Republic Fighter Tank - SW [TPM 3D] - Vehicles

A Republic Fighter Tank blasts attacking Battle Droids. The tanks are used by Jedi and Clone Troopers but have been specially designed to take advantage of a Jedi's Force-heightened abilities. The tanks have laser cannons and missile launchers to bombard the enemy, and armor that can withstand heavy fire without sacrificing speed or agility.

The Star Wars: Battlefront video games brought the Star Wars universe some very cool characters and vehicles. Always looking to throw in an extemporaneous toy to Star Wars collectors whenever possible, or perhaps more accurately to save on tooling costs, Hasbro repaints another one of their most popular mid-size vehicles and throw it into the latest Class II assortment in the Star Wars [The Phantom Menace 3D] toy line. We have to be honest with you. Although this assessment likely won’t be popular with many Star Wars collectors, we’re inordinately fond of the Republic Fighter Tank vehicle. It’s never made an appearance in the films, nor The Clone Wars film or television show, but Hasbro thought it was the perfect vehicle to bring to the 3.75” toy line due to its very recognizable military styling and simple but fun features. You are probably well aware of this vehicle by now. After two mid-size (or Class II) releases and an electronic Remote Control Republic Fighter Tank release, this third non-electric version has become our most favorite. Cast in a green color scheme, it is indeed somewhat based on a vehicle that appears in the Star Wars: Battlefront II video game, but it also looks just off-screen enough to be somewhere with the Battle of Kashyyyk during Revenge Of The Sith. For that we actually like this vehicle very much.

The 2012 Republic Fighter Tank comes with the same features of the 2009 Republic Fighter Tank from the red The Clone Wars line and the 2010 Republic Fighter Tank from the “Shadow Of The Dark Side” The Clone Wars like. Again, this vehicle serves the collector best in the green color scheme. Hasbro is focusing a great deal of the vehicle concepts surrounding the Battle of Kashyyyk. They also recently repainted the 2010 AT-AP (All Terrain Attack Pod) in the “Shadow Of The Dark Side” line look. (And it was also released in 2012 in The Vintage Collection too, also as the AT-AP (All Terrain Attack Pod) vehicle.) Both vehicles sport a newly revised green color scheme as well. And there’s something special about how these vehicle look in these various paint operations. The packaging on the box also looks nice. On it you can see Commander Gree, Yoda, and AT-RT Driver at the gunner station and then Hasbro has suggested the idea of two Kashyyyk Troopers to drive the Republic Fighter Tank. The interaction of the character looks great and they even give the collector (or kid) some other display ideas on the back of the box. (We recreated some of them for you in our photo gallery – something we don’t normally do in our Research Droids Reviews.)

Let’s go through some of the features that the Republic Fighter Tank brings. They’re simple, but sometimes less is more and that is very true here. The vehicle has an opening hatch where you can pose a gunner. The doors on each side flip up and you can place most action figures on each side. By the way, the Kashyyyk Trooper looks the best in the cockpit. On each side towards the back of the vehicle are opening compartments for various storage, or you can pretend to have one of the clones fixing something like engine components or something else altogether. There are various foot pegs sculpted across the hull of the vehicle to make displaying your figures on it that much easier. And lastly there are rotating cannons that fire projectiles against whatever enemy target you choose. It’s truly a great Class II vehicle and we think it’s a perfect release.... again. But if you’re exhausted by repaints, we understand why you’d pass on this one. Hasbro has now hit on all of the main versions of this vehicle now from the Star Wars: Battlefront II video game. They can easily give this vehicle a rest now and focus on all-new sculpts. You know our feelings on this. Hasbro needs to repack stuff. But if they can do it like this then we will completely support them in this fashion. But to give us just an exact repack, no thank you. You gotta keep changing it up for us, Hasbro. Great job on this one!