Clone Commander Fox - SW [TPM 3D] - The Clone Wars (CW18)

Clone Commander Fox is the leader of the Coruscant Guard. Fox and his elite troopers protect the senators when their safety is threatened by the Separatists. Fox leads a squad to rescue Padmé Amidala when she is kidnapped by Ziro the Hutt, and he commands a team to stop Cad Bane when the bounty hunter takes senators hostage.

It goes without saying that the direction of action figures based on The Clone Wars television show has become quite controversial. Ever since Hasbro announced that realistically styled action figures based on characters from The Clone Wars (which began in the 2012 phase of The Vintage Collection) would become part of the collector focused lines going forward, collectors of all ages began noticing a drastic shift in the amount of articulation Hasbro was adding to their animated action figures. This action is actually bittersweet (with bitter weighing much more for many collectors) because while there is no denying that the number of points of articulation have nearly been cut in half (the bitter portion), Hasbro’s deco has gone from nonexistent to very impressive (the sweet portion). Hasbro has stated that The Clone Wars line is for kids and that going forward the action figures created for this line would be made with the kids in mind, not collectors. Collectors of course find this infuriating. Why do we get kicked to the curb? We support the line so give us what we want, right? Well, apparently Hasbro feels that our voice is not as big as the kids, who vicariously speak through their parents. (We’ll explain this more on that in a moment.) Clone Commander Fox is one of these said action figures that suffers from a reduction of articulation, an affliction that is becoming all too common now. But despite this tragic turn, we have to say that we’re taken by his paint job. (And that’s even including the glaring error that we sorely wish Hasbro would have fixed before its release.) He’s a little too bright for some collectors and then there are even more collectors who won’t give a sculpt like this any time of day, so it remains to be seen just how well embraced this action figure will be down the road.

We’re particularly enamored with Clone Commander Fox. His predecessor, 2008’s TCW [F/S1] Commander Fox (which was a TARGET exclusive during the launch of the 2008 facet of the line) is one of our favorite action figures from The Clone Wars line of all time, and we’re especially fond of his battalion that was featured in 2008’s TCW [F/S1] Yoda & Coruscant Guard Battle Packs set (also a TARGET exclusive). Oh, and let's not forget about the cool 2011 TCW [SOTDS] Riot Control Clone Trooper (CW49) either. So getting Clone Commander Fox in his phase II armor is especially rewarding for us because the Coruscant Guard are the precursors to the Imperial Shock Troopers which are as far as we’re concerned the show-stealers of Episode III. Let’s face it, Clone Commander Fox only comes with eight points of articulation, but he has a better center of gravity than many of the super-articulated clones released in The Clone Wars line. Yes, your options for posing him are limited. But he can still hold his DC-17 blaster pistols (and even his rocket launcher) with relative ease, something that surprises even us for a figure that doesn’t come with any wrist articulation. If you’re remotely curious why wrist articulation was eliminated, Hasbro received one complaint after another from parent of children who would overwork the wrists joints of The Clone Wars figures to the point of irreparable breakage. You can form your own opinion about the decision Hasbro made from these complaint, the adeptness or incompetence of parents and their parenting skills (we aren’t making judgment calls either way for the record), or whatever, but that’s why wrist articulation has been eliminated. Clone Commander Fox utilizes the body of 2012’s SW [TPM 3D] Captain Rex (CW13) figure but comes with an all-new helmet. Hasbro did a great job on the sculpt of it. He has a big hole on his back which stinks, but that’s what happens when parts get used and reused like this.

The big white elephant in the room regarding Clone Commander Fox is the big white “nose plate” they neglected to paint on the front of his helmet. It’s a shame because if they had ensured that it was added to the paint operations, there would be very little to complain about as far as how great he looks visually. Unfortunately this error is significant enough to bother us, so we imagine it will bother more collectors to a higher degree. And we’re going to be picky about one other aesthetic since they messed up the helmet’s paint job. Clone Commander Fox has fine white parallel striped on the “cheeks” of the helmet. Hasbro painted them more in the fashion of how the stripes on a Shock Trooper helmet looks instead. We probably should be happy that some stripes are on there at all, but we think if they revisit this (should this figure ever see a rerelease) and the white nose section that Clone Commander Fox would look pretty much perfect. There have been some heated discussion on whether the appropriate color red has been used since the Coruscant Guard have primarily had maroon color flashes. But Clone Commander Fox’s color flashes are clearly bright red, perhaps to clearly show the evolution to an Imperial Shock Trooper. We think Hasbro did alright with the color choice. Clone Commander Fox, as stated earlier, comes with two DC-17 blaster pistol, a rocket launcher and a projectile. He also comes with a cool Galactic Battle Game card, action figure stand and die. We’ve never played the game, but admit that the cards are collectible “enough”. We hope Clone Commander Fox is embraced, but it’s likely that there are those still too angry to appreciate its positives. He obviously still has room for improvement (accepting that eight points of articulation is all we’re getting), so hopefully Hasbro will make strides to make the figures look even better than they do.