AHSOKA’S CLONE TROOPER

STAR WARS: GALAXY OF ADVENTURES (HASBRO)

My last Galaxy of Adventures review was published in January of 2020.  Good thing nothing major has happened since then, huh?  Oh, wait, sorry, I’m getting word that *everything* major has happened since then.  My mistake.  When I wrote my last GoA review, the line was still quite new, and most of what had been shown off was already released.  We had two items, both from the then upcoming final season of Clone Wars, that we knew were coming, but we didn’t know when.  In the chaos that was 2020 and its effects on the retail landscape, more GoA figures were released, but not in any way that was consistent or easily located, and it was a good couple of figures before we got the two we were expecting, and even then, they were kind of an understated release.  But, umm, I got one?  So, without further ado, here’s Ashoka’s Clone Trooper, about six years overdue.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Ahsoka’s Clone Trooper was, at least initially, meant to be released in the third series of Star Wars: Galaxy of Adventures, which would have, presumably, hit in the spring of 2020, to coincide with the release of the final episodes of Clone Wars, which are the episodes wherein this design appeared.  Distribution chain issues made that troublesome, so he and his assortment mates just sort of quietly showed up at the end of 2020, in pretty much no notable numbers much of anywhere, with no fanfare to speak of, and then kind of disappeared just as quickly and quietly.  The figure stands 5 inches tall and he has 22 points of articulation.  His articulation scheme is much the same as the other figures in the line.  I always found it to be quite an effective set-up, hitting all of the major spots and offering up a good range of motion, while still keeping him at that basic price point level.  His sculpt was unique, though given its just the standard Phase II Clone armor, I’d imagine the plan wasn’t for it to stay that way, had the line gotten the chance to progress more naturally.  More than a few times in my old reviews, I referenced the line as having something of a Clone Wars aesthetic to it, and that’s none more evident than here, on a character from Clone Wars.  In fact, this winds up being the closest we’ve gotten to an Ahsoka Trooper that actually looks like they did on the screen, since all the other figures have been “real world” versions.   I really like this sculpt, and think it’s very clean and striking, and really works well.  The color work is what sells it specifically as an Ahsoka Trooper, with the distinctive markings on the helmet and all.  The paint’s a little bit spotty around some of the edges, but generally, it works well.  The Trooper is packed with a simple blaster rifle, which he can hold easily in his hands.  He sports an “action feature” in the form of spring-loaded shoulder joints, allowing for a “blaster fire” effect.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I was a huge fan of this line early on, as can no doubt be seen in all those early run reviews.  Unfortunately, the pandemic changed a lot of things in my life, which included how I shopped for toys, meaning I wasn’t going out of my way at retail to find things.  I ended up snagging a few of the later figures that came in through All Time second hand, but this one eluded me, which was a shame, because I was genuinely very excited for him.  It wound up kind of dampening my desire to get any others, and the line went away not long after that anyway, so that was that.  At least until I took Matty to Yesterday’s Fun while we were in the area back in December, and after buying him a few things, noticed this guy sitting near the counter.  I quite like this figure, and he’s pretty much exactly what I’d been hoping for six years ago when he was shown off.  It’s not often something takes me back to where I was six years ago, but this one did it, and that was honestly a nice experience.