Review: Star Wars Black Series Clones of the Republic Set 3 featuring Clone General Obi-Wan Kenobi and the 212th Clone Trooper
- Mephitsu
- 6 minutes ago
- 7 min read
“Who's up for a challenge? We’re not getting any reinforcements until those guns are out of commission”
The Star Wars Black Series ‘Clones of the Republic’ line started in 2024 as exclusive two packs featuring a Clone Trooper and an associated Jedi and as seen in media attached to the Clone Wars, either animated, comic book, or movie. The first two releases in 2024 brought us new figures within the sets, with a tweaked General Mace Windu and his 187th Clone Trooper, followed by Master Yoda in his council chair and a Commander Gree from the Clone Wars comics. The 2025 releases started to veer away from this principle of new characters or Clones and brought us less wide-ranging releases. Both 2025 sets were repacked in their entirety, with one featuring Anakin Skywalker and Captain Rex, with the other including a (welcome) repack of General Kenobi, accompanied by a repack of the 212th Clone Trooper.
These sets are exclusive to Hasbro Pulse initially, with availability a few weeks or months later via Shop Disney globally. The sets continue to use the older slanted side design, with angled sides at both ends of the box that feature blue-hued artwork of the figures in action. For this set we have Obi-Wan on the left-hand spine in his Clone General armour, brandishing his lightsaber. On the opposite side is the Clone Trooper with blaster. Both images are illustrated with a cityscape backdrop. There is no connectivity or wider montage available; none of the sets artworks links into any of the others.
The blue highlight colour is used on the front text, identifying this as a Clones of the Republic release and numbering it as number 03 in the series on the back of the box. The rear of the box also features a repeat of the images for both Kenobi and the Clone, and the briefest of background text confirming Kenobi’s role as General of the 212th Clone Battalion. The older slant side format also means the backing for the figures is not colour coded or illustrated, and remains the flat grey used on all the Phase 4(a) boxes.
General Obi-Wan Kenobi is the same figure as originally released in 2021 as part of the Clone Wars Retro carded wave, marking the 50th Anniversary of Lucasfilm. Kenobi is wearing his Jedi robes over a set of Clone Trooper armour, the armour executed as it is with the standard Clone Troopers as cast white gloss parts over a black ridged suited parts at the connecting joints. As the armour and suited parts are cast in their base colour, there is no real need for any paint apps, although a Republic decal is applied to the left shoulder Pauldron. The upper thighs are different in styling, sitting under the Jedi Robes, so devoid of any armour and a simple black ribbed finish to match the rest of the exposed undersuited joints.
The Jedi robes are their own piece featuring an upper sleeve over a base black torso that includes both the shoulder and neck armour, and the outer robes with a rough material finish and cast in a light brown. The robes are parted, leaving a ‘V’ section beneath the armour and above the belt, revealing the plain black torso beneath. The belt and skirt are cast as a second flexible plastic piece, utilising the same material texture and colour, but with the belt painted in dark brown and with a lighter soft metal-toned buckle.
The headsculpt is realistic in design, using the likeness of Ewan McGregor even though the source material is from the animated Clone Wars. It originated from the 2019 Kenobi from the Tartokovsky Clone Wars material and features Kenobi with a fuller beard, and a longer parted hair style that he would carry into Revenge of the Sith for live action. This is all treated with facial printing to capture the eyes in particular and the edges of the facial hair, softening the edge to a more natural finish. There is no discernible difference between the 2021 and 2025 versions other than minor factory paint variations.
Obi-Wan has his lightsaber, which is well-painted with a silver base, black ridged grips and bronze just below the emitter. It features a plug that slots into a socket on the belt for a holstered look, and it then fits into either of Kenobi’s armoured hands. The right of these is still inclusive of the trigger finger from the original Clone Trooper figure, so that looks slightly out of place handling a lightsaber. The translucent blue blade of the saber is quite slim compared to some, but it clips into place reasonably robustly.
Articulation is all pinless, and Obi-Wan has a count of 19 in total, carrying much of the Clone Trooper articulation across with him, but with more restrictions through the Jedi Robes. The upper robes and their neck and chest armour further box in the butterfly shoulders and restrict movement, while the softer plastic Pauldrons can no longer rise up unencumbered as the arm moves, and end up squashing themselves and warping against the chest armour. There is sufficient arm movement for some of Obi-Wan’s mannerisms, like having his hands on his hips, but not quite enough movement to have a folded arm look, or rubbing his beard as he thinks. There are, however, plenty of lightsaber poses available, single or two-handed.
The legs are somewhat held back by the skirt of the same Jedi Robes, but still facilitate battle stances and dynamic posing with a good level of stability. As this is a slightly older configuration of Clone Trooper legs, the knee pads are fixed in position and do not move with the joint; thankfully, this is more or less hidden behind the skirt of the Jedi Robes.
The 212th Clone Trooper in this Clones of the Republic Set utilises the same 2020 Clone Trooper body as Kenobi, built from gloss plastic cast armour pieces, connected with a dull black ridged undersuit at the jointed areas. Over the white of the armour is painted the deep yellow/orange markings of the 212th, which are applied neatly but with an edge that reflects the fact that the Star Wars canon has these markings hand-painted by the Clones. Other than these slightly rough edges to the paint work, there is no weathering or battle damage visible.
The first Clones of the Republic set included a removable helmet and painted face. The second promised the same, but then painted the chin and fixed Gree’s helmet in place. This third release follows suit and has an unpainted Clone Trooper head under the helmet, with the helmet fixed in place. The helmet itself uses the same colour scheme as the armour, again with a ‘hand-painted’ edge to the blocks of colour. The visor is picked out in black with silver and grey used around the breathing apparatus and various vents to the sides and around the back of the helmet.
Image 1: 2025 on left, 2022 centre, 2016 right Image 2: 2025 on left, 2022 on right
The figure is also a repack, this time from the 2022 single release from the Galaxy Collection. There are minor variations between the two of these releases around the yellow markings, while both present an enhanced profile and proportions to the original 212th figure from the 2016 Entertainment Earth Exclusive 4-Pack.
Our Clone features a single weapon, the smaller DC-15S blaster carbine, which is cast in black with zero paint additions. It only fits into the right hand, as despite the availability of a new left Clone Trooper trigger hand in the Black Series, Hasbro have chosen not to swap it into this release.
The articulation, like Obi-Wan, is 19 pinless points, and with a wider range of motion than Kenobi, without any Jedi robes to block movement. The arms extend to allow two-handed blaster positions, including having it raised to the helmet as though sighting a shot down the barrel before firing. The legs allow for wider firing stances, as well as dynamic running, crouching or kneeling positions. Again, the knee pads are fixed - another recent improvement not carried into this figure, despite it being a 2025 release - so bending the knees will leave the knee pad projecting at an odd angle.
The Clones of the Republic Series launched with such promise of updated characters and Clones as well as enhanced functionality like removable helmets and updated articulation. While that was true of Set 1, it has been slowly eroded through Set 2 to this release being nothing more than a repack of two previously released figures. It should, however, be noted that the Obi-Wan figure is sought after on the secondary market and is a welcome re-release, and the 212th is an army builder, which allows collectors to expand their troops. It would just have been nice for both figures to have the most recent Clone body enhancements around the leg joints, in particular, and for the 212th to have an unmasked option.
The set has a £50 RRP in the UK, equivalent to two single releases, so it offers no savings considering there is nothing new in the set. It is currently available at the time of this review via Hasbro Pulse, and it should be heading to the Disney Store at some point as well in limited quantities.
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About Me : As a child of the 70's and 80's I grew up in a golden age for action figures and in my youth bought and sold myself through collections of Star Wars, G.I. Joe (Action Force) and M.A.S.K. while also dabbling in He-Man, Transformers and Ghostbusters. Roll forward and I am now reliving that Youth with the action figures of today and am a collector and fan of the larger 6-8 inch figures from my favourite movie and TV licences - including the ones mentioned above, but also the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Doctor Who and the Aliens. I launched The Mephitsu Archives in 2015 with a view of creating a UK focused site or these figures where fans can pick up the latest action figure news, read reviews and get information on where to buy their figures and what is currently on store shelves. I hope I am delivering that to you guys...
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