Today, I’m going back to before Christmas when Amazon was selling 3 ¾” Star Wars Black figures for about three bucks a pop. I picked up a bunch and I’ve still got some sitting unopened in my closet. Man, I kind of wish I hadn’t bought these. With the exception of that “Attack of the Clones” Padme, these figures have been pretty damn shitty. Nonetheless, I’m anxious to open the rest of them so I can toss them into my Star Wars figure bin and I’m starting today the Clone Sergeant from “Attack of the Clones.” I can’t show you a packaged shot because the bubbles fell off of the cards inside the shipping box and they were all just rattling around in there. Doesn’t matter. We’ve seen the SWB 3 ¾” packaging here before and I still think its rubbish. Those of you who visit here often may remember that I was not impressed with the Stormtrooper or the Biker Scout from this line, so let’s see if this guy can do any better.

The figure seems to reuse the body for the Clone Trooper from a couple years back. That’s a good thing, because I have a bunch of those and I think it’s an excellent figure. The key difference here is just a matter of the green painted stripes to denote his rank. The armor on this one looks just as good and you get the same level of super articulation. With the exception of the shoulder armor inhibiting the arm movement a little bit, the Sergeant here can do pretty much everything I want him to do including crouched firing poses. And thank god those shoulder pieces are there, because if they weren’t we’d probably have the same unpainted hinge problem that we saw on the Stormtrooper and Scout Trooper. On the downside, the plastic feels super rubbery and cheap like it’s a knock-off figure.

As with the previous Clone Trooper, this figure’s helmet is removable to reveal the stock clone head that Hasbro has been using on these guys for a while now. I know some collectors don’t fancy this feature, but I kind of dig it. I don’t think it compromises the look of the helmet too badly and I like being able to pose them with their helmet in the crook of their arm. Oh yeah, I’ll also take this opportunity to once again express my undying love for the “bucket head” style of clone helmet. I dig it so much I’m still considering picking up the Sideshow figure.

The quality of Paintwork has been a big issue with these figures and I’m sorry to say that’s still the case here. That’s pretty shameful when you consider that the figure required so little paint and they couldn’t even get that right. From the neck down everything looks good, even the little rank dots on his left breast. There are virtually no problems with the black and the green Sergeant striping all looks great too. Unfortunately, the green paintwork on the helmet is botched terribly on the right hand side.

The Sergeant comes with two weapons. You get the standard E-11 style Blaster and you get a rifle. Both of these guns are pretty standard fare, but they’re welcome nonetheless.

All in all, this Clone Sergeant is much better than the SWB Stormtrooper and Biker Scout, but the figure still feels like a rushed job. The rubbery plastic and piss-poor paintwork on the helmet tells me that Hasbro doesn’t give a crap about this line and they’re just using it to fill pegs. It also begs the question; why not just repack the older superior figures? Somehow I can’t imagine that they don’t have truckloads of those figures lying around somewhere. Still, considering I just spent a couple of dollars on this one, I think he was well worth it. In fact, had he just been a straight Clone Trooper, I probably would have picked up more and been happy. I also have the Clone Pilot in this assortment and I’ll try to swing back around to him next week.