Star Wars: The Black Series Clone Commander Wolffe

 

 

Yay, another Clone Commander. (seriously. It’s a good thing. –mr) The Clone Wars veteran Wolffe joins Cody, Gree, and Rex in the 6” collection, and like Gree is a store exclusive. This time specific to GameStop, Wolffe is a totally excellent looking figure, and a real welcome addition.

Unlike Gree and Cody, Wolffe has a removable helmet with a Clone head underneath. Like Rex. Wolffe is blinded in one eye, and the right eye on the figure is rendered in all white, and surrounded by scars. Aside from that, the Clone head is the same as the Clone head on Captain Rex, with a flat top haircut. I realize that the Clones look alike facially, and so maybe not every Commander should have a removable helmet because, ultimately, most of the heads would be the same. But with characters like Rex and Wolffe, one of whom gets a lot of face time in The Clone Wars and the other who is kind of distinguished by their face, it makes good sense to allow the figures to show said faces. If you think about Commander Gree, in all of his maybe fifteen or twenty seconds of screen time in Revenge of the Sith, we never see his face, so there’s no immediate reason for that figure to remove his helmet.  I’m usually a big fan of things like the removable helmet, but frankly, for Clones, once in a while is plenty. Since Wolffe has a unique face, this is a good time to take that opportunity.

Wolffe is beautifully painted, with lots of very sharp details. The right shoulder pad displays the Wolfpack symbol, the nickname of the 104^th Battalion. The left shoulder pad has the small antenna that Cody has, as well as that rib cage/flowerish design painted on. The main paint on the armor is this strange, deep grey, and it is a far nicer looking color than “grey” ever really makes one think. The helmet is very nicely rendered, with a visor different than most Clone helmets, more along the lines of what the biker Clones like Neo wear. The grey covers the top and much of the lower portion of the helmet, below the eyes, but in that midsection around the eyes, there’s some paint to indicate weathering. The helmet is really terrific looking, and really helps Wolffe stand out from other Clones. Because they are Clones, they all . . . kind of . . . look . . . alike, but the commanders are supposed to stick out. Not only in terms of rank, but because they are generally the only Clones that are actual characters, and not simply cannon fodder. The Black Series has really been doing a good job of bringing these designs to the 6” scale, something that the 3.75” size had been doing for many, many years. It’s nice to get these larger versions of the commanders, even if they are exclusive to a store or an online outlet.

For joints and posing, you know what to expect from these figures by now. For accessories, Wolffe comes with the two pistols that Rex also carries, and I felt that this was a bit of a disappointment. Rex came with the long Clone blaster as well; Gree came with that long blaster but also a pretty cool monocular part. Wolffe only has the two pistols. I understand that they are his weapon of choice in The Clone Wars, but the package feels a little empty without another accessory. Another blaster would probably have alleviated this. It would seem that the accessory budget as it were for Wolffe was shorted to allow for all this excellent paintwork, and that’s a fine trade off, since if Wolffe is on your shopping list, you likely have a box of extra Black Series weapons laying around somewhere at home, and could easily give him something. Even the existent singular Clones came with more than one blaster, so finding a spare Clone weapon shouldn’t be too tough.

SDCC 2018 brought news that, to commemorate the 20^th anniversary of the release of The Phantom Menace (wow, getting’ old man. –mr), 2019 Black Series releases would focus more on characters from the Prequel Trilogy. While we all know that this means there is hope for a 6” Jar-Jar Binks, and, come on, there’s totally going to be a 6” Jar-Jar coming, this gives oxygen to my eternal request of more and different Clone troopers. It is a sincere hope of mine that, this time next year, I can sit here and say “I knew they’d eventually listen to my idea and put out a four pack of ARC Troopers,” or other commanders, or even some 6” figures of the Clone designs from the Battlefront games. Naturally, there are actual Prequel characters that don’t have Black Series figures and will most likely get them, like Padme and Dooku and Grievous (please!!!) and Mace and . . . well, that’s kind of it. Other than those, we have a bunch of Jedi who have names no one knows, and Clone Commanders. I think we all know which one would be more important.

 

Commander Wolffe is a real good looking Clone figure, and feels like a quality exclusive. Not like anyone is actually keeping score here, but the last GameStop Black Series exclusive was pretty underwhelming, so a real strong release like this one feels like a step forward for that particular retailer. I really, really like this figure, and would recommend it to anyone collecting the line, or Clones, or whatever your Black Series niche may be.