Tag Archives: Captain Rex

#3865: Clone Captain Rex

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

CLONE CAPTAIN REX

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES (HASBRO)

“Rex served the Republic on the front lines during the Clone Wars, taking orders from Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano first as a captain and later a commander.”

Since The Clone Wars has little cross-over in terms of actors with the live action films it crosses over with, most of its original characters are portrayed through their entire runs by veteran voice actors, rather than the people that might play them in live action.  Some of them have made the jump with the same actor; Katee Sackoff as Bo-Katan is probably the best example.  What’s an interesting quirk of the nature of the Clone Troopers, who make up a solid portion of the show’s cast, is that they’re mostly new characters, but they’re voiced by an actor different than the one who portrayed them in live action.  This means that Captain Rex, easily the most prominent clone in the series, and really the most prominent clone in the wider franchise, spent the first decade and a half of his existence never having once been played by Temuera Morrison, the guy that originated the clones in the first place.  This was finally addressed in 2023, however, when Rex made his live action debut in Ahsoka via some key flashback sequences.  And, hey, Hasbro’s also taken advantage of that appearance to give us another Rex figure!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Clone Captain Rex is figure 16 in the Ahsoka show subline of Star Wars: The Black Series.  He’s in an assortment that also features the flashback version of Anakin from the same show, and they’re both based on their appearances from the earlier flashbacks, meaning Rex is in his Phase I armor.  Since the first Rex was in his later design, it makes this one a much needed variant.  The figure stands just over 6 inches tall and he has 31 points of articulation.  He’s built on the 2020 Clone Trooper body, rather than using the prior Rex body.  Technically, this does make him more accurate to specifically this armor set, and it’s not too bad a mold.  He gets a new pauldron, and belt with kama, which work about as well as they usually do.  The pauldron seems a bit floaty (I liked the affixed one from the last Rex mold), and the kama is a bit restricting, but those are both rather typical.  One minor but super cool touch is that he’s got a new left hand, which has a trigger finger, meaning he can *finally* hold both blaster pistols properly.  Yay!  His helmet is the standard Phase I style one, with the range finder added on.  Underneath, we get a head that looks to be very similar to the prior Rex, if it’s not actually the same sculpt.  It’s certainly a little sharper, though, and it fits better in the helmet.  His paint work aims for a cleaner look for Rex, which is true to the show, and also fits, this being Rex from earlier in the war.  It’s cleanly applied, and he generally looks pretty good.  Rex is packed with just his two blaster pistols.  It’s again accurate to the show, and I’m glad he can properly hold them, but also that feels really, really light.  I know that the Phase II helmet shouldn’t *technically* go on this body, but it might have been nice to at least get one as an option.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Rex’s appearance in Ahsoka was exceedingly exciting for me.  I literally jumped for joy.  And, as soon as I saw that Phase I armor, I was hopeful it might mean getting him in figure form.  It took a little bit longer than I expected, but I think it was worth it.  I like any chance to get another Rex, and I’ve always had a soft spot for the Phase I armor.  The figure winds up being mostly by the numbers, but, as silly as it may sound, that tweaked left hand *really* works for me.

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.

#3668: Clone Captain Rex

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

CLONE CAPTAIN REX

STAR WARS: THE VINTAGE COLLECTION (HASBRO)

Remember two weeks ago when I ended a lengthy hiatus from Vintage Collection with a review of a Bad Batch-based Captain Rex figure?  Did you know it was almost a review of a *different* Bad Batch-based Captain Rex figure from The Vintage Collection?  I mean, probably not.  I don’t tend to let other people know about my planned reviews in advance.  Anyway, there was the new Rex, so I hotplated him, but I didn’t want to just forget about the other one, so, two Rexes in one month?  Is that really so bad?  I don’t think so.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Clone Captain Rex was released as part of the Amazon-exclusive Bad Batch-themed Star Wars: The Vintage Collection four-pack, alongside three other non-Batch troopers.  He’s numbered VC208, making him numerically the first of the four included figures.  He’s based on Rex’s incognito look from the show, just like his Black Series figure from the same time. The figure stands about 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 26 points of articulation.  Rex is built on the previous Clone Trooper base body, which was first introduced in 2011, and is…well, it certainly shows its age.  The articulation is the earliest implementation of “super-articulated” in its more modern sense.  There’s a lot of movement, but it’s not as intuitive, and it’s a little floppy.  He’s also rather lanky, made only more evident by the removable helmet, which bulks the head up.  He gets a new belt piece and pauldron, as well as a cloth kama and poncho.  The pauldron is a curious oddity, since it’s not the full thing, due to being based directly on the animation models, which had tweaked it so that it wouldn’t clip through the poncho.  It’s not actually meant to be seen, and was swapped out for the full version in all of the scenes without the poncho present.  The helmet is also tweaked to add his extra visor piece.  It’s articulated, but it’s also connected to the range finder, so they both move in tandem, which looks a little weird.  Under the helmet we get an unmasked head, which is just a standard clone head re-used, meaning it’s got too much hair to be Rex, since he had his close cropped hair still in Bad Batch.  The color work is decent enough.  Not too far removed from the more recent one, though the blue paint seems a little more wobbly.  There’s some slop on the hairline, but otherwise, application is decent and pretty clean.  Rex is packed with his twin blaster pistols, which he can hold or holster, as per usual.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I like Rex a lot, but I wasn’t rushing out to buy three other figures just to get this one, especially because its a Vintage Collection release.  So, I opted to play the waiting game.  It worked out, because I was able to snag a loose one through All Time, when it was traded in a couple of months ago.  He’s a rather dated figure, and far moreso than he should be, given he’s only actually three years old.  But, he’s at least a more unique design, and he’s got the poncho to hide some of the worst of it.  Ultimately, it’s another Rex, and I can certainly dig that.

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.

#3658: Clone Commander Rex – Bracca Mission

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

CLONE COMMANDER REX — BRACCA MISSION

STAR WARS: THE VINTAGE COLLECTION (HASBRO)

“Presumed dead at the dawn of the Empire, Rex operates in the shadows – helping any clone brothers who remain separate from the Imperial ranks.”

I haven’t reviewed a Vintage Collection figure since February of 2022, which is quite a while ago. To be fair, I haven’t bought any VC in that time either. I found myself experiencing diminishing returns as the price increased and the figures got more complex, but not so much more fun. But, well, there’s a new Rex, and he’s on my short list of characters that could get me to buy a VC figure. So, you know, that’s what happened. Thrilling, right? Well, let’s review this guy!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Clone Commander Rex (Bracca Mission) is part of the latest assortment of Hasbro’s Star Wars: The Vintage Collection, which is a mid-summer release. He’s figure VC317, and officially hails from the Bad Batch sub-set of the line. I was intrigued by his “commander” rank, which he was granted during the Battle of Mandalore in Clone Wars, but which I’m also pretty sure Jesse stripped him of when Order 66 kicked in. I suppose with the whole Republic Army dismantled and the whole dying thing, Jesse may not have officially filed the necessary paperwork, so I guess Rex gets to keep the higher rank? It does at least help to further differentiate from the other two VC Rex figures (though one of those is *also* from Bad Batch, which just further confuses whether he kept the promotion or not).  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 26 points of articulation.  Rex’s largely built from the most recent revamp of the Clone Trooper body, introduced last year.  It’s a good starting point.  The articulation scheme here is more in line with where the larger scale was a few years ago, which is good for range and stability, especially at this scale.  I found it much easier to get him into poses and also keep him standing than typically is the case with Vintage Collection figures.  That’s a very welcome improvement.  He gets a new head sculpt, which is just the helmet.  It’s a good recreation of Rex’s modified helmet from later in the show, improving even on the earlier small-scale Black Series sculpt.  He also gets a new pauldron and belt.  The pauldron’s a little floaty for my taste, but the helmet at least helps keep in place in a lot of poses.  The belt also gets a fabric skirt piece, which is much better for posing than the sculpted one from the earlier Rex.  It sits a little odd on the front, but generally looks okay.  Rex’s color work isn’t too bad.  It’s more on the basic side, going for a cleaner Rex than we’ve seen previously.  We do still get his tally marks, since it’s a Phase II model, and they’re nice and clean.  I counted 161 this time, which is down by two from the smaller Black Series…I think.  I may have miscounted on one of them, though, so don’t quote me on it.  Rex is packed with an alternate unmasked head, as well as his twin blaster pistols.  The head does get his slight scar on the temple, indicating it’s a post-Order 66 Rex, as it’s meant to be.  It still looks a little weird to me to have him with the Morrison likeness, but it is what it is.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Every time I’m tempted by a Vintage Collection figure, I try to remember that it’s generally not a line I’m super into, and that I don’t tend to enjoy the figures once I get them in hand.  As such, I wasn’t initially planning to grab this one.  I am, however, weak.  Once I saw him in person, I had a hard time saying no.  I felt like I was gonna regret it…but I actually don’t?  I don’t like the pauldron.  It’s floaty and the exact sort of thing that bugs me on this line.  That said, it’s a small thing, and the rest of the figure’s enough to offset it.  He’s actually a lot of fun, and a lot more sturdy than I expected.

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.

#3450: Rebel Commando

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

REBEL COMMANDO

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES (HASBRO)

Star Wars is big on is faceless armies getting lots and lots of troop builders, and that’s all well and good, but what about the not so faceless ones?  Don’t they deserve some love too?  Absolutely, they do.  Though not as prominent as the Imperial forces, the Rebel Troopers are the backbone of the good guys forces in the Original Trilogy.  They get one notable ground forces look for each of the three films, and thus far we’ve gotten the Fleet Trooper look from A New Hope and the cold weather gear from Empire.  We hadn’t gotten what is objectively the best Rebel Trooper design, however (totally un-biased and objective take there, by the way), the Endor Rebel from Return of the Jedi.  But, with Jedi‘s 40th anniversary upon us, it’s the perfect time to fix that!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Rebel Commando is a deluxe-sized (well, deluxe-priced, anyway) Star Wars: The Black Series release, falling under the Return of the Jedi 40th Anniversary sub-line where everything is on retro cards.  He’s the second deluxe figure in this run, following the re-packed Boba Fett from earlier in the line.  The Commando, however, is an all-new offering, and as of right now, there aren’t any plans for a non-retro card release later.  The figure stands 6 inches tall and he has 29 points of articulation.  He’s using what’s become the standard set-up for articulation in the line, and it works very well for him.  Still thrilled the butterfly shoulders have become standard.  The Rebel Commando is sporting an all-new sculpt.  There are a couple of slight variations on the Endor Rebel set-up, but this figure’s largely centered on the more standard infantry get-up, with the helmet, vest, and basic fatigues.  The sculpt does a strong job of capturing the look; there’s plenty of layers, and the detailing is all nice and sharp.  I also especially dig how both hands get an extended trigger finger, allowing him to hold the rifle with either dominant hand, which aids in the customizability.  The head’s got the helmet permanently attached, and, in its default state, he’s got a head that’s clean shaven.  It appears to be based on Dutch stuntman Dickey Beer, who according to the old EU lore was “Sgt Junkin”, the strike team’s demolitions expert.  But, if you’re not a crazy person like me who looks all that information up, he works as a pretty nice generic Commando.  Like the Hoth Rebel, this guy gets an extra faceplate to make him into an additional Rebel.  This one’s even more distinctive than the first, sporting the signature white beard of the EU’s “Nik Sant,” the team’s pathfinder.  There’s been some debate since Rebels gave Captain Rex a similar white beard about whether Sant might in fact be Rex, and it seems that someone over at Hasbro’s team Rex, because the face is definitely patterned on Temuera Morrison.  Not that it makes him look *unlike* the guy that’s only in the background of a few shots of the movie, so, you know, it still works.  The paint work on this guy is generally pretty decent. It matches up with the depiction in the movie, and there’s some solid work on the camo, as well as some cool damage detailing on the helmet.  The only downside is that there’s hair visible on the back of the head, under the helmet, and its coloring doesn’t match with the second faceplate.  I guess they could have just had the helmet sit just a touch lower and leave the hair off entirely, but that wouldn’t be accurate, so it’s a catch-22.  The Commando is packed with both a Blastech A-295 rifle and a DH-17 blaster, a bandolier, and a survival pack.  While it’s a decent set-up of extras, it does feel rather light, given the price point.  The Hoth version was packed with more or less the same set-up of stuff, and he was standard retail.  Obviously, he was a good deal at the time, and Black Series figures trend towards limited accessories, but still.  He even loses the storage for the extra face plate in the back pack, which feels like a real missed opportunity.  Given the wider range of looks for the Endor Rebels, if they’d given this guy a third face plate, and perhaps the trench coat that Endor Han had, I feel like I’d be in a much better spot about the deluxe pricing.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Endor Rebels are hands down my favorite design for the Rebel troops, and I’ve been looking forward to the inevitable addition of them to The Black Series.  I loved the Hoth Rebel, and that only made me more excited for this guy.  I won’t lie: I’ve got some issues with this release.  The hair thing, the lack of storage for the faceplate, and the less for more side of things all are a bit frustrating.  However, I’m an easy mark, so none of those issues were enough to stop me from getting two of these right out of the gate, especially once I knew there was a Nik Sant faceplate.  It’s a very fun figure, and I honestly wouldn’t hate it if we got a different version with some different faces and accessories, just for more mixing and matching.  Until then, these two are backing up my heroes in full force.

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.

#3236: Captain Rex

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

CAPTAIN REX

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS (HASBRO)

“Captain Rex accompanies Anakin Skywalker to the planet Teth to rescue Jabba’s kidnapped son. Like all clone troopers, Captain Rex believes that the mission always comes first. When he and his fellow troopers are surrounded by battle droids, outnumbered and outgunned, he never wavers in his commitment to the mission, even if it means this battle could be his last.”

The Clone Wars begins with a focus on characters we’ve seen before in the main movie, but to allow for a little bit of visible growth, given its status as an inter-quel, there were a few new characters as well.  Over the course of the series, two of these new characters, Jedi padawan Ahsoka Tano and Clone Trooper Captain Rex, become the central focus of the series, as their unique views on the titular conflict allow for quite a journey for both characters.  Today, I’m looking at the first figure of one half of that pair, Captain Rex, today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Captain Rex was figure 4 in the first series of Hasbro’s Clone Wars tie-in line, and was released with the main product launch before the pilot movie hit theaters.  Just before this figure’s main release, there was a special mail-away “Sneak Preview” version, which is more or less the same figure, albeit with an ever so slightly different paint scheme, and slightly different accessories.  The one seen here is the initial release, however.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 24 points of articulation.  The Clones always had the best articulation in the line, and, apart from t-hips instead of universals, it really didn’t get any better than this.  Rex shares a number of parts with the standard Clone Trooper, namely the arms and legs.  The head, torso, and pelvis were unique when the figure first dropped, but pretty much everything on the figure would eventually be re-used elsewhere.  It was generally a pretty strong sculpt.  It’s not perfect, and it certainly doesn’t have the polish of the later Jet Pack Rex, but it was a good effort for the start.  The articulation on the hips is a bit stiff, but he’s otherwise quite posable, and it’s generally a good mix of function and aesthetics.  The helmet on this figure is removable, and it’s probably the weakest aspect of the figure.  Later removable helmets were more consistent with the non-removable ones, but this one’s oddly shaped to accommodate the design set-up.  The underlying head is a passable sculpt, but it suffers from the recurring issue of the early clones, where their faces made them look much older than they should have looked.  Rex’s paint work is fairly involved, and very much on par with the rest of the figures from the same time.  The base work is a little bit on the dark side, especially on the blues, so some of the contrast is lost a bit in some spots.  As a first release, he’s also got a lot of that black wash to add the grimy look to him.  It’s a little heavy handed in some spots, but he’s at least unique when compared to later clones.  Rex is packed with his long blaster rifle, two small blaster pistols, a grapple attachment for the front of the rifle, and two different missiles for it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Back when the line launched, this was one of the first four figures I grabbed from Target, prior to seeing the movie or the show.  Obviously, I didn’t know who Rex was yet, but I had liked Fordo in the 2D series, as well as his corresponding figure, so I saw this one as at the very least an update to that.  Rex would wind up becoming one of my favorite Star Wars characters, so it was a figure purchase that certainly worked out for me in the end.

#2118: Captain Rex – Jet Propulsion Pack

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

CAPTAIN REX — JET PROPULSION PACK

STAR WARS: THE CLONE WARS (HASBRO)

“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.”

Star Wars: The Clone Wars had the good fortune of hitting pretty much at the height of the 3 3/4 inch line’s quality and popularity, but even with a strong start, Hasbro wasn’t content to sit back and just tread water.  This meant that there were improvements to how they were making the figures with each successive year of the line.  In order to keep things relatively balanced, the show’s main characters all found themselves getting an update every so often.  Given “Clone” was in the title, it’s no surprise that the series’ main clone, Captain Rex, found himself with some of the most figures of any one in the line.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Jet Propulsion Pack Rex was released in 2011, as figure 62 in that year’s Star Wars: The Clone Wars Basic Series line-up.  He was the line’s third version of the character, following the initial release and his cold-weather variant.  This one used a fancy new accessory as an excuse to give us an all-new take on the character’s already in the toyline design, lest he be the only main character not to get an update following the Season 3 model changes.  Rex’s model didn’t change, but the upgrades to the way the figures were made meant his 2008 figure looked a bit out of place with Anakin, Obi-Wan, and Ahsoka’s new figures.  The figure stands 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 20 points of articulation.  Despite most of the clones being built from a common pool of parts, Rex was instead an all-new sculpt.  With that all-new sculpt was a new articulation scheme, which has a bit of give and take.  While he lost the hinges at the wrists, as well as the entire joint at the ankles and mid-torso, the figure gains a set of ball-jointed hips, which were quite a bit deal.  For the longest time, it didn’t matter how well-articulated a Star Wars figure may be, they’d always be saddled with a t-crotch.  This line’s ARF Trooper had experimented in a slightly different style of hips, which had some side to side, but again there was some give and take, and a definite learning curve on how those joints worked.  This Rex just had pretty straight forward ball-jointed hips, giving him the best possible range of movement.  It’s too bad that other joints had to be cut to facilitate this, but I think they managed a reasonable balance given the circumstances.  Rex’s sculpt is certainly the most show-accurate version of the character we got in the line, and probably one of the most show-accurate clone sculpts that the line produced period.  The armor’s details are for the most part very crisp, the removeable helmet manages to retain its accuracy even when being made from a softer plastic, and the underlying unmasked head isn’t as undersized as others in the line.  It also doesn’t have that issue of looking far older than it should, which a lot of the earlier clones (including the prior Rex) did.  His kama is cloth this time, aiding in the articulation, and also more appropriately simulating the improved movement among the show’s models from the same time.  Lastly, it’s a minor thing, but this Rex has both of his hands sculpted with trigger fingers, meaning for one of the very few times, he is able to properly dual wield.  That’s kind of amazing.  Rex’s paintwork is pretty solid.  The line went back and forth on if they wanted to do weathering on the clones, and Rex sort of catches some of that.  He lacks the dark wash of his earliest figures, but still has wavy edges to the colored sections of his armor, showing that he painted those sections on himself, and that they’re starting to wear a bit.  About the only thing that really bugs me on this guy’s paint is that his viewfinder was left all-white, but that’s pretty minor.  Rex has a pretty extensive selection of extras.  There’s the removable helmet, of course, as well as his dual blaster pistols, so that you can have a proper basic Rex.  On top of that, he also gets a larger blaster pistol and the titular Jet Propulsion pack.  The pack has a little removable Mandolorian-styled jetpack attached to the back as well, which can be directly plugged into Rex’s back.  Rex was seen sporting just the smaller pack from time to time on the show, so it’s nice that they included that option.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

When this figure was released, I was still very much collecting this line, but I was sort of in and out on it.  I don’t know if I saw this guy in the wild, but I may have assumed he wasn’t all that different from the original release, which I was pretty happy with.  It wasn’t until years later that I actually found out how different he was, and at that point tracking one down was more of an endeavor.  My chance at getting one arrived a couple of weeks ago, courtesy of All Time Toys, who just got in a Clone Wars collection.  While piecing them together, I picked out a few for myself, which did *not* include Rex here.  However, in addition to yesterday’s Minimate set, Max had also given me $20 in store credit, which was just enough to net me this guy.  For the record?  That makes this his fault again.

#1854: Captain Rex

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

CLONE CAPTAIN REX

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES (HASBRO)

“Clone Captain Rex served the Republic during the Clone Wars, often taking orders from Anakin Skywalker and Ahsoka Tano.  He viewed military service as an honor, and he always completed his mission.”

When The Black Series launched, I was sticking to a pretty firm “no prequels” rule.  Even before breaking that rule so many times over, I had a small few exceptions.  Amongst them was the focus of today’s review, Clone Captain Rex.  Introduced during the second Clone Wars cartoon, Rex has become one of the biggest break-out characters of the entire prequel era, and is, for me, one of that whole shebang’s most redeeming aspects.  And now I have yet another Rex figure.  Noice.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Captain Rex was initially released as an exclusive to HasCon last year, before seeing a proper release as figure 59 in the main Black Series line-up, hitting stores in the same early 2018 assortment as Island Journey Rey and DJ.  This Rex, like his smaller Black Series counterpart, is based on his design from the end of the Clone Wars show, as they approached the Revenge of the Sith aesthetic.  The figure stands 6 1/4 inches tall and he has 31 points of articulation.  All of the prior Black Series Clone Trooper releases I’ve looked at have drawn from the same pool of parts.  This figure, on the other hand, uses an entirely unique sculpt.  As much as I like that old sculpt, I definitely appreciate the changed-up design here, which has sharper detailing, slightly more balanced proportions, and a much more-improved range of motion on the joints.  The articulation is definitely my favorite aspect of the new sculpt, especially the shoulders, which actually slot into the shoulder socket, rather than just pushing upward.  Like Wolffe, Rex features a removable helmet, which is reasonable enough, though I can’t say that Rex’s animated design has translated all that well to the realistic styling.  Fortunately, the helmet is very nicely sculpted and stays on tightly once in place, so you never have to take it off if you don’t want to.  Rex’s paint work is one of the best Black Series offerings I’ve gotten.  All of the base work is cleanly applied, he’s got some pretty solid weathering on the armored sections (though it gets a little heavy on his helmet and the belt), and he even has all of the tally marks, like his smaller version, no doubt tracking his kill count.  It’s a fun little touch, and I’m glad it was included here.  Rex is packed with his twin blaster pistols, which are the same ones we saw with Wolffe, and are a very sensible choice for Rex, since he was usually seen carrying them.  Like with Wolffe, to have Rex properly dual-wield them, you will need to free his left hand’s trigger finger from the other three, though.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

So, as noted, I’m a pretty big fan of Rex.  I couldn’t get the exclusive, so I was definitely down for the mass release…or I would have been if I had been able to find him anywhere.  But, try and try as I may, I had no luck with that.  Fortunately, Hasbro’s been working to get out re-freshes of some of the harder to find figures, so I was able to get in on a preorder for one of those.  It took its sweet time to get here, but he was certainly worth the wait.  By far, Rex is the strongest of the Clone Commanders we’ve gotten, and I’m really happy that I was able to get a hold of one.

#1107: Captain Rex

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

CAPTAIN REX

STAR WARS: THE FORCE AWAKENS

rexrebels1

Ever since The Force Awakens re-launched everything, I’ve been on a pretty serious Star Wars kick, and it’s only gotten worse with all the Rogue One stuff.  One of the things I’m finally getting around to as part of said kick is watching Star Wars: Rebels.  I gotta say, I don’t know why I put it off for so long, it’s definitely a fun show.  One of the cool things about the show is how it’s connecting its predecessor Clone Wars with the Original Trilogy, by bringing in a few of Clone Wars’ original characters.  One of my personal favorites from Clone Wars was clone Captain Rex, who appears in Rebels during the second season.  I haven’t gotten to him on the show just yet, but that didn’t stop me from picking up his action figure!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

rexrebels2Captain Rex is from the towards the tail-end of the Star Wars: The Force Awakens line.  He was part of the third Desert Gear assortment, alongside Unkar Plutt and FN-2187.  This assortment technically hit back in February, but most places didn’t see it until early summer.  Rex is based on his Rebels appearance, which is a fair bit removed from his Clone Wars look, what with it being 15 years later and all.  The figure stands about 3 3/4 inches tall and has the basic 5 points of articulation we’ve come to expect from the standard 3 3/4-inch stuff.  Rex’s sculpt is unique to him, and it does an alright job translating his show design into plastic form.  I wouldn’t mind a bit more fine detailing here and there, but the overall appearance matches up pretty well.  For some reason, Rex has been sculpted with his chest puffed out bit and his neck set back.  The only way to get him to look forward is to tilt the head down as far as it will go on the ball joint, and even then he’s still sort of looking upward.  I’m not sure why they handled him that way, and it makes posing him rather difficult.  In terms of paint, Rex is certainly well executed from at technical standpoint, with most of the paintwork being rather clean.  The real issue is that he’s actually too clean.  His show design has the armor looking rather disheveled, but on the figure that’s really limited to just the bottom of his boots.  He doesn’t look terrible by any means, but he isn’t quite as cool as he could be either.  Rex includes a pair of small blaster pistols, just like the ones he carried during Clone Wars, which can be stored in the holsters on his legs.  He also has his helmet, which seems slightly oversized, but is still pretty cool.  I especially like that he still has the tally marks that he was sporting towards the end of TCW.  Lastly, Rex has a piece of the build-a-whatsit thing.  It’s a staff that fires a missile.  It’s actually not as lame as prior pieces, but still not adding much value to the figure.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I actually picked up Rex before starting Rebels, back during the summer.  I was in upstate New York with Super Awesome Girlfriend and her aunt and uncle on an RV trip, and I found this guy at the local Walmart.  Not gonna lie, I partly bought him because he was one of the few figures there I didn’t have, and I was sort of going into withdrawal due to not having ready access to internet and being in a town with literally nowhere to buy action figures (apart from said Walmart).  That being said, I’d been intrigued by this figure since seeing his prototype at SDCC.  I’ve always had a soft spot for Rex, and I look forward to seeing him on the show. 

#0726: Captain Rex

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

CAPTAIN REX

STAR WARS: THE BLACK SERIES

CapRex1

If there’s one upside to the Star Wars prequels, it’s the fact that they allowed for the creation of both of the Clone Wars animated series.  They managed to do impossible things like not suck and be something other than the absolute worst, which the prequels never really got down. The second of the two shows had a heavy focus on the Clone Troopers themselves, and changed them from a faceless legion to a collection of actual characters. One of the central clones in the show was Clone Captain Rex, who ended up becoming one of the show’s most popular characters. He got several figures during the actual Clone Wars toylines, and just before the shift to the Force Awakens stuff, he even made his way into the smaller scale The Black Series line.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

CapRex2Captain Rex was figure #09 in the 2014 series of the 3 ¾ inch Star Wars: The Black Series figures. He was part of the second assortment of figures released that year (the same assortment that gave us Commander Doom, for those interested). The figure is a little over 3 ¾ inches in height and has 24 points of articulation. Rex is based on his design from towards the end of the show, after several improvements had been made to his armor. Unlike other Clone Troopers from the show, Rex never got a full Phase II style helmet, instead opting to stick with a slightly modified Phase I helmet. It’s kind of one of his more unique features, and it’s showcased here. Like Doom, Rex’s figure takes his design from the show and realizes it a bit, so that it can fit in with the other figures from this line. His sculpt does this translation pretty well, retaining most of his defining traits from his show design, while also brining him in line with the “real-life” Clone Troopers. The figure uses the same basic body as the one we saw on Doom. It’s less articulated than I’d like, but it’s a decent sculpt, so I can’t complain too much. He gets a unique helmet, shoulder piece, and “skirt” piece with holsters. The new parts are nice, sharp sculpts, and the helmet in particular has some fantastic fine detail work. Hasbro’s weak link is and always shall be its paint apps. It’s not to say they aren’t trying, mind you. Rex has some phenomenal work. The weird blue eyebrow things on his helmet are really sharp and the 163 (yes, I counted them all) tally marks placed all around his armor are a really cool touch. So, what’s the problem? It’s the base color work again. The areas around the holsters are definitely the worst offenders, with tons of overspray and slop, but all of the base work is pretty darn sloppy, which kind of ruins all the effort that was put into the finer detail work. Rex is packed with a pair of blaster pistols. They’re a bit hard to get into his holsters, but he holds them well enough. Like Doom, the accessories feel a bit light for a figure in the higher-priced line. It couldn’t be that hard to throw in a large blaster or something.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Rex here was the second of the two pre-Force Awakens figures I found during my Force Friday travels. I couldn’t pass on Doom, but I didn’t need Rex. Of course, I was with Super Awesome Girlfriend at the time, and she absolutely refuses to let me put a figure back, no matter how many times I say I don’t need it. So, she bought him for me. I can’t say Rex was a figure I was desperately searching for or anything, but I did like the character on the show, and I thought this figure looked pretty cool. I’m glad to have him, because, paint issues aside, he’s actually a pretty great little figure.