501st Legion Trooper [Version 1] - TAC - Saga Legends

These highly trained tactical ops clone troopers accompany Darth Vader on a mission to destroy the Jedi. Vader and the troopers storm the Jedi Temple and, with crack marksmanship and coordinated team maneuvers, quickly eliminate the Jedi inside.

Not too many collectors can argue against the fact that 2007 was indeed a banner year, if not the year, for them. Hasbro created a knock-it-out-of-the-park collection to celebrate 30 incredible years of Star Wars. The collection included a killer 3.75” basic figure line which included a McQuarrie homage-paying sub-line. And then Hasbro added an excellent “greatest hits” collection where they received input from “us” to make it the most balanced collection of figures ever. And it was. We’re talking about the Saga Legends line, a line designed to bring some of Hasbro’s greatest efforts of all time and keep them on the pegs. But the line also brings action figures that the hardcore collector base wants a second stab at including those part of exclusive sets and just some general harder to find figures from Hasbro’s past. But Saga Legends also brings “new” figures to collectors for the very first time. Interestingly, the 501st Legion Trooper was intended to be one of these said “new” figures, but a little mix up at the factory put a small delay on when that “new” figure would arrive for collectors.

When the 501st Legion Trooper officially became part of the Saga Legends line it was decided (thanks to a big push from Dan Curto) that Hasbro would redecorate the 2005 ROTS Clone Trooper (III 41) sculpt. That figure's review, 2008's TAC 501st Legion Trooper, can be found HERE. But that didn’t happen right away and Hasbro reissued the same sculpt but a clean repaint of 2005’s ROTS Tactical Ops Trooper (III 65) figure instead. Remarkably, this figure looks better than ever thanks to a sterling white plastic used to mold the figure. Normally we’re not fans of the bright white clones, but Hasbro added enough carbon-scoring to make this look pretty darn good. The Tactical Ops Trooper (III 65) figure was cast is a plastic that was off-white (or eggshell). The Saga Legends figure ends up looking much better, much to our satisfaction. Despite having 18 points of articulation, the figure is rather static from the waist up. In fact, the figure has no waist joint. However, the figure has incredible movement throughout the hips, and the rest of his legs and you’re able to achieve some rather impressive poses thanks to this.

The same “features” and accessories (except for the environmental action figure display stand) have been carried forward for this release. The left shoulder armor is removable (for reasons unknown), and he also comes with a DC-15 blaster. His shoulders and elbows are swivel joints, and it’s quite maddening to articulate. But thankfully they go in directions that make holding the DC-15 blaster very realistic, so we’re grateful for that. And even despite this very limiting articulation, we have to admit that the figure looks fantastic displayed on a shelf. Yes, its articulation limits it very much, but it’s hard for us to claim that this figure doesn’t look good despite this. One thing that does bother us, however, is that Hasbro screwed up the blue color flash pattern on his helmet. Instead of the blue color fanning its way out as it makes its way up the helmet, it goes straight up for this release. Obviously, this is incorrect, and once Hasbro gets into a rut with deco, it’s often very hard to have things like this corrected. And we’re particularly worried. The 501st Legion Trooper also comes with an Episode III coin for collectors. You’re going to get very bored with these, trust us. Hopefully, the figure won’t bore you.