Original Review by Chris: 5/21/2017

I call this figure my muddy buddy.  For many of us, the Genndy Tartakovsky Clone Wars microseries is the best piece of entertainment to come from the prequel era by a wide margin.  Amazingly, that microseries is now fourteen years old.  Some of you reading this might have never watched it.  If you haven’t, go watch it NOW, and come back here.  Don’t talk to me until you do!  Seriously, it’s wonderful and if you find yourself suffering from Star Wars fatigue, it will recharge your batteries.  You don’t have to watch long to spot this character, as it appears in the very first episode.  One last bit of background before jumping into the review: “hawkbat” is strictly gibberish in the Star Wars universe as they have neither hawks nor bats.  It would be as if the U.S. Army had a Falumphalumph Division.  Statistically speaking, a “falumphalumph” has to be a real creature somewhere in the universe. 

The figure itself is a repaint of 2005’s Evolutions Clone Trooper¹.  In 2007, which was still the pre-universal super articulation era, that sculpt was grand.  But at the time of this review, that Clone Trooper sculpt has been firmly supplanted by the VC45 Clone Trooper which is the preferred sculpt for repaints going foward.  In addition to the proportions being a tad too squatty, the 2005 sculpt lacks the premium articulation we’ve come to expect for our troopers and Jedi. This figure does pass the test for super articulation, but we’re a spoiled lot.  Whereas the later sculpt from 2011 features ball joints at the wrists and hips, the Hawkbat Clone sports swivel articulation in those areas.  The result is a Clone Trooper that is a little less posable than we’ve become accustomed to with more modern releases. Still, it bears repeating that this is a super articulated figure, and is highly posable.

Where this figure earns its distinction is in the deco.  The lower half of the figure and the poncho sport mud paint applications from the rainswept battlefield on which the character appears.  The gray coloration of the mud is accurate to the source.  While it could be argued that the paint applications lack subtlety, it is true to the source once again.  The included DC-15A blaster rifle features a distinctive silver design.  The monochromatic rifle is a tick below what we would come to expect later when the accessories received distinct paint applications.  The weapon is also a tad on the rubbery side.  This all combines for a nice, if somewhat dated, figure which lands an above average score of six out of ten.  That fact that the Hawkbat Battalion Clone Trooper has been made at all is a bit of a gift from Hasbro.  If there is the equivalent of a “deep background” Clone Trooper, this is it.  While “never say never” is the standard approach to Clone Trooper upgrades, it’s hard to envision Hasbro ever going back to this source.  This is it.  If you need it for your collection, you’ll have to dip into the secondary market (sponsored), but don’t hesitate.  The supply is limited.

¹ source Paul Harrison from Jedi Temple Archives

Updated Review by Chris: 1/27/2017

Ha, what a putz.  I actually credited Paul. 

Is this…is this a shmata?  Is this my first shmata review?  Do I get a ribbon or a piece of cake or something?  I asked Mr. Nomadscout if this is a shmata and he called me a name I had to look up on Urban Dictionary.  That wasn’t very nice.

So in the original review I called this figure ”super articulated.”[BEEP…BEEP..BEEP….] I need to back up the truck a bit on that.  It lacks waist articulation, so I think I was wrong with that designation.  I blame Mr. Nomadscout for that.  He was busy being busy at the time.  He should have caught that gaff.  Torso articulation may seem like a little thing, but with long accessories, it matters a lot.  Rotating the torso is a “cheat” of sorts to get these figures to pose in natural looking shooting poses.  Figures, in either Hasbro scale, can rarely hold longer rifles in front of them.  They tend to hold the rifles across the body.  So the “cheat” is to rotate the torso a few degrees until the rifle is pointing straight relative to the lower body, and then counter-rotate the head, and no one is the wiser.  Can’t be done here. 

The deco is still the star of the figure.  I love having a couple of these displayed with my other realistic Clone Wars micro-series figures.  When I first revisited this review when prepping for this update, I thought the 6 score was too low, but I actually got it right all the way back in 2017.  The limited posing due to the lack of torso articulation warrants that score.  Also, if you’re thinking to yourself, “I don’t remember ever seeing this clone in the micro-series,” you’re mostly right.  To the best of my knowledge, the Hawkbat Clones only appear in one “blink and you’ll miss it” scene in the first chapter:

(click for the full sized image)