Tag Archives: Genndy Tartakovsky

#3708: Durge

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

DURGE

STAR WARS: CLONE WARS (HASBRO)

Genndy Tartakovsky’s Star Wars: Clone Wars is something I don’t talk about with any real frequency, but that’s not for lack of love, I assure you.  It’s easily the best thing from the prequel era released during the run of the three films, and even when you expand past that, it’s really only rivaled by the 3D Clone Wars, and that one needed a much longer run to achieve the rivalry.  While the show worked with a lot of pre-existing characters, it had a few originals, which included Separatist Bounty Hunter Durge, who serves as one of the notable antagonists.  Durge is surprisingly sparse on action figure coverage, but was at the very least part of the short tie-in line for the show.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

Durge was released as a single figure in the second assortment of animated Star Wars: Clone Wars figures, released in 2003.  He was also subsequently re-released in 2005 as part of the “Sith Attack Pack” entry in the Commemorative DVD Collection, alongside Asajj Ventress and General Grievous.  Mine is the single release, though the two are more or less identical.  The figure stands about 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 5 points of articulation.  As with all of the 2D animated figures, this one prioritizes form over function.  His articulation his limited to the neck, the shoulders, and wrists, with no movement below the torso at all.  The movement he *does* have is largely for minor tweaks to the one predetermined pose he’s got.  Ultimately, with Tartakovsky’s style, the glorified statue approach is the best way to handle things.  It translates very well to this set-up, and they’ve made him work pretty well from most angles.  He’s clean and he’s very stylized, and it’s very clear who it’s supposed to be.  His color work is flat colors, capturing the cel animation’s coloring set-up.  The application’s all fairly clean, and there’s no notable missing details.  He’s packed with his jousting-lance-thingy from the show, as well as one of the stands that was packed with all of the figures.  It’s not much, but none of these figures were very accessory heavy.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

As much as I loved the show, I had very few of the figures from it at the time of their release.  The line was just generally hard to find.  Durge in particular was one I wanted but never could get.  I wound up getting him from Cosmic Comix back in late 2017, I believe?  I even took the photos that accompany this review back when I got him, but I just kept putting off writing the actual review until this very moment.  That’s just how I roll sometimes.  He’s pretty par for the course on this line.  They’re not astoundingly fun to mess with, I suppose, but they sure do look really cool.

#1330: Arc Trooper

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

ARC TROOPER

STAR WARS: CLONE WARS (HASBRO)

“Through the creative vision of Lucasfilm Ltd. and the Cartoon Network, the Clone Wars are brought to life in an exciting new series of short animated chapters. A unique animation style captures the drama of this epic period in galactic history along with its outstanding heroes and adversaries. Noble Jedi warriors lead Clone Troopers into battle against the evil Separatist forces and their droid armies. Anakin, Obi-Wan, Yoda and their comrades struggle against the rising power of the dark side and confront personal challenges against a backdrop of war-torn planets”

Easily the best thing to come out of the Star Wars prequels is Genndy Tartakovsky’s Star Wars: Clone Wars micro series, released in the period between Attack of the Clones and Revenge of the Sith.  It was the most fun that Star Wars had been since the original trilogy.  There were a couple of cool new ideas introduced by the series, including the Advanced Recon Commando Troopers, or ARC Troopers, an advanced group of clones personally trained by Jango Fett before his demise.  I’ll be taking a look at one of them today!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The ARC Trooper was released in the 2005 assortment of Hasbro’s animated-style Star Wars: Clone Wars line.  Though the figure is simply named “ARC Trooper,” he appears to be specifically based on Captain Fordo, the lead ARC Trooper from the series.  The figure stands about 3 1/2 inches tall (he’d be closer to 4 if he were standing upright) and he has 4 points of articulation.  This line was specifically based on Tartakovsky’s line-art from the series.  He’s style is very fluid, which means the figures are rather limited on the articulation front.  A number of figures opted for a more static pose, but the ARC Trooper was actually sculpted in a rather pre-posed manner.  He’s mid-stride, with his right outstretched in a commanding motion and his left down by his side holding a blaster.  While I’m generally not a huge fan of pre-posing on action figures, this is definitely one time where it really works, because it aids in capturing that fluid style I was talking about.  The sculpt does an overall pretty solid job of capturing the distinctive design of the clones from the cartoon.  The only slightly off part is the helmet; on the show, the helmets bowed inward at the bottom, but here it flares out.  It doesn’t result in a super different look or anything, but it’s ever so slightly off.  Still, it’s quite a nice sculpt.  The paintwork on this guy is pretty straightforward.  It’s just flat colors, as it should be.  The application is mostly pretty clean, though there’s a bit of slop on the edges of the kama.  Fordo included a pair of blasters, which can either be held or stowed in his fully-functioning holsters.  He also included the same black display stand included with all of the Clone Wars figures, though, surprisingly, he doesn’t really need it.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

Captain Fordo was my first Clone Wars figure.  I was always interested in the line, but all the figures I wanted were in hot demand at the time, so I could never find them in stores.  I ended up getting this guy while on a day trip with my dad and my brother.  We had gone to a small comic show, which had been a bust in terms of action figures, so my dad took us to a Target on the way back and let us each pick something out.  Christian got an Anakin and I got this guy.  He’s not a super complex figure or anything, but I still really like him, and he reminds me that I should really track down more of this line.