#114: Star Wars Evolutions Imperial Pilot Legacy Series II

As always, I'm a sucker for the army builder figures of Star Wars. As long as they are part of the Republic army or the Imperial army anyway, I have very few battle droids or generic rebels. Prior to picking up this set, I didn't have a TIE pilot, and the only clone pilot I had was in the animated style. Because of that, this is definitely an evolutions set that I wanted to pick up. This is a Wal-Mart exclusive set, so it may or may not be hard to find, depending on the stores in your area. Also, they have raised the prices on these sets, but they are still cheaper than buying three figures separately, so it's still a decent deal.

The first figure in this set is specifically a gunship pilot. Unfortunately, I don't have a gunship, but they take up a lot of space anyway. This is based on one of the older clone bodies that doesn't have any waist articulation. What sets him apart is the paint job on his shoulders and his crazy looking removable helmet. The chest piece is only attached to the helmet, and sits in front of the chest. He comes with a blaster. Thanks to the weird helmet, he stands out a bit more than a clone with random color markings on his armor.

The next figure is a phase II clone pilot, specifically a V-Wing pilot. In the Revenge of the Sith line, they released a clone pilot figure that was based on their appearance in the movie. Then they released a black repaint. Basically this figure is a re-release of that, but now there is a removable helmet, and the Republic markings on the shoulders are no longer painted on. The chest piece attached to the helmet has a little peg to plug into the chest. The helmet sits a little too high on the head, and plugging the chest piece into the chest makes the helmet even higher, so I have left it unplugged. He also comes with a blaster.

The final figure in this set is the Imperial TIE pilot. It's a re-release of the TIE pilot that was released in 2004, but with a removable helmet. He now also comes with a holster for his odd looking blaster pistol as well as ball-jointed shoulders. As with the V-Wing pilot, the chest piece has a peg to plug into the chest, but in this case it works well and the helmet sits properly.

At first I wasn't too impressed with these figures, with my chief complaint being the V-Wing pilot's helmet not sitting right, but after playing around with them a little, I like them more. Amusingly, the TIE pilot's knees bend forward as well as backward. It's a pretty good set, and worth picking up to fill up the piloting ranks of your clone army. Now if my clones ever need to commandeer the Millennium Falcon, they'll be able to get it off the ground.