We interrupt this review for Breaking News of the utmost importance.  While digging out the Captain Antilles figure this weekend for an upcoming review, [Cat’s out of the bag, I guess, but if you already guessed he was coming soon, you’re a sleuth with Holmsian skills] I discovered that I had stored him with the incorrect headset accessory.  After having a small meltdown over the potential loss of his correct headset, as well as a complete lack of info as to which figure the incorrect headset belonged, I managed to resolve both.  Not only did I locate Antilles’s correct accessory in a catch-all bin on my shelf, but I also discovered that the headset I had given him belonged to the Polis Massan figure.  So, I have updated that review with a trio of new photos that must be seen to believed (number 2 will shock you!).  If you are interested, go check it out.  If you are not interested, then GOOD DAY TO YOU!  We now return to our regularly scheduled daily feature of mostly terrible figures from 2005.

Commander Bacara got about 3 seconds of screen time with his squad of Galactic Marines, as they Order 66’d Ki-Adi Mundi.  They probably thought they were doing the right thing because they had a hunch Ki-Adi wasn’t going to be updated for at least 2 decades.  But never mind that.  Bacara’s unique helmet and armor, along with his snowtrooper-esque marines, made him an instant must-have as an action figure.  And Hasbro delivered fairly quickly.  But what did they deliver?

While we know that Hasbro already had the tooling available for the mind-bending 2003 Saga Clone Wars 03-50 Super Articulated Clone Trooper, they repeatedly released sub-par clone figures throughout 2005.  This was another example.  The figure is poorly articulated.  While it has a ball jointed neck, it only has a ball jointed right shoulder and elbow, while the left shoulder and elbow are swivel.  Ball jointed shoulders were almost the norm by this point in the line, at least for more action-oriented characters, so it’s a head-scratcher as to why only one arm got this treatment.  The left elbow is also cut just above the elbow and below the bicep, it swivels at a permanent 90 degree angle.  Bacara has swivel wrists an hips, as well as ball-jointed ankles, but no knees and no waist. 

To add to the problems of poor articulation, there is an embedded action feature.  Bacara has the leg-squeezy-activated “quick draw” action.  Both arms swing upward at the shoulder (even though one is ball jointed and one is swivel).  The right hand is sculpted in a normal trigger-grip sculpt, but he left hand is a “Capital C”.  It’s just weirdly sculpted as if it was intended to grip some other accessory that didn’t make the final cut.

The figure has a pauldron on the right shoulder that is attached to a chest harness thing.  He also has a kama, which is made from a plastic that is slightly less hard than the rest of the figure.  Both of these accoutrements “may” be removable, but I’m not about to try it, so just calm down!

For accessories, Bacara comes with a standard blaster and a standard long rifle.  He can grip them each well in his right hand, and his weird left hand can sort of provide support for a limited THWG. 

The weird sculpt, action feature, hard plastic Kama, and poor articulation make for a rather un-fun figure.  Those kind of shortcuts shouldn’t have been taken with a clone trooper figure, but it seems Hasbro was doing their best to pump out as many figures as quickly as possible during 2005, and even considering the expectations for the line at the time, they still had some misses.  This was one of them. 

Fortunately the character was updated and brought up to super articulation standards a few years later, but that was over 15 years ago.  We’ve since gotten the anorexic clone buck and now the modern version, so it’s probably time we get another look - and the marines as well.  I can’t say they’re at the top of my list, but admittedly these figures haven’t really aged well.  This one is particularly disappointing.

5 stars
4/10 Banthaskulls.