Today we’re looking at the newest addition to the Star Wars 1/6 scale figure line from Medicom. This Real Action Hero (RAH) Clone Trooper Commander from Attack of the Clones made its debut at Star Wars Celebration Japan this summer. It is a limited edition of 1000 (250 in Japan, 750 in US) and is exclusive in the US from StarWarsShop.com.

The 1/6 toy scene is on fire this year. Major players like Hot Toys, Sideshow, and Medicom continue to blow us away with each new press release. The quality of the figures is going up every day. Unfortunately, so are the prices. This guy retails for about $150 (USD). StarWarsShop.com lists him for $129.99. Medicom figures tend to be the more expensive for what you’re getting.  More on that later.

Medicom’s package is nice in that it only takes 2 slices of tape and the figure is ready to pop out. No stupid twisties or rubber bands! The art on their Star Wars boxes is very simple. It does have a window so you can see the figure in the box. This makes it nice for mint-in-package collectors, if you go for that sort of thing. Personally, I like when a box is simple or has artwork that I don’t care about. It makes it easier to toss it in the rubbish! I have a hard time letting go of rad package designs–my storage is full of empty toy boxes.

I don’t go for a lot of the prequel collectibles. No offense to any prequel lovers out there, but the awful fart stink that those movies left in the room has only just recently started to clear up for me. I’ll spare you the ranting tangent. The armored characters are undeniably rad, though. Particularly the Episode II clones. I totally dig the mandalorian-ish visor and that fin dealy on the top of the helmet. I passed on the Medicom Ep III clone figures, but when I saw this guy solicited I had to snatch him up.

SCULPT, PAINT, AND AWESOMENESS

The armor sculpt and paint on this figure are top-notch! Right up there with the RAH Stormtrooper they released a few years ago. I have no complaints here. The body suit also has a rad ribbed-like texture. Dig that. While the Medicom body itself is amazing and has incredible articulation, poseability is limited due to the armor, but that’s to be expected. Have you ever tried on real trooper armor? Try sitting down!

I have to admit that when I saw the helmet up close the first time I was a little puzzled. The helmet seemed to extend too far down the neck. Check it out:

I honestly couldn’t remember if the helmet actually looked like that in the movie. I mean I only saw it once and haven’t watched it since. I have seen the Clone Wars cartoons several times and played with plenty of 4″ Clone Troopers and in each of those cases, the helmet cuts off before curling down on the neck, like you would expect a real wearable helmet to look. A quick trip through Google images answered my question…

So this helmet is movie accurate. But it begs the question, how did the actors squeeze their heads into those helmets? Looking at this figure, there is no way you could slip the helmet off and on a scaled head. It’s stuck on there. So were the helmets in the movie supposed to be like a two piece deal that locks on around the head like a capsule? Or (gasp!) were all of the clones in the movie CG?! I’m sorry, I don’t know enough about the movie or the real props to answer that.

*UPDATE* Score another one for Google. According to multiple sources, there were no actual helmet props from Attack of the Clones since all of the Clones were CG! Seriously? Come on, Lucas!

SCALE

Let’s take a minute to talk about scale.

Medicom’s RAH figures are notorious for being short, as in, not quite 1:6 scale. This makes it difficult to display them with Sideshow’s 1:6 Star Wars line. Medicom has done something totally weird with their Clone figures, though. They’re taller! Compare Medicom’s own RAH Jango Fett (see above) with the Clone Commander. Is this a decision they made to fit better with Sideshow’s future offerings? Who knows. Does this mean that all future Medicom Star Wars figures will be in this scale, as well? Like that wicked Han Solo and Royal Guard they have coming out later?  We’ll have to wait and see, I suppose.

But these clones do look good next to Sideshow Star Wars figures (pictured w/ Sideshow Obiwan). This is good news for people, like myself, who want to put this guy right next to Sideshow’s highly anticipated General Kenobi coming in October.

ACCESSORIES

Unlike Sideshow and Hot Toys, Medicom figures are usually pretty light on accessories. The Commander comes with an extra set of gripping hands and a blaster. There is also a display stand, but if you’re like me, you’ll just leave that in the box or throw it away since these dudes stand so well on their own.

The extra hands are nice and do their job. For my money, Medicom has the best hand peg system on the market. They fit snugly in place, but they’re easy to swap without worrying about breaking them. Hot Toys’ pegs seem a bit tight and my Sideshow’s hands are always falling off.

The blaster, on the other hand, falls short in a couple of areas. The paintjob is super dull. It looks like a cheap toy more than a scale replica, which sucks a little when you look at the immaculate job they did on the figure. Just compare the Medicom blaster (bottom) with the Sideshow Stormtrooper blaster (top):

As we can see, Sideshow does a much nicer job with the sculpt, paint, and overall quality of the accessory. Pretty amazing for Sideshow considering they charge half the price Medicom charges for their figures. Pretty sad for Medicom, though. Another notch on Sideshow’s belt….the folding stock actually folds!

Whereas the stock on the Medicom blaster does nothing. Boo hoo hoo.
In conclusion, even with its lack of accessories, this figure is super rad. Rad enough to be buried with? Probably not. Worth $150? No way. If you can get it for $100 or less, snatch it up! $130 is okay considering many of us will be forking out upwards of $170 for the RAH Han Solo next year. There is also a plain white Ep. II Clone Trooper hitting importers any day now. Personally, I felt like the plain white ones look a little boring. The yellow on this figure has a better aesthetic. If they were half the price? I’d be buying at least 2 plain whities for the yellow commander to boss around!