Battalion Clone Trooper has:
- neck
- ball-jointed shoulders
- elbow (with swivel)
- wrist
- wrist hinge
- torso
- hips
- thighs
- knees (double jointed)
- ankles
Accessories: For an exclusive figure with a higher-than-normal price point, the 13th Battalion Clone Trooper only gets one accessory.
It’s the DC-15S Blaster Carbine, the smaller blaster that’s the standard weapon of the Clone Troopers.
Worth it? The real problem with far too many of the Clones is Hasbro makes them a retailer exclusive. In this case they’re GameStop, who decided to charge $27.99 for them.
If you’re a reward member, you can use the monthly $5 off taking him down to the $22.99 price point. That’s a better price, but for such a barebones figure this feels more like a army builder that should be a cheaper price on Hasbro Pulse.
Rating: 8.5 out of 10
Some extras would be nice and I’d never complain about getting more Clone Troopers.
Where to get it? This is a GameStop exclusive so that should be your first stop. You can find them easily enough for a slight markup now on Amazon.
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