We are definitely in the “dark times” of the typical Haslab campaign.  As of the time I am writing this at a late hour the night before publishing, we are at 3038.  I’m not reading a ton into the low daily numbers we’ll be accumulating over the next several weeks, but I do think we need to be in the 4000-4500 range heading into the last 3-4 day stretch.  It’s definitely on the slow side of that pace (which is just my own estimation.).  I know this isn’t the popular view, but I don’t really put a whole lot of weight into the actual length of the campaign.  I’m not of the belief that if the Cantina had a few more days it would have made a difference in that final result.  I think you get a big start and a big finish, and the long night of everything in between is just a slow slog.  People will show up for the beginning and the end no matter when it is, and the middle is just a period of time where some folks will randomly decide it’s a good time to back.  My gut tells me if you did a 10 day campaign, you’d still have roughly the same number of people participate, they’d just be more concentrated into those 3 periods.  Sure, you might snag a few stragglers that weren’t paying attention during the campaign if it was extended, or you may convince a few people to jump in if there was a little more time, but I think those numbers are negligible.  I know that’s not the conventional wisdom, it’s just how I feel.  So anyway, I’m just hoping enough people back during the middle to set us up for a successful blitz at the end, so I’m hoping we get as far past 4K as we can to have a shot in the closing days.

But you’re not here for more Haslab talk.  And you’re not here for any TVC newness.  You’re here for another installment of The Riotous Repaints of ROTS20!  As you know, the ROTS line was so popular, Hasbro ran out of planned figures, so they extended the line with a bunch of repaints.  Some were better choices than others, but at the time we didn’t care.  We simply couldn’t get enough Star Wars figures. 

The next figure in the line was #65, The Tactical Ops Trooper.  The 501st had a lot of official sounding names in the early days of ROTS.  Tactical Ops Trooper, Special Ops Trooper, Vader’s Fist, 501st Legion, etc.  501st Clone Trooper is the typical name these days.  I consider myself a focus collector of all things 501st, not all things Tactical.  So right away, this figure annoys me.

But in 2005, this figure was awkward.  While the 501st seems to be the most popular clone variant by now, at the time, Hasbro struggled to get us a decent representative figure.  The first offering came in the Jedi Temple Assault battle pack, and was based on the action feature-laden ROTS #06 clone trooper.  The pack contained 3 of them, and they were simply labeled “Clone Troopers.”  What an insult!  They got no recognition by the use of any of the aforementioned names.  The #06 clone mold was decent at the time, but not awesome.  The quick draw action feature was annoying, but at least Hasbro opted to glue on the silly removable shoulder pad this time.  The pack also sucked because it included a terrible Anakin figure, and also a nonsensical clone pilot figure.  It would have been 10 times better if it was another 501st instead of the pilot.  I bought these sets like they were going out of style.  I did the same with the Skirmish in the Senate pack that came with the 2 Shocktroopers (and Palpatine, Yoda, and Senate Pod).  I have a bin of extra Palpatines, Yodas, and Clone pilots that could be melted down for the war effort.  (For World War V, of course).  The clone wasn’t awesome, but it was passable.  The main criticism was the missed paint apps for the leg stripes.  That was annoying.  But as I said, I also hated the lack of a name on the packaging that I threw away immediately.

Hasbro decided to revisit the “501st” with a much-deserved mainline release, and they did so in the repaint wave by putting new deco on the #38 AT-TE Tank Gunner.  To save me some keystrokes, here’s the rundown on the sculpt from that review:

The sculpt of the figure is bizarre.  It takes a step forward by adding ball jointed hips, but 2 step back with the arms that are destroyed by the severe angle of the elbows, which cannot be altered with the swivel point of articulation.  Despite this near-fatal devolution of articulation, the figure actually does its job of sitting in the various seats and gunner position in the AT-TE.  Also, it’s not awful looking when posed with the included standard blaster rifle at the ready.

Same applies here, although you have less use for the sitting feature, as this isn’t a pilot.  But nevertheless, it can sit, do splits, and kneel.  The arms are supremely frustrating, and otherwise ruin the figure. 

Different from the AT-TE gunner, this time we don’t get the padded helmet cover, which obviously makes sense.  But instead, we get a bizarre paint application with lots of dirt on the feet of an otherwise mostly clean figure (with a few carbon scoring marks).  It’s not a terrible effort, but I think I would have preferred #41 in 501st colors instead of #38.  Maybe the antenna would have been unnecessary, but it would have been a better sculpt than this one.

In addition to a blaster rifle, we get the dumb removable shoulder armor (but not a swappable part), and a “ship floor” figure stand.

It was a frustrating figure choice at the time, and it doesn’t really age well.  The best effort I could muster for a diorama shot was from the memorable scene when Yoda and Obi-Wan return to the Temple after Order 66.  Yoda has his “Hell yeah!” moment when he throws his lightsaber and impales a 501st trooper and then retrieves it.  The very next scene was left on the cutting room floor, but showed Obi-Wan kicking a 501st right in the coin purse.  That was the inspiration for #27 Obi-Wan Kenobi.  The More You Know!