1/6 Hot Toys - MMS647 - Episode II: Attack of The Clones - Shiny Clone Trooper

[MyenShi]

Tell me about it. There is an undercurrent of authoritarianism to the Jedi, you get the sense that they would go too far in order to hang on to their status in the Republic, but this is left vague and unclear in the actual movies.

And don’t get me started on Count Dooku being a “political idealist, not a murderer.” Ok, what are his ideals? What are his grievances against the Republic? What is the entire public motivation for the Separatist movement that starts the war in the first place?

I love these movies, but the storytelling is…..clunky. GL is a filmmaking and worldbuilding genius, but as a dramatist, he needs help.

CANNOT WAIT TO GET SOME SHINY CLONE FIGURES, THOUGH.

Again, not a huge fan of the Jedi myself but while they can be far too aloof and out of touch with people outside the order, their main goal was to try to maintain the status quo with some semblance of peace and balance within the galaxy.

I don’t think of them as authoritarian, but they could be. And the Clone War should’ve pushed some of them to think that way over time like it did for Anakin. That should’ve been the coup against Palpatine in ROTS that gave him just cause to eliminate them.

I do agree about Lucas. Not being great at writing political intrigue and character dialogue definitely hampered the PT significantly. There’s a lot more that could’ve been said and done about the Jedi, Palpatine, the Clones, and the war. But there’s content outside of the films that have added a lot to the conflict.

Dooku was given more motivation in the past, and Tales of the Jedi has given him proper backstory and context for his actions in the new canon. I highly recommend watching the episodes around him. They add a lot to the character.

 

[ZE_501]

I’m not a huge fan of the Jedi personally, but the vast majority did have a problem with it ethically and morally.

I had wondered about that.

They just didn’t have a choice. And it was part of Palpatine’s machinations that put them in that impossible scenario.

Poor writing I guess. My knee-jerk reaction is to say "Well don't fight" but maybe they were trying to avert even more bloodshed. Impossible all right.

That should’ve been enough for some of them to lose it and try to stage a coup against Palpatine and like he wanted instead of Anakin just telling Windu Palpatine is a Sith Lord.

This concept ... it's *right there* and Lucas didn't do it. This alone could have elevated the PT a great deal.

 

[Raleig.h]

I’m not a huge fan of the Jedi personally, but the vast majority did have a problem with it ethically and morally. They just didn’t have a choice. And it was part of Palpatine’s machinations that put them in that impossible scenario.

I wish Lucas had done a better job of exploring that within the PT. Seeing countless sentient beings perish in war and ordering so many to their deaths must’ve weighed heavily on the Jedi that cared. That should’ve been enough for some of them to lose it and try to stage a coup against Palpatine like he wanted instead of Anakin just telling Windu Palpatine is a Sith Lord.

It’s debatable whether or not the Jedi were good generals overall or were fit to lead instead of trained military commanders. But the Republic didn’t have a military or an officer corps that large or experienced. And it’s likely many non Jedi officers would’ve seen the Clones as even more expendable than those Jedi who sought to protect life at all costs.

The Jedi are the ones that encouraged individuality within the Clones. Like Yoda says in TCW, they saw each as having a different presence within the Force. Had the war not been a sham and a plot to destroy them, they most likely would have championed for Clones to have proper rights and benefits in retirement as Senator Chuchi is doing.

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Between the hundreds of CW episodes and many seasons, this episode (S1EP1) is still my favorite. It truly shows the wisdom Yoda displays while at the same time getting to see him be a lightsaber dualling badass. Helps Yoda is my favorite character and its one of the few episodes in the show that focuses purely on Yoda.

 

[TheClient]

I don’t think of them as authoritarian, but they could be. And the Clone War should’ve pushed some of them to think that way over time like it did for Anakin. That should’ve been the coup against Palpatine in ROTS that gave him just cause to eliminate them.

I agree that all they really wanted was to maintain the status quo, but they were certainly willing to stage a coup, or declare martial law, in order to do so. Mace even says “after arresting Palpatine we should take control of the senate,” and the only pushback is a note of caution from Yoda. I don’t know what they call that in the Star Wars universe, but it sounds like a coup to me.

This was a pretty big moment, and could be considered a heel turn for the Jedi Order as a whole, but it was not given nearly enough dramatic weight.

Back to the figure, do you think they’ll add those little blue grills on the side of the helmet that was missing from the prototype on the Ep 3 helmet? I hope so. Cannot imagine why they were left off in the first place.

 

[SOU7567]

I see no reason why they wouldn't add them, they've been on their past clones, just an error on their part for the promo shots.

The helmet does look a bit naked without them in the promo shots though.

 

[Ramatuelle]

Every now and then I make the mistake of thinking too hard about the PT.

"Giant mysterious army? Sure, we'll just use it, what could possibly go wrong?

Wait, these are sentient beings cloned and raised with no agency whatsoever, genetically modified to be compliant war machines, their lives meant to be spent by the millions in a brutal high tech military conflict?

No problem!"

...

...

...

...

... gotta say ... from my point of view, the Jedi are evil.

They most certainly are extremely cruel and morally shady. The jedi bought and paid for what happened to them. In full.

 

[MyenShi]

Back to the figure, do you think they’ll add those little blue grills on the side of the helmet that was missing from the prototype on the Ep 3 helmet? I hope so. Cannot imagine why they were left off in the first place.

Fun (and trivial) fact - they’re called tube stripes; same as on the Stormtrooper helmet.

I think they just forgot. They’re on the 501st and Coruscant Guard figures. Like @SOU7567 said, the helmets do look naked without them. I hope they remember to add them.

I think it’s 50/50. They’ve corrected more grievous errors lately but they’ve let things like this slip before and this is a release that got moved up. 1/6 scale tube stripe decals wouldn’t be the worst to make but we shouldn’t have to do that.

 

[jaztermareal]

From the images we have seen they did not fix the phase 1 helmet issues and all images show them with non movie weapons despite being AOTC figures but as said the stripes are something that can be fixed with paint so they easily could do it. I think when it comes out the stripes will be there but the phase 1 helmet will retain all the issues from prototype and the weapons will reamain the Clone Wars versions.

I hope to be pleasantly surprised

 

[Chainedstream]

From the images we have seen they did not fix the phase 1 helmet issues and all images show them with non movie weapons despite being AOTC figures but as said the stripes are something that can be fixed with paint so they easily could do it. I think when it comes out the stripes will be there but the phase 1 helmet will retain all the issues from prototype and the weapons will reamain the Clone Wars versions.

I hope to be pleasantly surprised

You have in-hand photos?

 

[jaztermareal]

You have in-hand photos?

going by the soon to release picture etc. hence why I stated it seems based on what we have seen so far and then my prediction. Cody was a ROTS figure but had Clone Wars weapons and 501st trooper phase 1 helmet remained the same as prototype so there is precedent for HT not correcting such things

 

[sithocan]

Didn't you see their latest video? They have big photos in front of them during development phase. So, they can't miss stripes. If it is not on HT figure, then it doesn't exist on screen.

 

[SOU7567]

The gun inaccuracies I can live with, that is just a thing we've been dealing with since Cody came out but I really want that Phase 1 helmet fixed, please just shrink it just a little bit.

They made the necessary changes with Vaughn's helmet, so I hope they do it with the standard white clone, who might be army built more than the 501st clones.

 

[Chainedstream]

Didn't you see their latest video? They have big photos in front of them during development phase. So, they can't miss stripes. If it is not on HT figure, then it doesn't exist on screen.

Sorry but your final sentence is not correct. HT is famous for delivering accurate sculpts and figures, but some times they do some rather silly inaccuracies. E.g. ROTJ stormie helmet, ROTJ scout trooper w bike, PT guns, minor stripes not present on chest of clones and some others.

Sadly can’t think of more right now, but am certain I’ve reacted to more before. But usually issues are related to production decisions and cutting corners and not specific design errors.

 

[MyenShi]

Hot Toys makes action figures and not replicas. The majority of the figures look good on the shelf and the designs are usually pretty good overall. That’s really all that matters.

They do make some baffling design choices and take liberties with screen accuracy at times, as well as forgetting some details or fudging others. There’s countless examples of it.

But it would be absolutely maddening to fixate on all of them. I love screen accuracy but there are better ways to chase that than on these figures. It is what it is.

They do change some bigger goofs based on feedback/pushback so it is good to point those out. But they’re also just as happy to ignore things so…

They seem to be fine with the Phase 1 helmet and already made the mold so I would not have expected that to be changed though. It’s not the end of the world. It’s still 10-15% oversized but the white shoulder bells versus the blue on the 501st make it look a bit more proportional.

 

[jaztermareal]

Hot Toys makes action figures and not replicas. The majority of the figures look good on the shelf and the designs are usually pretty good overall. That’s really all that matters.

They do make some baffling design choices and take liberties with screen accuracy at times, as well as forgetting some details or fudging others. There’s countless examples of it.

But it would be absolutely maddening to fixate on all of them. I love screen accuracy but there are better ways to chase that than on these figures. It is what it is.

They do change some bigger goofs based on feedback/pushback so it is good to point those out. But they’re also just as happy to ignore things so…

They seem to be fine with the Phase 1 helmet and already made the mold so I would not have expected that to be changed though. It’s not the end of the world. It’s still 10-15% oversized but the white shoulder bells versus the blue on the 501st make it look a bit more proportional.

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it ain't just the size, it is the overall shape.
Sideshow beat them completely on both size and shape since what, a decade ago?? It is bizarre that the HT one was so off in the first place. If they, as I and you expect, do not update it... there will be a lot of negative talk about it post release. I do kinda think they fix the missing the stripes on the phase 2 helmet since that is just a paint thing so I think almost all these AOTC clones will be displayed as ROTS/Clone Wars clones

 

[ZE_501]

They seem to be fine with the Phase 1 helmet and already made the mold so I would not have expected that to be changed though. It’s not the end of the world. It’s still 10-15% oversized but the white shoulder bells versus the blue on the 501st make it look a bit more proportional.

Huh ... oversized ... it seems many of their helmeted characters' buckets are too small to realistically fit a head (thinking of Iron Man I guess) so this is almost refreshing. I say that as someone not heavily invested in Clone armour, though.

 

[Chamberlian]

Just checked sideshow, says “shipped” no tracking info yet.

 

[MyenShi]

it ain't just the size, it is the overall shape.
Sideshow beat them completely on both size and shape since what, a decade ago?? It is bizarre that the HT one was so off in the first place. If they, as I and you expect, do not update it... there will be a lot of negative talk about it post release. I do kinda think they fix the missing the stripes on the phase 2 helmet since that is just a paint thing so I think almost all these AOTC clones will be displayed as ROTS/Clone Wars clones

I do give Sideshow credit for their Phase 1 helmet. It’s better overall than the Hot Toys version, though the details are a bit soft and they do feel like a products of their time. Still love the Sideshow Clones though.

But I do think that’s a bit extreme. There’ll be a bit of negative talk around it within collector circles but the vast majority likely won’t care or just ignore it. People have ignored far worse inaccuracies to be able to like a figure for what it is. There will be those who display the Phase 1 helmet and be okay with it.

The Hot Toys version is indeed baffling and almost like a live action/animated hybrid like their Rex. But it’s also not bad to the point where it’s utterly offensive. And I say that as someone who loves the Phase 1 helmet and is a stickler for accuracy. But again, I reserve that for replicas.

Taken as a whole, the figure still looks the part overall and will look great on the shelf. Even if it’s not 100% accurate to AOTC, I can still enjoy the figure as a representation of a Clone in 1:6 scale more so than a 1:1 replication.

Huh ... oversized ... it seems many of their helmeted characters' buckets are too small to realistically fit a head (thinking of Iron Man I guess) so this is almost refreshing. I say that as someone not heavily invested in Clone armour, though.

The Phase 1 and 2 helmets should be about the same size. Hot Toys definitely made the Phase 1 a bit too big.

It’s tricky since no physical props were made for the films and the CGI assets are a bit unrealistic to work well in real life.

I have the EFX Phase 1 and MR Phase 2 together. The Phase 1 helmet is one of my favorite prop replicas and was taken from the original CGI models. It’s extremely difficult to imagine someone actually wearing it, especially into combat.

I joked to my wife that it’s because it was designed by Kaminoans who forgot about human noses.

 

[ZE_501]

@MyenShi yeah I actually love the retro sci-fi vibe of the Phase I helmet, but it's wildly impractical even for Star Wars .

 

[SOU7567]

Just checked sideshow, says “shipped” no tracking info yet.

Same, my 2 clones are "shipped," no e-mail or tracking info yet though. Usually takes 4-5 days for them to get to me, so maybe by the weekend, if not on Monday.