Captain Rex - TCW [SOTDS] - Basic (CW62)

Captain Rex takes the battle to new heights. When the clone captain needs to reach high elevations, he boosts his rocket pack with a space combat propulsion pack. With this additional gear, Rex can take on battle droids even in space, increasing his chances of stopping even more of the droid army.

Best…. Captain Rex…. Ever!!! Now picture that exclamation at operatic levels! That is how much the new Captain Rex figure from The Clone Wars line excites and makes us jump for joy! If you haven’t noticed, The Clone Wars line in rare instances squeaks in some rather impressive action figures that could almost pass for realistic versions. We’re not claiming at all that this is remotely a portion of Hasbro’s intent, but let us offer our opinion that right now that Captain Rex (CW62) may be the closest action figure we have to realism at the moment from the animated line. (He still looks animated of course.) Hasbro has brought a new level of authenticity forward with Captain Rex (as far as his appearance to the television show is concerned). While he really looks to be a kit-bashed figure, he has been built from the ground up (with maybe one and a half exceptions). He is all-new new and not the product of some clever cobbling of previously existing parts. Most notably, the brilliant all-new head sculpt proves that Hasbro isn’t looking to rehash the same old thing over and over despite seeming too repetitive over the last couple of years. Captain Rex is exactly where the clone trooper action figures from The Clone Wars line should be but you’ll probably be more surprised that we’re saying this when Captain Rex comes with less articulation and/or more swivel points that replace the established ball-jointed points. How perverse, right? Not at all! But we’ll get to all this in great detail in a moment because Captain Rex proves that aesthetics are more important than how much articulation Hasbro can shove into an action figure. Captain Rex (CW62) is right now the definitive Captain Rex version to own in our opinion. Gone are his lanky features and instead are enhancements that make him look better than ever. (That elongated look that the original many first versions of him and other clone commanders and captains had is just bizarre.) Perfect may not describe Captain Rex completely, but he’s pretty darn fine for the most part.

As we've mentioned, Captain Rex has an incredible newly sculpted portrait. And beyond that, the rest is of him is really just as incredible. His head sculpt is the best we have ever seen on a clone in The Clone Wars line. We hope Hasbro decides to use it over and over again. (This is something we definitely don't mind them rehashing!) While you may be inclined to believe he is mostly comprised of the Clone Trooper Jesse figure from 2011’s TCW [SOTDS] BARC Speeder Bike With Clone Trooper Jesse Deluxe set, Captain Rex has been sculpted all new parts. We compared the two side by side and while there are many similarities, they're actually differences and they can be seen from head to toe. (Well, maybe Hasbro reused the ball-jointed hips through the knees from the Clone Trooper Jesse figure, but who can be 100% sure? We just want to make that clear that it's a possibility.) The real bonus here is that he comes to collectors with ball-jointed hips. We have uttered this a million times before now, but ball-jointed hips with knee articulation and no ankle articulation are so much more important and practical to an action figure than swivel hips and both ball-jointed knees and ankles. Think about it. Imagine the human body and walking while not being able to swing out your legs when you walked (or did anything else). Imagine yourself with two swivel hips and your ankles and knees with full rotation. It wouldn’t suit your needs as a human too well would it? But now imagine yourself with hips and knees that had a full range of motion, even though you couldn’t move your ankles. You'd still be able to move relatively normally. And you would be able to accomplish a lot more with the latter than the former, wouldn’t you? Well, the same is true for action figures. Captain Rex can be posed in an infinite amount of ways and the ball-jointed knees allow you to turn his legs so the soles of his boots sit flush against the ground if needed, or angle them to maintain his balance. Captain Rex also comes with swivel wrists, but this isn’t an issue at all. The fingers hold the weapons perfectly (much better than the Clone Trooper Jesse figure by the way) and there aren’t any disproportionately sized wrists due to Hasbro trying to make a ball-joint fit inside of it.

There are even more details to appreciate. Captain Rex for the first time comes with a soft-goods kama (not unique to the action figure line as evidenced by the Clone Trooper in the 2009 LC Gelagrub Patrol Battle Packs set and 2011’s TVC ARC Trooper Commander (VC54) figure). The striping along the perimeter is unfortunately much too dark and it's really hard to see, but the soft-goods update is incredible. At worst, it's something Hasbro can fix as a running change down the road. Like so many other recent The Clone Wars figures, Hasbro has included a big (ridiculously big by the way) jetpack for the kids to enjoy. Thankfully, Hasbro hasn’t ignored those collectors who prefer authenticity over play features like most of us do. In an amazing display of fine action figure engineering, Captain Rex’s accurately sized jetpack pulls out from the center of the extra large jetpack that harnesses to him and can attach via a plug on his back to complete him as he was seen in The Clone Wars film flying around with his jetpack. It’s quite brilliant of a move on Hasbro’s part and we love the versatility this action figure brings. We are loving how Hasbro is seamlessly incorporating play value into the figures without permanently "ruining" them with stuff intended for younger audiences. He comes with a full arsenal of weaponry that should satisfy kids and collectors alike. The two DC-17 blaster pistols fit flawlessly well into his hands (as well as the holsters) and the larger blaster rifle also fits well or can be stored in the harness that fastens to him if you decide to have him wear that large apparatus as another option. And let’s not forget about the extra effort put into his helmet. The insignias on his helmet (for the first time we believe) are now scratched up and battle-damaged helping to further established that “lived in” look the Star Wars universe has. This Captain Rex figure is amazing. We hope Hasbro continues to bring this level of quality clone action figures from here on out. You shouldn't even think twice about scouring the earth for this figure. He is an absolute must-have!