Star Wars Black Series Clone Trooper Lieutenant and 332nd Clone Trooper review
Legit army builders are something I’ve been demanding from the Star Wars Black Series for a while. Hasbro’s Star Wars team tends to complicate matters with a name character packed with an army builder, but that’s not the case here. The Phase 1 Clone Trooper Lieutenant and 332nd Clone Trooper set is army building paradise. It’s a known commodity with a solid base body allowing for some vital supplements to any decent Clone Wars display.
This set is getting released under the Ahsoka branding since they both had a cameo in the series. That made that awesome sequence even better.
I managed to get a pair of the single release 332nd Clone Troopers, but army building was tricky since they were Wal-Mart exclusives. Now with more this set, I can add to both Anakin’s initial squadron and Ahsoka’s final stretch army.
Let’s take a look at these Clone Troopers and see if they’re fit to join their respective armies.
Packaging: Hasbro is back to the windows… and don’t even need walls. It’s nice to see the figures and their accessories. No easily covered swaps here. Paintjobs don’t matter as much with the Clones since a little stray paint actually adds some character to their armor. Ahsoka’s accent color is a darker turquoise.
The left side features the Phase 1 Clone Trooper Lieutenant below the 332nd Trooper. The back features larger portraits of both along with the typical excellent Black Series bio that summaries both troops.
Likeness: Both clones are using the updated Clone Trooper mold with some enhancements. Namely the softer plastic for the shoulder pads and a movable knee pad so the pad isn’t locked into awkward positioning when posing the trooper. The only difference between the two are the helmets.
The Phase 1 Clone Trooper Lieutenant has the more rounded helmet with the fin at the center. Other subtle differences are the wider visor and narrower mouth section.
For the 332nd Clone, the helmet is basically the Stormtrooper mold to foreshadow the ultimate betrayal.
Both clones have removable helmets and are packaged with them off to reveal the identical head sculpts. They look like slightly altered versions of Jango Fett, which is the intent and definitely sport the Temeura Morrison likeness.
Paint: The Clone Trooper Lieutenant has more color with painted blue stripes along the arms and glove armor piece. Clone Troopers are probably the only figures in my collection where clean paint applications are frowned upon.
The scrapes along the blue stripes help with that battle worn aesthetics of experienced clones. The jagged and chipped paint work looks terrific.
Ahsoka’s 332nd are a contingent of Anakin’s 501st division featuring the blue triangle center, shoulder pads, leg strips and kneepad accents.
The most obvious difference is the helmet, which features that shock of orange and paint applications to mirror Ahsoka’s facial tattoos. The shade of blue is slightly stronger on this one compared to the Wal-Mart figures, but you have to look close to spot it.
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Scale: The Clones don’t vary in height, which would be odd with the exception of Wrecker.
They’re just about eye to eye with Obi-Wan Kenobi and both look up to the Clone Wars Anakin. Naturally, both eras are taller than Ahsoka.
Articulation: Clone Troopers need to be just as, if not more so, articulated than the Jedi figures. The Black Series hasn’t quite come up with a super articulated Jedi body yet giving this updated Clone body the advantage.
Both Clones have the butterfly shoulders and wider hip joints allowing for deeper stances and more dramatic poses to take out Separatists Droids…or Ahsoka.
The Clone Trooper Lieutenant and 332nd Clone Trooper have:
- neck
- ball-jointed shoulders
- elbow (with swivel)
- wrist
- wrist hinge
- torso
- hips
- thighs
- knees (double jointed)
- ankles
Accessories: While the Clone Wars plays out, the Clone Troopers’ armament doesn’t change up that much for grunt troopers.
Both come with two weapons.
One is the DC-15A blaster rifle, the larger rifle that needs to be held with both hands. The other is the DC-15S Blaster Carbine. This is smaller than the larger one that previously came with the original Clone Troopers.
Worth it? Target had a sale for this pack, so I was able to get them for $35 instead of the normal $45. That’s a solid deal for such a quality set of army builders.
Rating: 9.5 out of 10
No issues at all with this army builder set beyond the challenge of getting 4-5 of them to appropriately build up the armies.
Where to get it? Target.com currently has these guys out of stock, but assuming they get more in stock you can grab them at this link. As a Target affiliate, I earn from qualifying purchases.