#131: Star Wars The Clone Wars ARC Troopers

Among clone troopers, those that stand out are the ARC troopers. They're basically the most badass troopers, and they recently showed up in the cartoon. Getting this set was basically a given for me, since I'm so into collecting the clones. I was surprised to see this on the shelf, as I assumed it would be a quick seller. Still, it was the only one on the shelf, and I haven't seen another since, so it's good that I was there at the right time. The first figure in the set is Captain Rex. I already have two versions of him, one of which is very similar to this figure. Nothing exciting for me here, but he does have a different rifle.

The next figure in the set is an ARC trooper commander, but he seems to be based on Captain Fordo from the Clone Wars microseries. You may remember him as the leader of that really cool scene of the assault on Muunilinst. So this is basically a new animation style version of him, down to the double oversized blaster pistols. Apparently, they will be doing a "realistic" version of the character next year in the Vintage line (although for some reason he won't be specifically named on the card), but until then, this is a pretty cool version of the character.

The other two figures in the set are unnamed ARC troopers. They have different paint jobs and shoulder pauldrons, and they both look pretty cool. But what is really interesting about them is that they are wearing Phase II clone armor, which is what the clones were wearing in Revenge of the Sith. As far as I know, these are the first figures in the animated style to wear Phase II armor. Cool.

It's unfortunate that battle packs now come with four figures instead of five, but that is the reality of the situation. Four figures together are still a better value than buying them individually. In this case, even though I already have Rex, the other three figures are cool enough to make the set worth it for me.