Tag Archives: ARF Trooper

#3822: ARF Trooper – Assault on Geonosis

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , ,

ARF TROOPER — ASSAULT ON GEONOSIS

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS (HASBRO)

So, remember just last week when I was talking about the Biker Scout armor and its various derivatives?  Cool, let’s loop back to that.  Amongst the prequel era Biker Scout derivatives is the ARF Trooper, a modified version of the standard Clone armor that surfaced in The Clone Wars.  I’m a huge fan of that particular design, and I’ve made it one of my goals to track down every version of it released in Hasbro’s tie-in line.  During the episode “Landing At Point Rain,” the ARF armor gets a re-deco in Geonosis-inspired camo, which got toy coverage in the form of recurring clones Boil and Waxer, but also a not-named clone, you know, for some variety.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The ARF Trooper was released in 2011 as part of the “Assault on Geonosis” Battle Pack from Hasbro’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars tie-in line, in a pack that also featured variants of Obi-Wan and the Geonosian Warrior.  The figure stands just shy of 4 inches tall and he has 26 points of articulation.  He’s using the standard ARF Trooper mold from the line, which also happens to be one of the line’s very best.  The articulation is just top notch, and the detailing is really fun.  Just generally a fantastic mold.  This one mixes it up on the paint front, as is the case with all the ARF Trooper variants.  It’s not *drastically* different from the ARF Boil and Waxer figures, of course, since they’re all Geonosis camo, but it’s different enough to say “hey, that’s different.”  The actual shades are yet another slightly tweaked set up, meaning were three for three on the colors being different.  He ditches the Boil and Waxer specific markings, swapping for a more generic set-up.  So, you know, different.  The ARF Trooper is packed with two styles of blaster, both long and medium, so that you can mix it up a bit.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Have I mentioned that I like the ARF Trooper design?  And also that I like the ARF Trooper mold?  Because I do.  And I do.  So, any chance I have to get another ARF figure I don’t have, I take.  Even if he isn’t *drastically* different from two other ARF Troopers I have already.  But he *is* different, and that’s the most important thing.  Yaaaaaaaaaaay!  New ARF Trooper!

Thanks to my sponsors over at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure to review.  If you’re looking for cool toys both old and new, please check out their website and their eBay storefront.

#3349: ARF Trooper

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , ,

ARF TROOPER

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS (HASBRO)

“These Advanced Reconnaissance Fighters often operate All-Terrain Recon Transport (AT-RT) walkers on scouting or combat operations. Riding atop these armed vehicles, ARF troopers can swiftly sweep through an area and cut down battle droids in their path.”

We’ve had environment and job specific troopers in Star Wars since the very beginning.  It’s on one hand very practical, and on the other a great way to justify more toys and other merch.  So, as the franchise has grown, so too have the variants on the troopers.  Within Clone Wars, there already some built-in armor variants going in, but a few more variants were quickly built-in.  Debuting in the theatrical film that launched the series were the ARF Troopers, a subset of clones with a unique helmet inspired by the Scout Troopers of the Original Trilogy.  The design cropped up a good number of times during the show, as well as a good number of times in the accompanying toyline.  I’m looking at the first of the toyline releases today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The ARF Trooper is figure CW10, released in the second assortment of the second generation of Hasbro’s Clone Wars line.  Since the first assortment was all re-packs moved to the new packaging style, the second assortment served as the first batch of real new figures for this adjusted version of the line, and the ARF Trooper was its first proper clone.  The figure stands a little over 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 26 points of articulation.  The ARF Trooper marked a notable step forward for the line, taking the already quite posable standard Clone Trooper body, and replacing the pelvis and upper legs to change the hip joints to universals, rather than the usual t-crotch.  This allowed the figure a great deal more mobility, and was just generally pretty awesome.  He also got a new head sculpt, based on the different helmet design.  Boy is it a sleek design, and boy does it look great in toy form.  Put the whole thing together, and you’ve got one of the slickest Clone sculpts the line ever produced.  The ARF Trooper’s paint work is fairly decent.  It’s largely pretty basic, but there’s some fun smaller detail work on the helmet, which has more going on than the usual Clone Trooper helmet.  The ARF Trooper is packed with a standard DC-15S blaster, a D-6 rotary blaster, and a firing missile.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I remember this figure first dropping.  It was right after I’d started my senior year of high school.  I remember finding him and his assortment-mate Commander Gree at retail fairly quickly.  And then I very vividly remember passing on them both because I had a date with a girl the next night and I thought it would be a wiser investment of my money to spend it on the date.  A week later, the girl had dumped me, and I had no new Clone Wars figures to console me.  Lesson learned.  Thankfully, by the end of the year, I’d gotten another chance, and I wound up with both of the figures I’d missed.  The ARF Trooper was at the time and remains to this day my very favorite mold from this line, and it all started with this guy.  He’s so much fun, and it’s a genuine goal of mine to own all of the variants of the mold.  Someday I’ll get there!

#2397: AT-RT (w/ ARF Trooper Boil)

Posted by Ethan Wilson in Reviews and tagged with , , , , , ,

AT-RT (w/ ARF TROOPER BOIL)

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS (HASBRO)

“Clone trooper Boil pilots an AT-RT during the battle to retake Geonosis. An AT-RT (All Terrain Recon Transport) is a one-man walker armed with a repeating laser cannon. With its height, mobility and speed, the walker allows Boil to support the embattled Republic forces as they fight waves of battle droids and Geonosian warriors.”

Since I reviewed Waxer yesterday, it feels kind of wrong to leave this pair incomplete.  It’s okay, because Hasbro was way ahead of me on that one, and saw fit to, you know, actually release a Boil that matched with yesterday’s Waxer…before they had even released that Waxer, in fact.  That sure was nice of them.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Boil and the AT-RT were released in 2010, as part of the Deluxe Figures sub-line of Hasbro’s Clone Wars tie-in.  Each entry in the line was one standard figure paired off with a smaller-scale vehicle.  There were a lot of main character variants included, but it did serve as a way for us to get a handful of new or slightly more unique character, including quite a number of clone variants.  This was the second ARF Trooper and AT-RT pairing released in the line, and wouldn’t end up being the last.  It was, however, the only one with a named clone.  Boil is pretty much the same figure as the Waxer I reviewed yesterday, being the same core body and all.  I love the core body, and it’s supposed to be the same armor, so that’s hardly a bad thing.  He does change up some things on the paint front a bit.  His colors are ever so slightly different from Waxer’s, likely due to them being produced a year apart from each other.  It’s not really that noticeable, unless you do something stupid like photograph both of them together under heavy contrast lighting.  But who would do something stupid like that?  Other than that, Boil also ports over his markings from his standard armor, with again the exception of some Numa-inspired graffiti, this time on the right side of his visor.  Again, it’s probably my favorite touch on these figures, because it clearly denotes who they’re supposed to be.  Boil doesn’t get the heavy gun like Waxer, but he’s still got the standard blaster and a stand.  Oh, right, and the AT-RT, of course.  First appearing in Revenge of the Sith, the AT-RTs were put to good use in The Clone Wars, and the mold was put to good use here in the toyline.  I’ve actually looked at a good chunk of it before, since it got repurposed for the Assault Walker from the Force Awakens line.  I liked that one well enough, and that was honestly a dumbed down version of this mold.  This one is more clearly designed to work with the included figure, and while it’s still not as articulated as the ones from the show, it’s a pretty nifty little vehicle, and certainly brings value to this set beyond just the Boil figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Boil came from the same collection at All Time that got me the matching Waxer, as well as the *other* Boil and Waxer.  I actually held off on this one a little bit, because there were two in the collection, and I wasn’t sure I wanted to buy the whole walker just to get a Boil to go with my Waxer.  Ultimately, I decided it was probably worth my time, and I’m glad I did, because it’s a fun little set in its own right.  Sure, Boil is only superficially different from the Waxer figure I already had, but I like having the two of them in yet another style, and now I’ve finally got one of the AT-RTs to go with the handful of ARF Troopers I’ve already got in my collection.  That’s pretty nifty!

As I touched on above,  I got this set from my friends at All Time Toys.  While the Clone Wars stuff moved pretty fast, they’ve got other cool toys both old and new, so please check out their website and their eBay Store.