Star Wars: The Black Series Entertainment Earth Exclusive Order 66 Clone Troopers

 I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned this story before, but on release day back in October, I remarked to my wife that I felt a mix of relief and sadness at the lack of Rogue One exclusive Black Series figures. Shortly after saying this, like three hours after saying this, I learned of the Toys R Us exclusive tank pilot, the Target exclusive three pack. Later that same day, I found out about this set. The 2016 Entertainment Earth exclusive Black Series set consists of four repainted Phase II Clone troopers, and has nothing to do with Rogue One at all. Like 2015’s Imperial Forces set, the Order 66 set is straight repaints of an existing figure, although this time, it is a four pack of repaints of a figure that was exclusive to 2015’s Amazon exclusive Black Series set.

Unlike 2015’s Imperial Forces set, the packaging for the Order 66 figures is gorgeous. A four chambered accordion box with a slip cover, the packaging is more on par with the Amazon set of last year than the 2015 Entertainment Earth set, which was on a Target multipack-level. I am not a MIB collector at all, and never have been, but I do appreciate quality packaging, particularly if I am paying the collector price. Nice packaging goes a long way for me.

The four Clones in the set are members of four Clone Wars-era battalions: the green 442^nd, the orange 212^th, known for its commander, Cody; a red Shock trooper and, of course, a blue 501^st Legion member. The green and orange troopers have essentially the same, fairly minimal paint job, just in different colors, while the red and blue troopers have unique paint patterns. All four of them look good, and they look good together.

The 501^st and Shock troopers also have weathering on their armor, which is a real nice detail. While the other two have some detailing, it is not as pronounced or noticeable as on the 501^st and Shock figures, so those two are the ones I’m going to focus on here. Both red and blue Clones have dirty armor, as has been a feature of most Imperial Black Series troopers minus the standard Stormtrooper and First Order standard trooper. Sandtroopers and Scouts have been particularly grungy, and it is nice to have a few Clones that look like they’ve been in the field as well. Better still is the paint on their armor clearly shows damage, being scratched up across the chest and shoulder pads. The boots on the Shock trooper are muddy. The green and orange Clones also have some damage to their armor, but it is not as pronounced as it is on the other two, and is rather easy to miss when looking at the toys.

The accessories are, by this point, pretty bland: three of the figures come with the Clone blaster, the Shock trooper comes with the Clone rifle. Not sure what else we’d expect, but the weapons are what they’ve always been. The same for the actual figures: by now you know what you’re getting with this mold, as if you’ve acquired any of the Clone figures, be they these Phase IIs or the original and its multicolored repaints, they are the same figures. More slender than Stormtroopers, but with less movement in the arms due to the elbow pads, good figures but nothing in terms of posing or articulation to get super worked up over.

This boxed set is another terrific example of an exclusive. It’s four repaints that not everyone wants or needs for their collection, but probably don’t have much chance of being released individually to retail. While some of my absolute favorite toy collector memories involve hunting for the Clone Officer 3.75” figures in 2009, I do not believe that mass releasing different paint jobs on the same figure is always necessary or good. Also, as much a fan of exclusives as I am, I think it’s a terrible idea to release real characters or necessary characters as exclusive figures, because this puts people who want those characters in a position that they may find uncomfortable. A set like this is a perfect exclusive: unnecessary for most but wanted by some. Everyone ends up happy. Army builders, Clone or Imperial collectors get pieces they want; the causal or character driven collector doesn’t have to get anything. Completests are screwed no matter what. Anyway, this is more along the lines of what we’ve come to expect exclusives to be. I can’t believe that I’m saying this, but those of us “old enough” to remember the Botcon 2007 Seeker controversy can attest to the fandom-wide chaos exclusive toys of major characters can cause.

What I find interesting about these figures is that they are repaints of a figure which itself was only available through an exclusive set. The Phase II Clone first appeared in the rush of Black Series exclusives tied to The Force Awakens, and has always been a nice yet unexciting figure. Somehow not as bland as the Attack of the Clones Clone trooper, the Phase II figure has never been released at retail in any version, so if you want to add that to your lineup you have no choice but to get an entire boxed set or hunt eBay for individual samples. The good news I suppose is that the prices on the 2015 boxed sets are really going down from their initial $99, with the Entertainment Earth set going on their website now for $49. The Amazon set, I think, got down to about $70, last I saw.

With these figures, I’m not sure the Phase II Clone will ever be mass retailed, as I can’t think of any version of it that would now be mass retail-worthy. I would have figured that the 501^st or the 212^th (the orange one) would have been in stores: the 501^st because pretty much anything you can connect to Vader is going to have some legs sales-wise, and the 212^th because a Commander Cody figure already exists. Maybe the Shock trooper, primarily because it is pretty eye catching in red. The green one, no, because it really is dull to look at. It’s ok that I said that, because Clones are engineered to not have feelings, so they can’t have them hurt. But if those three weren’t sent to retail, and the original was not sent to retail, what use of this figure could there be that would be deemed retail viable? None that I can think of. On the other hand, a set like this is perfect for a collector like myself.  I absolutely loved the Revenge of the Sith and follow up Saga Legends toylines, because the provided so many 3.75” Clone figures from different battalions. Pretty much every time I went to Target I found one or two different Clones, and that was basically my introduction to army building. I am in for any set of Clone repaints like this, or if there was a similar thing for Stormtroopers which, canonically, we know there is not, but still. I’d be happiest with sets of actual figures though, as eventually even my interest in ‘just’ repainted Phase II armor is going to wear out. What I mean by actual figures is a set of Clone commanders, as there are plenty of them to be made, especially if you being in ones from The Clone Wars and address the burning issue of where the hell is a Black Series Captain Rex? I ran this idea out a few weeks ago, and it still seems like a solid one to me: how about a boxed set of Rex, which then provides most of the buck for an ARC Trooper, and then Commander Gree, since the Clone body and Scout Trooper helmet exist, and then another commander, or maybe a removable helmet Clone, since the Jango Fett head exists? The Rex/ARC Trooper opens the future door for commanders like Wolfe. How about a thicker Clone and then we get the Republic Commando squad? Look at that, that’s two sets of exclusives right there! Now we just cross our fingers and hope.

I am very happy with this set, and it hits all the right notes for me and my collection. In terms of general desirability and price/value, we’ve been over that before: essentially, you want this set at the price or you don’t, and you already know. I’ve said this before, but the price per figure is $20 at retail, so the set of four would run $80 before tax and assuming a stable price of $20 each, so $99 for the set of them isn’t that big of a price increase: that’s probably the total with taxes and all that anyway. Regardless a set like this at that price is an individual decision, but one that I think is worth it.