Review:75000 Clone Troopers vs. Droidekas/NovaFlare
Joined: December 29, 2006 
№ of Reviews: 17 
№ of Featured reviews: 1
"" contains an extrinsic dash or other characters that are invalid for a date interpretation.
Well, another new year of Star Wars, another two battle packs. I'll start with the first one, from Episode II: Attack of the Clones, and might do The Old Republic one some other time.
The Command Center[edit | edit source]
The set depicts a Forward Command Center, based on the structure in Episode II where Yoda spends the battle chatting to a clone commander. You mainly see the inside of the building in the film, the exterior (which is what the set is based on), is seen in the film for a lengthy 4-5 seconds as Yoda lands nearby.
So, to the set. As stated, there is an interior to this in the Star Wars universe, and it is much larger (about half the length of a Republic Gunship). However, being a battle pack, things have to be shrunk down, and I'd say they've done a very good job of making a small playable model that still looks like a Forward Command Center and appears like it could function as one (albeit in a reduced capacity).
The build is short and straightfoward, and there aren't a lot of repetitive tasks to make it boring (unless you're like me and buy a few of them and build them all in a row- it can get a bit tiresome in the end). There is one main function of the set, which I really enjoyed- the set contains one hidden flick-fire missile, which you can deploy by folding the "post" at the back down. You can also fold the "pole" at the very top of the post back up, so it looks like the bottom of the post and just moved. And is now armed with a missile. The missile you do have to actually flick with your finger, there isn't any mechanism to do it for you, but I can't see it being able to be done any other way. I know that Foward Command Centers in the Star Wars universe are unarmed, and that it's only a missile, but it does for some reason add a lot to the set's playability to me.
The Droidekas[edit | edit source]
The Droidekas... are weird. They looks like an AT-TE's stomped on them, which not only flattened them, but it also somehow made their "shoulders" fall down to around their legs. Instead of looking almost like a "C" side-on, they look more like a "⊏". To me, the original Droideka made in 2002 looks better. However, I must say the base area of the Droideka with the legs is the best I've seen, it's the top area and the positioning and posability of the arms leaves a bit to be desired. Personally, I'm just going to be thinking of them as some sort a "mini-Droideka" or a precursor to the main Droideka line.
The Clones[edit | edit source]
Finally, the movies clones have faces! Obviously this was eventually going to happen after The Clone Wars introduced enclosed helmets, but it's so nice to actually have them, and know that I'll never (or hopefully never) buy a set, take off a clone's helmet only to be met by a plain black head. I never got why they didn't have the visors printed in the first place and gave troopers faces (even just plain dot eyes with a smiley mouth would have been good), but I'm definitely glad that the change has been made for movie clones. The face used for both troopers suits the clones well, sure, maybe a more neutral expression might have been nice, but I'm not complaining.
Not a whole lot has changed with the standard Clone Trooper's movie torso- a bit more shadow in some places, some more detailing on the belt. A nice refinement of an already well designed print. The trooper's helmet looks great. It's the same mould as the TCW helmet, but the printing is different and is a huge improvement. Having watched The Clone Wars lately and not having seen Episode II for some time, I almost forgot how nice the Phase I Clone Trooper helmet actually looked- The Clone Wars made the visors larger (which LEGO understandably mimicked in its helmet design) and the bottom of the helmet seems much wider. After comparing images of clones from Episode II and The Clone Wars, the TCW helmets just look off. The same can be said for the LEGO helmets as well.
The Sergeant is basically like the Trooper, but with olive-green printing for indicating rank. Like the standard trooper, the Sergeant is an excellent figure. The green flashes break up the black and white, and just aids in make it looking even more visually appealing than a standard trooper, and it's good to see the details like the four green dots are present. The only thing I'm not a huge fan of is the grey printing inside the visor, which I'm guessing is meant to be a reflection. I think a plain black would be better, and would have made the figure perfect (if you wanted reflection, you could shine a torch on the helmet). But, it's really nice to see an unnamed officer in a set, hopefully we'll see a Lieutenant, Captain and Commander in sets to come.
Overall[edit | edit source]
Nicely constructed set, great clones, not so great Droidekas. I'd recommend getting the set for anyone with any interest in Clone Troopers, or just if you wanted to get a small set to have a battle with. Getting rid of the weird Droidekas and putting in two more Clones and having a small speeder would have made it so much better, but even as it is, it would have to be right up there with my favourite battle packs to date.
| The Build |   4 / 5 |
| Playability |  4½ / 5 |
| Clone Troopers | 4½ / 5 |
| Droidekas | 2 / 5 |
| Set overall | 4 / 5 |
Enable comment auto-refresher