Chapter 21, which was part of season 3 of the Gendry Baratheon Genndy Tartakovsky Clone Wars microseries was the second of a two part arc that revealed General Grievous for the first time.  He led a large army of battle droids to nearly annihilate a Republic task force that was sent to the planet Hypori to investigate a new droid factory.  Obi-Wan Kenobi had received and urgent distress call from the survivors as they desperately tried to fight off the encircling Separatist army.  A contingent of elite clones made up the Muunilist 10 with additional reinforcements and led by ARC Trooper Captain Fordo, went to the planet Hypori to conduct a rescue mission.  The clones conducted an insertion using a gunship painted as rancor.  Fordo’s team of troopers consisted of several highly trained troopers, including one wielding a Z-6 rotary cannon, an under-barrel grenade launcher, and one manning a reciprocating quad blaster.  The troopers dismounted, and managed to locate Grievous just as he was about to kill Jedi Master Ki-Adi Mundi.  While the clones were unable to kill Grievous, they did rescue Ki-Adi Mundi, Aayla Secura, and Shaak Ti.  Jedi Master K’Kruhk was left for dead, but survived until he was annihilated by Disney in 2014.

This clone sculpt is, of course, the older version prior to Hasbro updating to the TVC “skinny” clone which debuted with VC45 Clone Trooper.  The helmet is styled similarly to that of an AT-RT driver.  Other than the helmet design, it’s a standard clone sculpt, and can be posed in a variety of ways.  The articulation is standard for the day, and lacks modern ball joints at the wrists, waist, or hips.  But the sculpt does hold up very well, especially if you aren’t a huge fan of the current skinny version that Hasbro is using.  The helmet is removable, with the standard “Bodie” clone head underneath.  There is a hard plastic kama.  The absence of a soft goods kama would have allowed him to sit on the edge of a Republic Gunship, which is a bit disappointing.  He wasn’t in that position in the cartoon, so I can’t fault it too much, but this figure seems like a natural to be a Gunship door gunner.  The paint is pretty good.  For better or for worse, there are no battle damage marks nor any weathering.  The armor coloring is a nice vivid blue.

The real draw (other than the fact that this is a solid clone figure in its own right) is the enormous quad cannon accessory.  It comes in 6 pieces:  The backpack with arm supports, the main gun, and 4 cannon shafts.  It is painted simply in silver with a few black accents.  The figure grips this awesome weapon well with two hands.  The real stunner here is that the figure will actually will stand unsupported!  I was shocked to see this when I first took it out of the package, but it was a huge win.  I had assumed there would be some difficulty here, but there is not. 

This is a really fun figure, and comes with one of the cooler weapon accessories made by Hasbro.  A soft Kama, would have gone a long way to make this figure nearly perfect, as would a holster and pistol.  As it is, it’s one of my favorite clone figures in the entire line.  I’ll give it a very strong 9.  This score would be most debatable between those who prefer this older clone sculpt over the newer skinny sculpt.

Build-A-Droid 

Clone Trooper (First Release) contains the right leg for the astromech R4-J1 can be seen rolling in the background in Mos Eisley while Anakin and Padmé arrive in their rickshaw to meet with Watto.  Source:  Attack of the Clones.

OR

Clone Trooper (carry forward 1) contains the head for 5D6-RA-7, who could be seen walking by the disguised Luke and Han as they escorted their Wookiee prisoner to the detention level aboard the Death Star.  Source:  A New Hope.

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Clone Trooper (carry forward 2) contains the body for the astromech R2-L3, who could be seen rolling in the background in Mos Espa when Anakin and Padmé are looking to meet with Watto in an attempt to find Shmi Skywalker.  Source:  Attack of the Clones.