I hated photographing the Clone Commander that we reviewed yesterday, because it’s just hard to pose, but has a lot going on that needed to be captured for the gallery.  As I had said, it was one of my favorites at the time, but hasn’t aged well for me - like most of the clones and stormtroopers from the aughts.  (By 2010, VC45 was a dream to pose compared to almost all the previous clones, but was so frustrating due to the inhuman proportions.)  On top of all that, there were two of them, so I had to do everything twice.  Fun!

Well, right on the heels of that, we get another clone figure with a variant.  This figure is equally frustrating today.  At the time it wasn’t bad, and seemed to serve the purpose of fitting inside various starships like the ARC-170 or the V-Wing.  But it also has been surprised, and simply hasn’t aged all that well.

I think the only time we saw the character on screen was the headshot of Clone Pilot Jag as he received Palpatine’s Order 66 and proceeded to shoot down Plo Koon’s Jedi Starfighter of Cato Neimoidia.  The rest of the body may have been inspired by behind the scenes shots or something from the cutting room floor when LFL gave Hasbro the assets. 

The overall sculpt and look of the figure isn’t bad.  It’s a bit chunky, but works well enough.  The figure’s helmet is sculpted with an open face.  It’s not particularly well done, and the helmet is not removable.  The visor, like the “banana” style that was so common in the Sequel Trilogy 5POA figure era, is not translucent.  The head, while articulated at the neck, is almost immobile for some reason.  It appears to be held in place, for the most part, but the attached hoses, but it seems like it should still have more range of motion.  The paint detailing on the helmet isn’t bad.

The articulation is rudimentary, even by 2005 standards.  We just reviewed Aayla Secura the other day, and she had all kinds of top notch articulation.  This figure has almost nothing to elevate it.  In addition to the barely usable “ball jointed” head, it’s got swivel shoulders, elbows, wrists (gloves), waist and hips, as well as ball jointed knees.  Again, no ankles.  It works to fit in a cockpit, as mentioned before, but is otherwise not particularly fun to pose.  You can manage a two-handed weapon grip of the blaster, which isn’t a total loss.

In addition to the blaster rifle, the real draw of this figure, if you’d call it that, is the included radar dish.  It’s a 3-piece item, with the body, dish, and missile.  The dish rotates 360 and aims up and down.  The projectile isn’t spring-loaded, but will fire if you push it.  You could also just throw it across the room without the radar dish.  While it is similar to the dish that came with the Blue Saga (AOTC) Pilot Padmé figure, that one had an exploding action feature, and a detailed interior.  This one has none of that.

Also included is a…thing.  It looks like the Grand Army of the Republic Official Issue Grabby Stick, kind of like this deal.  Otherwise, I don’t really get it.  It is designed to kind of look like the zip line claws that were included with the ROTS III 33 Clone Commander, but isn’t that.  According to photography by Curto on Rebelscum from back in the day, it may be intended to plug into the slot at the base of the radar, but I’m not really sure why.  Whatever.

As a variant, Hasbro rushed to market a repaint that put this figure into black “Imperial TIE Pilot” type of coloring.  This was not on screen, but seems like it was possible the Empire just change the coloring of the Republic flight suit in the early stages after founding.  The annoying part is that there is a shoulder patch on the gray pilot that is the 6-spoked cog of the Empire, even though it has a GAR emblem on the helmet.  The black pilot has the same Imperial cog, while dropping the graphic on the helmet.  Obviously this was an oversight, but the gray pilot should have the 8 spoked cog of the Republic.

Nothing all that great here.  The gray Clone pilot has been done much better, so this one is now just a part of history.  It’s certainly not a problem to stuff a few of these in the cockpits of your star fighters, or even in the deep background of a hanger scene of sorts.

5 stars.
5/10.