“A soldier's most powerful weapon is courage.”
Despite its various appearances in the Star Wars saga, the standard Phase II Clone Trooper - without any battalion markings - has only been released once across the entirety of the Black Series and only as part of an Amazon exclusive 4-pack back in 2015 called ‘Evolution of the Stormtrooper’. That figure was on the original Clone Trooper body originally released in 2014. In 2020 and aligned to the launch of the Galaxy Collection Series the Clone Trooper base was upgraded considerably to a new pinless and cleaner body that new figure has spawned a number of other Clone Troopers and characters, but we have had to wait until late 2023 for this to be used in a standard ‘shiny’ release of the Phase II Clone Trooper.
The Phase II Trooper is released under The Clone Wars collection with yellow accent colouring and side art. The figure is part of Wave 12 of the Galaxy Collection which also included two other Clone Wars figures - Ahsoka and a Magna Guard - as well as figures from The Bad Batch and Return of the Jedi. The wave was the last to feature plastic-free, window-less packaging and the box therefore uses images of the figure to display the contents. The Phase II Clone Trooper is number 14 in The Clone Wars Galaxy Collection sitting neatly between Ahsoka Tano (13) and the Magna Guard (15) from the same wave.
In hand, the figure body is identical to the 2020 release of the Phase I Clone Trooper. The newer body is made up of black component parts around the joints, overlaid with white cast armour. This removes the need for overpainting and makes the overall look crisper with a clean transition from white armour to the black undersuit.
The head is a standard likeness to Temura Morrison and appears to be the same head used for Commander Appo and is most likely the generic Clone head we have seen unpainted and glued beneath a number of the new format Clones. Facial print tech adds the usual level of realism, including a hint of stubble around his jaw. The helmet is a softer plastic and carries the only true paint applications with a black visor, black and grey markings and a touch of blue on a panel on either side of the ‘cheek’ sections.
As is standard for most Clones, the figure features the standard combination of a DC-15S blaster carbine and the longer DC15-A blaster rifle. Both are sharp with detail in their mould but are left unpainted in their base black plastic. Like Appo, the Phase II Clone Trooper gets both left and right-handed trigger-hands allowing the weapons to be carried either way and there is sufficient articulation for two-handed poses.
That articulation is pinless throughout and comes in at a count of 21 points in total. Alongside the standard joints, we have butterfly joints sat behind the armour at the shoulders which helps those more action-oriented stances with the weapon. We also get the dual-jointed neck which adds a touch more movement in the head and more importantly negates the need for a very ugly and very visible neck joint. The knee pads are no longer glued in place and this means that kneeling and sitting poses can be tweaked so the knee pad sits in a more natural position - another small but welcome enhancement.
There is nothing at all to complain about with the new Phase II Clone Trooper. He is an army builder, given a general release and at the regular RRP to support those who want to make multiple purchases. The decision to include a removable helmet and to tweak the existing figure to add a left-handed trigger grip and moveable knee pads enhances the base figure considerably and I hope these are all carried forward into the Phase I Clone Trooper release incoming in 2024.
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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...