New JD Review: Commander Cody

[Jesse James]

Another new review this week as I head on back into the realm of basic figures after our VTSC break...  We're picking up with the Coruscant Wave, which till recently was the newest basic figure out there anyway, and in particular we're going to examine

Clone Commander Cody

With this being the most hotly demanded single Clone since Clones came into the modern Star Wars fan's mindset, how could Hasbro screw it up, right?

Well, read the review and you'll see that Hasbro's able to take their veritable Clone Perfection from the past 2 years and completely drop the ball with it all because of some corner cuts and poor design decisions.  Cody's far from perfect, and doesn't even match up to his own trooper's level of quality...  How can that be?  Fit for command...  my hairy white ass.

The figure's pluses are cool, especially a removable helmet, but it's disappointing that Hasbro's cut of ankle articulation and the sculpt of said ankles turned out to really ruin a figure with a ton of promise.  It's a simple enough customizer's fix, but it's hardly something that anyone outside that hobby niche wants to get involved in.

Read the review...  Even I needed convincing by our own Jared that this figure had its flaws before I'd bought it.  When I got one in-hand, I was let down a good bit for sure.

[Darth_Anton]

Thank you!...

...for giving an accurate review. I was very disappointed in this figure too.

[Matt_Fury]

It's amazing to me that Hasbro can be so inconsistent with their figures.  I guess that's the main reason I don't collect them anymore (and Master Replicas and Sideshow are getting most of my lunch money now!)

[Darth_Anton]

First, Matt, I love both of your signature lines.

Second, you nailed a thought I never think to articulate. You are so right. It's like each sculptor/designer isn't held to a particular, unifying standard.

But what really gets me is how many people think that this is the best figure ever. I personally put it at barely above POTF2.

[Jesse James]

For my money, Cody's flaw(s) are that they snubbed his ankle articulation, and then sculpted the ankles like **** with a "pose" in mind instead of simply straight.

We can look at the AT-AT Driver resculpt as an example of what to do...  I could've lived without the ankle joints really, but only for the right sculpted ankles then...  That's where Hasbro 100% dropped the ball, and the figure sucks as a result.

It's a shame too when at their disposal are at least 3 sets of poseable SA Clone lower legs that I can think of off the top of my head.  The #41, #6, and Jetpack Deluxe Clone (no pegholes but I'd survive) are all SA designs...  Cody's armor from the knee down is simply a regular trooper's armor.  Would anyone have minded them re-using one of these figure's legs from the knee down?  Hell from the thigh down I'd have been happy (I can live without the deep scarring in the armor).

And I'm not even counting the Evolutions Clones or the Commanders...  Hasbro's logic on this one baffles me though.  You have the sculpts on-hand, use them.  It'd save them money and made the figure vastly superior...

This figure did turn out pretty sad to me, and thanks for the support for the review guys...  The only way for things to get better is to point out what's wrong to Hasbro...  Whether they listen or not is up to them, but at the end of the day, a thing like this can mean the difference between me buying 1 or 20 of a figure honestly. 

[Nirvana]

Pretty much the only reason I want to find this clone is for the accesories and another clone headsculpt for customs...the body's pretty much the suck.

[obi-dad]

I think you nailed this guy dead on, Jesse.  I almost didn't even buy this figure after reading this review (and so many similar comments when people first bought the figure).  I'm a loose collector and this one is still in the package, if that says anything.  It's probably where it looks best, unfortunately.

[Jesse James]

Thanks Obi-Dad, I appreciate that...  I know there's lots of Cody fans out there that would give me flak on this one but Hasbro just dropped the ball on a figure they could've really saved $$$ on and just re-used parts from other Clones. 

The Commanders are so hit and miss...  Deviss, who wasn't even in the film, turns out fantastic.  Sure he lacks waist articulation but he's "got it where it counts" with every other point of articulation.  That's awesome.  But then you look at how Hasbro progressed with Commanders...

Bacara lacks knees, but has ankles.  That will never make sense to me when they go with that articulation format on ANY figure, but on Bacara they really screwed the pooch.

Commander Gree's not even accurate in the slightest.  He required either a whole new sculpt or some major snap-on accessorizing from Hasbro, and they did neither.  Repaint does not cut it.

Bly...  He's good, to a point.  The suck factor there is not so much about the figure, but that that the best, most accurate paintjob for Bly was also the most difficult paint variant on that figure to track down.  Figure's good since it's just Deviss repainted.  They get a pass there.

Flash forward to now and Cody, the most asked about Clone since really before E3 even was released, and now Hasbro tanks the figure, yet they could've delivered better and done so at a fraction of the cost to themselves on this one figure.

Just dumb.  Cody's still in the lead for my worst figure of the year award I think.   He has stiff competition but he's still holding onto the lead I think.  For the best of the year the competition's even closer I think.

[ruiner]

For the best of the year the competition's even closer I think.

Excluding VTSC, who's in the running for best basic figure of the year?

[Jesse James]

Tough one to say actually.  Maybe that'd make a good round-up for my reviews this year come December-ish?

[212th Battalion]

that would be awsome! i would think that its going to be cody or the sandtrooper