Hasbro
Released September, 2002
Reviewed by Adam Pawlus
Photography by Michael Sullenger
Reviewed on October 2, 2002
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The fourth Clone in the Saga line comes to us with a nice vehicle, a lot of extras, and just turned out great overall. In short, I like the Deluxe Clone Trooper with Speeder Bike.

The figure includes one Blaster, one Speederbike, one Electro Grenade, five removable pieces of armor and a helmet.

Sculpt/Articulation/Gimmicks/Paint

The Deluxe Clone Trooper shows there's always room for improvement on something, even if you already thought it was perfect. Hasbro's attitude toward Clones is mixed... it's great to see new and better ones, but I'd still like to be able to but the red and white ones from earlier. Not surprisingly, he's a new sculpt-- new everything, new mechanism, it's a treat to behold such a great little toy for a nice price.

The figure is good-- while the forearms, crotch, and legs below the knee have the armor on them while the rest of the figure has a body glove or, in the case of the head, exposed skin.

The armor is what it should be, the proportions are right... this figure meets expectations as far as the sculpt goes, plus it has a very nice compliment of joints-- nine.

Aside from the right elbow, the joints are nicely hidden. The left wrist, both shoulders, neck, hips, and knees (great knee joints, I should say) are all nicely crafted within the toy making one amazing little plastic man.

The gimmicks on the figure, well, it would have been nicer had one been left out-- apparently he can lob his Electro Grenade. I didn't like how it worked, but that's me. The armor fits on snuggly, and I can't complain about it at all.

Accessories

Well, there's quite a few accessories here. Let's start with the big one.

The Speeder Bike is very similar to the vintage, POTF2, and POTJ versions in appearance, but has been changed significantly. It comes apart, but does not blow up. The legs are still weak, the sculpt has been altered, and the handlebars are all new. In other words, it's almost a new toy... it just looks like an old one. As an accessory, it's awesome, one of the finest extras to come with a Deluxe figure.

The Bike can also dock in the Republic Gunship... how cool is that? It seems to fit without a problem if you're willing to play with it a little, making it another great extra feature Hasbro has come up with. What can I say, I'm impressed.

The gun is the same one packed with the Clone Trooper Pilot, although now it's a sort of gun metal grey color. It is what it should be-- good. Nothing to write home about, and it doesn't fail on any level.

Now, the grenade is a little weird... I think the figure is supposed to hold it by the blue part, which is energy, which makes no sense. I don't like to call anything a throwaway, but this is close. It's neat... but not something I would miss had it been left out. The lobbing action works, but there's no real distance... I'm sure kids will enjoy it, though.

As you can see, there's a button on the back to activate it. If you have no grenade handy, it's more or less a lame karate chop action.

Packaging

It's another entry in the deluxe Saga range, making it basically the same as everything else you've seen so far. Not especially special, but not bad either.

Availability

I have yet to see one in stores, but I hear they're showing up. Deluxe figures tend to sit after a while, so keep watching for these.

Fin

At roughly $10, buy a few. The Bike is cool, the Clone is nice, it's great toy at a fairly decent price. If you compare it to previous Deluxe figures, or even the POTF2 Speeder Bike toys, I'd say this is just as good or better. Get one, you won't be sorry.

Our sample was obtained from Entertainment Earth in October 2002.