I was late in watching The Clone Wars series, and we got the 2015 Black Series figure before I even really knew who Commander Wolffe was.  That figure was wasted potential.  The short stature and pea-sized helmet was laughable, as was (apparently, since I hadn’t watched the show yet) Hasbro’s choice to go for the one-shot specialty armor. 

But after watching the show (finally) I saw what most others did.  The character was shown on screen throughout the series wearing the grey officer’s uniform, Phase I armor, and 2 unique versions of Phase II armor.  His duds had some pretty awesome color patterns and emblems, along with a scarred face and missing eye.  Wolffe was the commander who had stunned and captured the fugitive Ahsoka Tano so she could be brought to trial.  But combined with the neat surprise that Wolffe, Rex, and Gregor were alive and well during the events of Rebels also made the character that much more interesting.

The aforementioned 2015 figure was pretty well done as far as detailing, paint, and articulation, but the scaling was simply inexcusable.  The odd choice as far as the only-worn-once armor was cool in theory, but fans wanted a more common look for the character.  Five years later, here it is.

Hasbro had a bunch of clone commanders jammed into the limited “Phase 2” run of the 3.75” Black Series.  That Wolffe figure was all new and unique.  But also released at around the same time were Rex, Thorne, and Doom.  The mold used for those figures was roughly the same, with a minor tweak or two, but heavily repainted as to render them essentially new.  The limitations of that mold included a small head (although not as small as their buddy Wolffe’s), swivel waist articulation, and swivel hips with limited range.  Also, at least on Rex, the wrist joints were poorly sculpted and looked like he had a case of rheumatism.

Now, in 2020, Hasbro decided to dredge up this 2015 clone commander mold and update it for a new version of Commander Wolffe, in his more commonly worn Phase 2 armor.  Carried forward is the lack of modern ball-jointed waist articulation, as well as the swivel hips of limited range.  I always wished Hasbro had gone the route of the incredible VC54 Not Captain Fordo, which had a soft goods kama and removable plastic holster/belt combo.  Nevertheless, Hasbro doubled down on their hard plastic kama option for this figure.

The improvements are important, however.  Gone is the pea head.  Now, you not only get a new clone head, complete with the pointed hair cut and missing right eye, but it also comes attached to the revised torso with a modern dumbbell joint, giving you an amazing range of motion.  The head is covered nicely by an excellently sculpted Phase 2 helmet unique to Commander Wolffe.  It appears to be a perfect size, to complement the perfectly sized head. 

The application of Photoreal is outstanding here.  The missing eye, the scar, the black paint on the hairline…it’s all excellent.  Personally, I can’t quite tell if Hasbro was going for Temeura Morrison here, or if it was meant to be a hybrid between real and animated styling, but it ended up great.

The twin blaster pistols fit nicely in the holsters, but sadly the hands have grips that are a bit too loose, and it’s tricky to get the pistols to stay firmly in hand.  And I will invoke VC54 Not Fordo one more time and cross my arms in mild disgust at Hasbro for not giving us an alternate Phase 1 helmet.  Such an addition would probably ensure that this thrice-packed figure (at the expense of a second VC167 Power Droid) sold through briskly.

When first announced, I was disappointed in Hasbro’s choice to reuse the 2015 clone commander sculpt, but now that I have this figure in hand, I think it came out better than most of us would have expected.  I will score this a very strong 8/10, a 1 point upgrade from most of the earlier clones we mentioned.  But it’s a high 8, and if he could just properly grip the blasters, that would probably be just enough to get a 9.  If he came with an alternate Phase 1 helmet, it would be an easy 10.  If Hasbro had gone with the Fordo model for this, it probably could have been an 11, and forced us to rethink our grading scale.  Ah, what could have been.