REVIEWS

Begun, the Clone wars have. But this battle isn't being fought in a galaxy far far away. Rather, it begins with a separatist movement somewhere in Taiwan.

Clone Troopers are the property of Lucas, who has in turn lent them to Hasbro, which makes Star wars toys. And so far they've done a total of 4 Clonetrooper figures, 2 of which aren't exactly army building material since they're commanders of sorts, and another comes with a speeder bike and an odd pose. With their new concept of army building packs (a la the Endor soldiers and stormtroopers) you'd think they'd get round to doing a Clonetrooper version soon. But they haven't yet, and so an unknown bootlegger somewhere has stepped in to fill the need for a grand army of the Republic. Send in the Clones!

Each Faketrooper is made up of 5 parts: Head, body, 2 arms and a rifle. So far only 2 versions have been released, a standing Clone that looks like he's in the midst of a rifle drill, and a shooting clone that looks like he's sniping someone.

The figure is built a little like a gigantic Japanese candy toy. Everything pops on and off onto the PVC body. That does mean that they have 3 points of rather useless articulation. The positioning of the arms means they won't be able to do much else other than pose as they were made to. With some customizing one might be able to add a few swivels here and there, which will really help.

First, what sucks about them. They smell. Bad. For a while. It's like a fresh Mcfarlane figure out of the bubble. Same smell. Some people may like that, I dunno. While that's not a real problem, I suspect that the quality of plastic isn't too far off from what Toddy uses on some of his stuff. Meaning it's kinda rubbery, and prone to twisting too much and breaking off. In fact, one of my standing clones already has a half-twisted-off shoulder peg from an attempt to attach the arm. Since he doesn't really move I guess it may be OK to just super-glue everything together or just plug em together with a wire insert if they break off.

the standing clone also has some balance problems. He tends to fall to his left. He doesn't hold his rifle too well either.

The size is largely compatible. The standing clone is just slightly taller than the Hasbro Red trooper, so that's about right. Compared to the classic Stormtrooper, it's a good match in terms of height and build.

The figure is well-detailed for a bootleg, and paintjobs are as good as, if not better, than Hasbro's stuff. Of course, this means that they do have a few paint smudges and blobs here and there. Also, some parts are lined where the Hasbro version is not. One good piece of news is that both their feet have pegholes, so you can use them with standard Star Wars stands, or plug them into playsets like the Republic Gunship.

Proportion wise, the fake seems to be overall broader than the originals, with wider armour pieces on the torso and crotch. Similarly, the head is slightler larger and broader than the hasbro versions. It looks a bit better, and upon comparison to pics of the CGI trooper from the movie, also proves to be a lot more ACCURATE!! SheeSh!

So they don't move much, they're only an average match with the official product, and come on, that standing pose is just silly. But they do make good and cheap regular clone armies, I'll give them that. They make great additions to the Gunship or the Arena playset.