Scribbled by Commander Faie.
One completely loose pic by me (:P) and the rest of the nice photos by Valentin! (Special thanks!)
It’s here! At last! One of the most anticipating battlepacks has finally arrived! The next moment before you knew it, it’s all swept and gone!
“On the distant planet of Hypori, Separatist leader general Grievous and a legion of his super battle droids have surrounded a small group of desperate Jedi Knights. In response, the Republic dispatches an elite squad of fully equipped clone troopers with orders to destroy Grievous and rescue the Jedi!�
Let’s start from the overall packaging…
Packaging: 8/10
It’s a great attractive packaging. The arrangement of the ARC Troopers are neat and match well to the cardboard half ARC gunship. The background is pretty sleek. A little bad thing about this packaging is that some figures may have little parts, such as the pathfinder and pauldron, bending to an awkward shape. So do choose properly! There are five ARC Troopers (Yes! All Clones!), namely, Captain Fordo, 2 ARC lieutenants with heavy ARC Rifle, 1 ARC lieutenant with DC-15A Rifle, 1 Heavy Gunner Clone Trooper (Cip-Quad Gunner holding a Z-6 Rotary Blaster Cannon instead).
Accessories: 9/10
A healthy dose of assessories, enough rifles guns and pistols for everybody in this packaging. One word to describe… SHIOK!
Sculpt:
-Captain Fordo (7/10)
Hasbro’s recipe to this is mainly ROTS #33 Clone Commander’s body with red armpit and ankle rings, including pistols, rifle and kama, a S.A. AOTC Clone helmet, and the CW line ARC Trooper’s pauldron.
I was rather happy with the sharp features overall, praise them for using the sharply sculpted S.A. AOTC helmet. However, compare this to drawings/cartoon-accuracy, I am rather disappointed by some factors. First, as Fordo is a ARC Captain, where on Kamino is his pathfinder. In fact that missing point is something I want to stress about. C’mon Hasbro, at least dig a small hole on his helmet and plant in the pathfinder… Another point is that Capt. Fordo has his yellow communication thing on his left wrist armour, but since Hasbro uses the ROTS Clone Commander body, it’s simply inaccurate. Argh.
-Blue ARC lieutenants (7/10)
A simple repaint from CW AOTC ARC Trooper line. The sculpt is simply great for display and it just looks great, but not for action posing (more detail in articulation area). I love the sharp features on his helmet, chest with nicely done pockets and cool leg armour. I simply love the re-use of the ARC heavy rifles, one of my most favourite rifle! However, the third lieutenant uses a DC-15A rifle, which is cartoon-accurate, but unfortunately have lots of problems for him to hold the rifle properly, the sculpt does not match with DC-15A rifle!
-Heavy Gunner Clone Trooper (4/10)
A big WTF to this. Ok, a great overall sculpt, which is in fact a reuse of the ROTS AT-RT Driver helmet, a ROTS #33 Clone Commander body with blue armpit and ankle rings, ROTS Commander Bacarra’s Kama, ok… and unfortunately a wrong use of G.I. Joe’s Chain gun. WTF WTF WTF!!! What is Hasbro thinking? A Cip-quad gunner with a wrong chain gun use?! I really hoped that Hasbro should have come out a new sculpt of the Cip-Quad blaster instead. It’s quite a major turn off, especially the chain gun. If they wanna use a chain gun, they could have make one similar to the cartoon shown. ARgh what is Hasbro doing? Also, a simply re-use of AT-RT driver helmet lead to minor inaccuracy. The right antennae should be removed and replaced with a left path-finder for cartoon-accuracy.
Articulation:
-Captain Fordo (8.5/10)
With a simply 13 points articulation, it’s nearly perfect except for the waist… same goes for the Heavy Gunner Clone.
-Heavy Gunner Clone Trooper (8.5/10)
Same articulation as Capt. Fordo, as same ROTS body used.
-ARC lieutenants (3/10)
A great disappointing 8 horrible points articulation. What else can you expect. A swivel head, a swivel elbows, in which the swivel left elbow is simply useless. The leg articulation is horrible as well, and overall can have 1 standing pose, and is virtually impossible to have an action pose, which kinda sucks.
Paint: (9.5/10)
Overall paint jobs are sharp and neat! I love it! Hasbro, you did a great job!
Cost: (7/10)
The retailers are smart enough to do some homework. They knew these THFG battlepacks are going to be real hot, selling at $59.90 each, in which some other previous battlepacks were sold at $49.90 each. Expect even scary prices from other areas other than retailers.
Overall: (68%)
This battlepacks, like what everyone said, is a definite must-get. It’s a cool stuff, and simply looks great in MISB condition as well as loose and display in a glass cabinet.
Note that opening the box is painstakingly slow process, it’s packed so well with numerous transparent rubber bands tied the figures properly to the cards. If only all ARC Troopers are fully drawings/cartoon-accurate and fully articulated, it’ll be perfect.
Cheers!
It looks cool, Except those bad points you pointed out, just make a custom made range finder, superglue it to Fordo's head, and BANG! One Very Cool Arc Lead. With a little repaint on some places. But over all it looks good. I didn't notice the chaingun until now, but your right...Lazy Hasbro. 