Review : Order 66 Clone Trooper Boxset, Star Wars Black Series, Entertainment Earth Exclusive

Review : Order 66 Clone Trooper 4-pack

Star Wars Black Series (Hasbro)

Wave/Series : Entertainment Earth Exclusive

Released : December 2016

Price : £109.99

When Disney celebrated Rogue Friday on the 30th September 2016, it was announced that Entertainment Earth would carry an exclusive box set of Clone Troopers. This follows their 2015 exclusive of the Imperial 4-pack. The set would soon be confirmed as an Order 66 box-set and would be made up of a four Mark 2 Clone Troopers from Revenge of the Sith.

The set is easily available to the UK, but at a premium of £110. This is some what higher than the $99.99 (£80) that Entertainment Earth sell the set for in the US.

The pack arrives as what looks like a cube. This exterior is adorned on the front with a grey scale image of Mark 2 Clones in battle while Gunships fly overhead. To the top left is the Star Wars Black Series logo and to the base is the Entertainment Earth over-sticker identifying the set as an Exclusive. To the left side is a plain black spine at the bottom of which is a replication of the Black Series logo and some bold red text confirming the content of the set. At the top of the spine are some safety notices. The right spine is a similar plain design with a further Black Series logo and some legal text.

It is the rear of the box that the gloss red colouring comes in - the colour we usually see on the right hand spine of a single carded release. This reverse is made up of four panels, each one the same size as a standard release spine. At the top of each panel we find the hatching design and character name - being an exclusive there are no numbers.

Now the whole outer packaging is actually a sleeve and the inner packaging slides out of this from the back. You now see that the red reverse now becomes the spine of four inter-connected figure boxes. They are designed and connected in such a way that they can be folded out so the rear becomes a flat panel containing the details of each figure, while the front becomes a sequence of four windows through which you can view each figure.

The outer sleeve is quite flimsy and damages quite easily. You can see from tour review set that even in transit there was some considerable damage done.

The front of each segment is designed to match what we see on a single release. There is an individual grey lined art panel, each specific to the clone above it - although you can't really determine this due to the lack of any colouring within the image. The left side of each box segment also follows the usual design rules with a grey oversized text print and on top of this the red character name.

The back of each segment contains the same lined artwork as the front and the character name in dual language. There is then a short bio of each Clone, which is repeated in three other languages.

Each clone slides out via the top or bottom of the packaging and comes in its own inner tray on top of a red card backdrop.

I am going to flip this review a little on its head and first off look at the articulation and sculpt together. Each figure is basically identical in everything but decoration, so the sensible thing to do is look at them as a whole first before we look at each one's decor individually.

The sculpt is identical to the Mark 2 clone we saw in the 2015 Amazon exclusive "Evolution of the Stormtrooper" boxset. And in turn the body is the same sculpt we have had since the release of the Mark 1 clone back in 2014 (Wave 4). The bonus over the original release is that the Mark 2 helmet is much better proportioned to the body and the looks are therefore much improved.

The armour panels are all nicely captured, and are smooth glossy. Under these are an under-suit which is only visible in a few places, and yet it has been sculpted with a pattern and if you look closely round the back you can even see creases/folds in the clothing.

Articulation starts with a ball jointed head which can rotate round fully and also has a very wide range of movement up and down, so much so that the troopers chin area can rest against it's own chest.

The shoulders are ball jointed, but movement is limited as the two shoulder panels block most movement upwards. Instead you will be left to position the arms out by just a few degrees and then let them rotate. A bicep swivel does help matters when posing. And being an older figure design, the elbows remain double jointed. The hands rotate fully in the sleeve and have some movement forward and backward on a peg.

The torso sits on a ball joint, hidden nicely by the cut of the chest armour. This is surprisingly versatile and not only rotating it will bend the torso forward and backward by quite a distance. The legs are also ball jointed at the hips, but like the shoulders the armour blocks alot of the movement. These clones therefore won;t sit, but can kneel albeit stiffly and while looking a touch awkward. The kneeling action is supported by double jointed knees and ankle rockers. The ankle rockers are fairly stiff on most of the four, but I suspect will be a weak spot and could impede the ability for the Clones to stand on their own going forward.

Each clone starts with a gloss white finish to all the armour, on top that black under-suit. The joint pegs are left black and the only discolouration to the gloss white is round the back of each knee where the white strap looks a little yellow vs the rest of the armour panels.

442nd Siege Battalion Clone Trooper

We will start with the Green Trooper, who represents the 442nd Siege Battalion. These troopers were never actually seen on screen, but are listed as fighting in the battle of Cato Neimoidia

The markings on the 442nd start with a grey panel either side of the helmet crest. There is then a triangular top to the chest armour, with each shoulder pad painted green on the top half. There is a stripe just above each elbow and panels either side under the arm. A further panel extends from the belt into the crotch area. The top of the thighs are both green with striping to the knee pads. The green trim ends with the lower part of each shin guard.

The green is all crisp and vibrant, but what is really nice is that it isn't a fresh factory coat of paint - the panels are chipped and scratched so the Trooper looks battle-worn and weathered. On top of this there is also further splashes of grey to break up the shiny gloss armour and to show the Trooper as being in the midst of battle.

Other paint applications include the blue gills down the side of each helmet, two horizontal lines to the right of the Troopers chest plate and some grey striping to the rear of the knee pads. The same grey is used to fill in the holes on the back panel.

The 442nd trooper comes packed with the smaller DC-15S hand blaster. This fits into either hand, and with the arm articulation can be cradled in a two handed pose, or fired one handed. The gun is cast in black plastic with no other paint application.

212th Attack Battalion Clone Trooper

Out next Trooper is the 212th Attack Trooper, as present on Utapau and under the command of Commander Cody and Obi-Wan Kenobi. They would later turn on Obi-Wan as Order 66 was released by Palpatine.

Essentially the Utapau trooper is identical in pattern to the 442nd - albeit the panels being in an orange rather than the green. The one noticeable difference is the chest panel where the two horizontal lines are absent.

Similar weathering s applied to the 212th Trooper, but less aggressively as the 442nd figure. The grey splashes are less pronounced.

The 212th should ideally be a direct match when placed with the 2015 Commander Cody release. Sadly the colour isn't a match and the Cody colour is darker and less glossy.

The 212th also comes with the DC-15S hand blaster.

Shock Trooper

The next trooper is the Shock Trooper, the personal troops of The Emperor himself. These are the guys we see on Coruscant in the Senate building and later they accompany The Emperor to Mustafar.

While the 212nd and 442nd Troopers held similar design (other than colour) the Shock Trooper uses a different set of design principles.

The helmet ridge is painted red and then under this and around the brow is a pattern of red squares. This same principle is applied to the beak of the helmet, with a dashed line moving out and round the breathers. The two cheek recesses are also painted red.

On the body the whole top of the chest panel is red, as are the whole of each shoulder panel. Down the arm are two lines of trim that go all the way round the bicep armour panel.

The belt is now red not white, although the rear capsule remains white. There is a red vertical stripe down the thigh panels with two thicker horizontal lines then coming across to the centre line. The entire boot section from knee down to boot is red.

The weathering remains, with realistic scratches and defects to the red sections and grey weathering on top - particularly prevalent on the chest and thighs.

The Shock Trooper is armed with the larger DC-15A blaster rifle. Like the smaller weapon it is cast in a plain black plastic with no further paint applications. It sits comfortably in the Troopers hand and can be cradled with the other hand. Firing poses will be limited to firing from the waist and not in a snipers position as we see in the movie.

501st Legion Clone Trooper

While I wouldn't say we (or the way the set is packaged) has saved the best till last, the 501st Clone is probably the most well know being Anakin's own troops and the ones that take part in the massacre at the Jedi Temple.

The 501st Trooper carries the least amount of decoration. It starts with a reverse triangle painted down the helmet This starts surrounding the central crest, which remains white, and works down to a point around the breather section. The line of this triangle then continues into the chest and moves down the centre of the chest panel until it splits around a central white section with the two blue lines turning and trimming the bottom line of the chest panel.

The two shoulder panels are completely blue, and the only other blue decor on the arms is a small trim at the cuff of the forearm armour. Round the back of the figure, and different to any of other three, the blue colour is used on the back panel.

To the legs and there are two vertical stripes running the full length of each leg down through the leg armour and stopping at the boots. The bottom piece of the knee pad is then trimmed blue.

The 501st comes with the smaller DC-15S blaster.

Summary

This is a set that does lots of things right. It packs in four figures that follow a particular theme. For each figure the trim is well researched and painted, and the weathering is really nice. Each figure also comes with the right choice of weapon.

But the issue with this set is one of value for money. This is nothing more than a re-release of an existing sculpt with new paint applications. And for this the UK customers are charged £110, which is £27.50 per figure. And of course that is more than a new release on it's own. There is also the problem of tying such popular army builders up in one set. Sure, do an EE wave of Clones and let us pick the ones we want and how many we want to Army Build.

And for Boxed collectors, the packaging is not really the best for display.

If you can get this set around the £80 mark then its worth it. For £110 you are paying a premium for four great, but not exceptional figures. Based on the RRP I score the set an average 3 out of 5.