This is a review of the commando droid figure from wave 3 of the Clone Wars basic figure line. Not sure if this is the original release or if the battle pack was first. The figure is of the commando droids first seen in the episode "Rookies" of season one of the clone wars, they appeared again in the final episode of season one, "Hostage Crisis", working alongside Cad Bane.
The Basics:
The commando droid comes with a basic droid blaster. While this is the only accessory it has been upgraded with a post that fits in the hole on the figure’s back.
Articulation:
Head - Ball joint, Neck – Hinged, Torso - Swivel joint, Shoulders - Ball joint, Elbows – Hinged, Forearms – Swivel, Hips – Ball joint, Thighs – swivel, Knees – hinged, Ankles – ball joint
The verdict:
I was very excited by this figure as it was the first droid that I felt really was a worthy adversary for the clone troopers. A character that to me, made sense, why would anyone keep pumping out useless soldier droids that accomplished nothing? I hoped that the figure would capture this feeling and translate it to the toy world. I have to say that the sculpting certainly lives up this. The figure looks exactly like the droids from the show, the paint apps are also very good and have a reasonable level of detail. Despite this I feel that overall the figure is a failure. For one reason and one reason only, in a word articulation. Looking at the figure it appears to have a great level of articulation and seems infinitely pose able. Unfortunately while the figure dose have many points of articulation most of them are useless. The most obvious area where this is evident is the hips, while ball jointed they have such a limited range of movement that it make you wonder why Hasbro bothered and didn’t just install the standard hip joint. The next point of articulation that is a real failure for this figure is the arms. Here again the articulation seems good, until you notice that the lack of a ball jointed elbow means he can’t hold his gun in a two handed grip. I realise that this is standard for all battle droid sculpts, but I ask you, what is the point of all of the other articulation in the arms if he can’t achieve this basic pose? Finally this figure disappoints because he is virtually impossible to make stand up (in the pictures he has been helped out with a little blue tack). This is turning into a novel length review but my final point of review is the accessories. I was disappointed with the accessories until I looked a little closer. The droid blaster has been upgraded with a post that fits in the hole on the figures back. This allows for him to wear his blaster slung across fis back which looks really cool. I’m a little disappointed that he doesn’t have the sword but that is used by the droid captain only and this is a figure of one of the other commando droids do it is screen accurate. So to summarise, I like the sculpt but ultimately I give the figure about a 6 out of ten. Hasbro was right about one thing, articulation isn’t everything, but good articulation can make or break a figure.
