The all white Phase 2 Clone Troopers are a pain in the tushy.  The promotional materials were filthy with these, uh…clean white troopers.  The problem is that they didn’t make it into the final cut of ROTS, unless you include the ones that were on board the gunship in the skies of Coruscant that transported Yoda, Mace, and Obi-Wan to the 41st Elite Corps staging area prior to shoving off to Kashyyyk.  It is widely believed (confirmed?) that those were an editing error, and should have had the gray flashes of the 41st - which are seen in large numbers on the ground when the gunship lands.  Hasbro, going off either the promotional images or additional intel provided by LFL, was all in on the white clones, starting with figure III 06 Clone Trooper.  We recently reviewed that figure, and it was fairly lame because it was both a step back from the gold standard Clone Wars ‘03-50 Clone Trooper [Phase 1] as well as it having included an action feature.

The 03-50, as we have recognized, was the Granddaddy of Super Articulation, and ROTS figure #06 just wasn’t in the same ballpark.  Sadly, that mold was re-used and repainted multiple times, including the running change to the shocktrooper variant.  But then we got an update with this, #41 in the line.  It used 03-50 as its basis.  I’ve looked closely, and while many parts seem to have been slightly modified and retooled (in addition to the obvious helmet and torso) it has 03-50 DNA throughout.  For all intents and purposes, it’s the Phase 2 version of that sculpt.  At the time, it was the logical evolution of the figure, and was a welcome upgrade from #06, which was rendered instantly obsolete (unless you were a fan of the swap out Imperial logo shoulder armor).

The figure takes that same base, and the first thing it does is give it the Phase 2 helmet.  It’s nicely proportioned (as is the rest of the body - unlike the absurdly inhuman skinny proportions of VC45, which was the next significant change to the 3.75” clone trooper.  Many of the clone figures from this era had the removable helmets, which seemed to not be all that well-received.  However, ROTS 41 had the permanently helmeted headsculpt.  The other big change was the inclusion of the black antenna accessory, which plugs into a horizontal slot on the figure’s back.  It was a long time before I learned that this antenna is actually from the film.  If you look closely at the gray 41st Elite troopers that greet the aforementioned gunship, at least one has the antenna on his back, although it is much more slender (almost invisible) than the giant rod (giggity) on the figure’s accessory.  But again, it wasn’t an all white trooper that had this, so despite the effort, it’s still not screen accurate.  And finally, there’s the weathering.  It was a nice change of pace to include the various scuffs and scratches (but no carbon scoring) on the figure to add some “used” quality to the armor.  Again, however, no white clones in the film to justify this added detail.

So what you’re left with is 2005’s best clone sculpt - by far - which was reused many times for years to come.  The sculpt was certainly a top notch effort, despite it having lost much of its luster over time.  But the sculpt is overshadowed by the fact that these guys just didn’t make the film in any meaningful way.  So you could army build them all you wanted back in the day, and you’d have some nice nonsense and screen-inaccurate clones.  So I’ve chosen to create a diorama (last image) of the only place where they make sense, alongside Jedi Master Pong “Dick Dastardly” Krell.  Since we (thankfully) never saw Mr. Krell with his original unit of assigned clones, I’ve decided he got the all white clones.  This was because of the high casualty rate among his troops was realized by GAR statisticians and bean counters, so they decided it wasn’t cost effective to paint their armor.  So Krell sacrificed his monochrome clones as often as he could while he twirled his handlebar mustache and laughed at the carnage around him.

The figure was great at the time, and while the articulation range wasn’t always executed as well as it could have been, the realistic proportions allowed it to endure well past the introduction of VC45.  But being lost to the editing process reduced its value overall.

5 Stars
6/10 Banthaskulls.