Clone Trooper (Republic Gunship Pilot) - SW [S - P1] - Basic (’02 #49)

Hasbro released the 2002 Star Wars "Saga" Republic Gunship in April 2002, but they made us wait for its pilot. It wasn’t until the middle of the Fall that year that Star Wars collectors received the Clone Trooper (Republic Gunship Pilot) figure in the basic figure line to “drive” it. The wait was long, but the figure turned out surprisingly well, despite limited articulation. Like most of the other figures in the Star Wars "Saga" line, Clone Trooper (Republic Gunship Pilot) has an excellent sculpt but lacks decent movement and posing abilities. The figure’s tooling is impressive. The figure is height/weight proportionate and comes with a reduced-size bubble-turret accessory that isn’t screen accurate but curious nonetheless. Instead of retooling a previously sculpted clone trooper action figure, Hasbro opted for an all-new sculpt, which is refreshing and sets this figure apart from the rest. And they attempted this particular clone differently than any other before it.

Clone Trooper (Republic Gunship Pilot) has a dynamic sculpt. As mentioned earlier, the figure doesn’t contain a plethora of articulation. Aside from added swivel elbows, it comes with the standard six points of articulation seen in the POTF2 era. That said, there isn’t any bulkiness to the figure. The Clone Trooper (Republic Gunship Pilot) is lean and fits inside the cockpit of the Republic Gunship. Hasbro cleverly designed the bubble-turret accessory to interact with the vehicle as well. However, it’s terribly out of scale and should be considered an added novelty here and nothing more. The bubble-turret accessory shoots a bright green projectile and has some articulation, including moving handles, for those who like play features. You can choose to have the Clone Trooper (Republic Gunship Pilot) maneuver it. Admittedly, Hasbro worked up this whole set rather nicely because both the figure and its accessories have met our expectations. Aside from a wonky-leaning pose, we would almost consider this a satisfactory toy.

Clone Trooper (Republic Gunship Pilot) also comes with the standard DC-15 baster. It fits nicely in the figure’s hands, and it’s a nice change of pace to have the figure pose with a smaller weapon when not manning the turret. Hasbro added “carbon scoring” markings on the Clone Pilot’s white armor to make it look battle-damaged in the various Clone Wars skirmishes. We can’t say that we’re thrilled with the Clone Trooper (Republic Gunship Pilot), but it does its job. We cannot fault it for that. We are pleasantly surprised in a few ways. The figure does look decent when fully set up. And look at this figure in the Republic Gunship piloting it. Does it not look incredible? Hasbro will continue to develop how army-building action figures get produced, but this is a great jumping-off point. For $4.99, we feel you get your money’s worth here. The equivalent of two action figures’ cost of plastic is in this release. You’re getting a bargain. No one can argue this point.But value may not mean everything when articulation is your focus.