The time has come for another gallery and review.  Based on shipping alerts I’ve been getting, it seems as if I’m about to get bombarded with stuff to review.  My SDCC stuff seems to be stuck somewhere here in the Phoenix area, so I’ll expect that any day.  And then Amazon is saying there are two waves of figures arriving next week.  That’ll keep us busy for a bit, I suppose.

Following on the heels of the Obi-Wan Kenobi (Utapau) and Airborne Clone Trooper (212th Battalion), Walmart brings us the sister set, Anakin Skywalker and Clone Commander Cody (Utapau).  Once again, Hasbro’s naming conventions toss consistency out the window.  Why is Anakin not given a parenthetical, like Obi-Wan?  While this Anakin figure is pretty generic and can represent a large majority of his appearances during ROTS, the same can be said for the Obi-Wan figure.  Why does he get the (Utapau) parenthetical, but Anakin doesn’t get (Coruscant)?  And what about Cody?  He gets (Utapau), but the 212th Airborne Clone gets his unit designation.  Why isn’t Cody (Clone Marshal Commander) or (7th Sky Corps)?  These are the things that are forcing collectors out of the hobby in droves.  DROVES!  Nah, it’s not that bad, but this commonplace lack of a consistent naming convention is annoying - to me, at least.

The Obi-Wan & Airborne Clone had some flaws - mostly with Obi-Wan.  Sadly, I did some dumbness and accidentally deleted the review for that set.  I was able to repost the gallery, so it’s there our menu, but the review - and all the comments - are gone.  This is terrible, because that review was going to be submitted for consideration for a Pulitzer.  And some of the funniest comments ever were made in the Disqus section.  MAKMCSWF even posted his home address and phone number, inviting everyone over his house for a sleepover.  Alas, I’ll never know what it’s like to sleep upside down.

This set follows a similar pattern:  A main character and a trooper.  Of course, Cody isn’t exactly an army-builder. He’s a person, and his name is Cody!  While the Obi-Wan disappointed collectors, the Airborne trooper was excellent.  This time around, I’ll flip the script.  Anakin is great (although we’ve seen it before), while Cody tweaks the outstanding clone sculpt. 

Starting with Anakin, the figure is a repaint of the Darth Vader figure which came in the Journey of Anakin Skywalker 3-pack.  That figure got a sparkling 10/10 in our review.  It was sourced to Ahsoka, and came from his appearance in the World Between Worlds.  It recreates the moment Anakin got angry with Ahsoka, and turned all Sith-eyed, while also getting a red lightsaber.  His hair was lighter than usual, as was the color palette of his outfit.  All of this is changed for this figure, which officially gives us an update to Anakin’s appearance in ROTS.  Gone are the Scut Farkas eyes, the red lightsaber, and the light hair.

Otherwise, you’ve seen this figure before, and it’s what we expected would happen within a reasonable period of time.  The 10/10 holds, and collectors should scoop up this figure as often as possible if they want to fill out multiple ROTS displays.  The catch, is that it comes in a 2-pack instead of being part of the main line. 

Cody is a long-needed update, especially now that we’ve had this top-notch clone sculpt for over 3 years.  The last Cody we got was VC19, which debuted in TVC 1.0 over 15 years ago.  That one was a fan favorite at the time, and for good reason.  But advancements over the past few years have caused it to lose almost all of its luster.  Does it manage to stay relevant with this release, or is rendered obsolete, as it should be?

Based on VC269, this Clone tooling has gotten plenty of usage over the past couple of years.  Cody has some unique armor, and Hasbro retooled several pieces to make it authentic.  It’s got a slightly retooled torso to accommodate the peg hole for the backpack, a new right upper arm to accommodate the unique gold band, two new shoulder pads, and a new helmet.  The figure performs just as well as earlier clone releases, and takes advantage of a nearly full array of articulation points.  My only gripe is that the elbows and knees don’t go past 90.  Well, that, and my continuing annoyance with wrist articulation only flexing on one pre-determined plane.

The paint isn’t bad, with some chipping/flaking throughout the orange unit flashes.  Only the chest has some black carbon scoring. Hasbro kind of cheaped out on the weathering.  Most of what they did do, exists only on the front of the figure.  If you look at the back, the entire set of armor is pristine.  Cody comes with a DC15A and DC15S, which is pretty standard fare.  The backpack is removable, although I find it unnecessary.

So far so good, but then we get to the helmet.  While the helmet itself is sculpted nicely, and includes most of the physical details and paint apps that make Cody unique, Hasbro went in a strange direction, sculpting the orange visor as a separate, removable piece.  I have no idea why they did this. Due to the way it is sculpted, my sample had the visor skewed very slightly to the right, as you look at it.  Not only can I find no explanation for this choice, it also becomes another small accessory that can be easily lost. 

I’m also disappointed that there isn’t a swappable headsculpt.  Cody seems to spend almost as much time in ROTS without his helmet as he does with it on.  First we see his face when he is in the hanger of the command ship, planning the Utapau mission with Obi-Wan.  Later, we see him (in hologram form) without his helmet while briefing Mace Windu on the Battle of Utapau.  Then when he meets up with Obi-Wan (riding Boga) and takes his helmet off for the discussion, before returning his lightsaber.  It seems like this was a big miss for a special figure like Cody. And frustratingly, this was addressed with VC19.  Additionally, Cody lacks the little holo projector featuring Palpatine.  And finally, I think Hasbro should have sculpted a peg-hole on the right side of Cody’s waist, to accommodate Obi-Wan’s lightsaber hilt. 

The missing alternate head, lack of a holo projector, no peg hole on the belt, the weird removable visor, and the inconsistent weathering are enough for me to bring this figure down to an 8/10.  You can’t quite get rid of VC19 (unless you want to swap a clone head with another figure) and that’s kind of damning for a figure that is 15 years newer than the one it should be replacing.

Aside from all that, the pairing of Cody and Anakin - in a vacuum - is an odd choice.  When matched up with the Obi-Wan/Airborne set, it makes a little more sense, of course.  Anakin simply has nothing to do with Utapau, and he never interacted with Cody or the 212th at any point during ROTS.  I just find it odd, but not anything worthy of deducting points.  I’ll give the set a 9/10 overall.  Hopefully Anakin makes it into the basic line soon.