In order to help collectors quickly build their Clone Wars armies, Hasbro introduced a new-ish thing in the 2003 Clone Wars sub line of the blue Saga line.  We got a series of under-articulated, but fairly well sculpted, “troopers” to help expand our display.  Unless you were an army builder with money to burn, a lot of collectors were usually limited to one or maybe two of a particular basic troop figure.  Basics were $5 at the time, but these 3 packs were $10. 

The figures in the packs were definitely not up to standard as as a single basic offering, especially with the release of that nearly impossible to find featureless alien monolith, 03-50 Clone Trooper.  But this helped scratch that itch.  You probably had a ton of Jedi main character figures, some battle droid variants, and a few clones.  But now you could flesh out all three of those “factions” relatively inexpensively.

Here we focus on the Clone Trooper Army (Army of the Republic) sets.  I write “sets” as plural because there were 5 variants.  It probably took you a lot of hunting to collect all five if you were interested.  My version of 2003 consisted of many extra subway rides to the Times Square Toys R Us to find them all.

The sets all have 3 clones.  But there are troopers in 4 different poses and 5 different colors, although their Venn diagrams do not fully overlap.  The clones are either standing, kneeling, prone, or “scanning.”  The standard white clone trooper is the only one that exists in all 4 poses.  We also get a yellow commander in the “scanning” pose, complete with the only loose accessory, a pair of binoculars.  These binoculars do not fit well in the trooper’s hand, so removing the plastic tie is a regrettable action.  There is also a prone red captain, a standing blue lieutenant, and a kneeling green sergeant.  All of the figures, including the ones with the binoculars, have a blaster rifle that is sculpted right into one of the hands.

There is some limited articualation, with swivels at the neck and shoulders, which offer a slight chance a some variability in your displays between clones in the same pose.  But the points is that the 4 poses and 5 colors give you that variability without actually posing the figures.  Typically this is something most collectors definitely do not want.  I insist that I put the figures in the poses that I want - when and how I want them.  But there’s something to be said for the opportunity to get background diorama fodder that is inexpensive that looks pretty good and serves their purpose.  Trying to build out a Battle of Geonosis display without these figures is definitely a much more expensive proposition, and having them sprinkled around your set up is a good thing.

For scoring, these are 2 or 3 out of 5 figures, but since they are intended as less expensive army builders that succeed nicely in their purpose, I’ll give them a 4.  They definitely work in your display today, as long as you have the right expectations.