'05 | #65  Tac Ops Trooper - Vader's Legion (Reviewed 11-05-2005)

Includes:
• Blaster Pistol
• Stand

Click thumbnail for large image Spice: At this point it is the most sought after Trooper of perhaps all time. Any collector would like hundreds of these to line up and put behind any of their 6 plus Anakin figures that are now a part of our collections. The Tac Ops Trooper is perhaps the most anticipated due to the recent hype of Battlefront II and all of the 501st references in the game. At any rate both toy collectors and costumers alike will be searching the pegs at a frantic rate. The package is marked "Vader's Legion", but you would think the design crew at Hasbro was working with the Foreign Legion when they were shorting out the surrounding areas of Pawtucket, RI with all of the brain power they were using.

Click thumbnail for large image Upon liberation from the package you really won't see anything wrong. In fact you'll notice differences in the paint job vs. the Kmart Jedi Temple Assault packs that were molded from the #6 Clone Trooper. The biggest thing that jumps out at you would be the stripes running down the leg and the weathering to the bottom of the boots. A touch of what we would want, but they didn't go far enough. Perhaps the biggest problem is they re-used the mold from the AT-TE Gunner for what is putting new meaning to the term "most wanted". You would think they would use the Super Articulated Clone Trooper, while I know they are easier to find on the pegs these days, this would have to be the most logical flaw.

Click thumbnail for large image The design isn't completely flawed, there is a lot of movement in the legs. Okay the fact you have to roll the arms to get them straight really bothers me, and the fact the helmet comes off really doesn't impress me. Weathering from the calves down, I'm sorry this figure just screams not good enough. While this mold may have been good enough for the AT-TE, it is not worthy of being dubbed "501st Trooper" or Vader's Legion. There are so many misses here, too cheap to only supply us with a Blaster pistol? Did they not have rifles when shown wiping out the Jedi? Why Hasbro? Why? Fire the shirt and ties with the degrees and hire 5 collectors. The profits would be so high, you wouldn't have to worry about reusing molds.

Spice - I could almost use another form of sign language. As hard as it was for me not to like this figure, I just simply couldn't get my hand to flip over. This is poor decision making at it's best. The closest they came to greatness was a semi-decent paint job, and that just doesn't cut it.

(Figure '05 | #65, Asst. No. 85174, Item No. 86730, Backing Card P/N 6508570200, Window Insert P/N 6508580200) 

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