Editor’s Note:  This review has been updated with our second look at TVC…

Original Review:  Chris - 1/27/11 02:53 AM

This figure is simply awful.  Cheap rubbery plastic. An oversized and green tinted helmet.  Rubbery weapons.  Numerous inclusions in the plastic.  At the Vintage Collection price point, this is simply not acceptable. Unless you’re an ultra-completist, pass on this figure. 1 out of 10.

Updated Review: Bret- 6/14/18 07:05 AM

Chris was apparently not fond of this figure back in 2011.  Well, I don’t like it either.  It should just watch itself.  I once ate twelve slices of pizza.  Right off the bat, this figure has the problem of the crappy, rubbery, too large, misshapen removable helmet.  To make matters even worse, the white helmet material was discolored right out of the package.  Horrible.  On the flip side, this is the only basic 212th trooper with a removable helmet (not including Cody and some of the ARC variants).*

The quality of the figure itself is also suspect, as the soft plastic of my sample has allowed the legs to warp a bit, to the point where it was really hard to get the figure to stand up straight for the purposes of this gallery.  The paint applications at first seem ok, but this figure, and almost every other 212th clone, seem to suffer from a lack of consistent orange.  When placed together on display, the differing orange shades of the troop variants can be a bit off putting.  (Fortunately in this case, I’m somewhat colorblind.  But that doesn’t matter right now.)  My complaint with the paint is that this may be the only 212th released to date that is clean; the figure includes neither carbon scoring, nor orange paint chips/scrapes anywhere on the armor.

Chris pointed out that the weapons are rubbery.  That is unfortunately true, but I must say that the sculpts for both the rifle and blaster are rather crisp and sharp, so they do look very nice.  The figure is rather posable (assuming your sample doesn’t have a warped leg),and you’d appreciate that the hands have some give and can readily grip the weapons, unlike the cement-like rigidity of the VC 112 Sandtrooper.  This clone can achieve some convincing THWG poses.

The figure is a straight repaint of the white VC15 Clonetrooper.  Both are similar to the 327 Star Corps clone that came with the Gelagrub, which was essentially new, and given ball jointed hips to ride the creature.  The posability is the main reason you would want this figure, but the grotesque helmet, questionable paint apps, and soft, cheap plastic make this a figure you might want to avoid.  Other than the ball jointed hips, there really isn’t much here that surpasses the beloved ROTS #41 clone sculpt.  As Chris said, this is unacceptable for a TVC-level figure.  Such a figure should match or exceed the #41 sculpt, with added articulation at the hips and wrists, but should also include swappable heads (portrait and helmet) to bypass the removable helmet nonsense.  Hasbro did update the Phase I clone sculpt later in TVC (we’ll be getting to that soon), but even that was a questionable “upgrade”.

Verdict: Re-Sculpt (VERY low priority)  

This figure is worth a look if you value the ball-jointed hips for certain display poses, but it is basically inferior to previous releases in almost every way.  The secondary market value is low to moderate, so there is perhaps some demand out there, even though many collectors would argue that we are cloned to death.  At some point very far down the line, if Hasbro can get a fully articulated (by today’s standards) trooper with swap out helmets, quality paint applications, and strong plastic, perhaps a resculpt might be warranted.  For the forseeable future, either take your chances on the secondary market, or perhaps stick to the better, earlier releases.

*CORRECTION/QUICK UPDATE:  The statement would have been correct if I had written it at the time of release of this figure, but is not accurate for this “second look” review.  RumSleg, in the comments below, pointed out that there was a removable helmet 212th Clone Trooper that was released later on in the short-lived Legacy Collection 2 Build-A-Droid line.  That figure is a repaint of a newer VC45 clone trooper body mold, and has both improvements and diminishments when compared to VC38, as we will see when we revisit the same sculpt.  As such, we’ll leave the verdict alone, while we search for the definitive modern clone sculpt to replace ROTS #41.

Verdict Guide:
Re-sculpt = The figure is not definitive, and a new version should be developed.
Re-issue = This version is definitive (or close enough), and shows sufficient secondary market demand to warrant a straight repack.
No Action = This release does not require new attention.