Sculpt�3.5/5
The Episode III clone pilots are starting to look more like the AT-AT Drivers from the Original Trilogy, and that's fine by me. This is not the most complex clone outfit out there, but that's why I like it--for it's simplicity. The clone pilot wears a simple gray jumpsuit, white gloves and boots, simple chest armor, and his pilot's helmet with control box. All of this is sculpted well; the helmet looks like it's just the right size (though I do think it could be a tad bit bigger), the control box has all of the appropriate buttons and lights, and the jumpsuit has subtle but realistic wrinkles. The gloves are nicely done and even have small details on the knuckles of the fingers. The boots are simple and are reminiscent of the "moon boots" that the AT-AT drivers wore in the OT. What little you can see of the pilot's face is likewise sculpted well; no complaints there. What I don't like is that the helmet is not removable. I realize that the hoses connecting it to the control box may have made such a feature hard to do, but I still think it was possible to pull off. Having a removable helmet would have helped make this figure look more detailed, plus removable helmets are just cool to have. The hoses connecting the helmet to the control box are a bit lacking in detail and I think the ribbed look of the hoses could have been more pronounced. My last nitpick is the proportions of this figure. There's just something off about him and I think it's that his legs are too long. His crotch area also seems a bit too big which might also be a contributing factor.

Articulation--4.5/5
The clone pilot has eleven points of articulation: ball-jointed head, shoulders, angle-cut elbows, wrists, hips, and ball-jointed knees. For me, clone pilots don't need a heap of articulation; they just need to be able to sit in their cockpit, grab the controls, stand neutrally, and be capable of a decent running pose (for running to hanger bays and such). This figure certainly fits the criteria and then some, so I'm very happy. The ball-jointed neck is nice, but motion is limited due to the connected hoses and the minimal space between his helmet and his armor. The cut elbows get the job done, but of course, ball-jointed elbows would have been preferred. The knee joints are nice and tight and even have a bit of clickyness to them to help hold certain poses. There is some obvious gaps at the knee joints but it's not that bad.

Features--3/5
I like it when the action feature is in the accessory and not in the figure itself. The clone pilot comes with a radar dish cannon not unlike the radar that came with the SAGA Coruscant Attack Padme Amidala. You will notice that this radar dish shares many of the same parts that Padme's has with only slight changes. Anyway, this radar dish has the ability to fire a missile. Simply insert the missile and then push the back of it to launch. A decent feature, but unnecessary in my eyes.

Accessories--3/5
You get the aforementioned radar dish cannon, a projectile for the cannon, a control handle (I think) for the cannon, and a standard clone blaster. The control handle thing has a handle on one end for the clone pilot to grab, and on the other end it has a claw-like thing with a peg. This peg can be inserted into a hole found in the base of the cannon. Why they even chose to make such an accessory is beyond me, but I guess they figured that the clone should have a way of physically "controlling" the cannon. If there is another use for this accessory then I have no idea what it is. Personally, I would have rather seen something more useful like maybe a fuel pump or a diagnostics tool, but at least the cannon is quite large and kids may get a kick out of it. The blaster is slightly different than the one that came with Clone Trooper #6, as it has slightly better detailing and a larger trigger guard which makes it easier to get a trigger finger in it.

Paint--3/5
Good job on the paint. They did a pretty clean job on the helmet markings and the insignias on his shoulders. The helmet markings don't match with the "actual" clone on the package, but that's okay with me. I figure in the movie each pilot will have custom helmet markings like in the Original Trilogy. My only beef with the paint job is that they neglected to paint a part of the jumpsuit that is showing at the shoulder area, under the black straps. Slight weathering could have worked on this figure too, but not having it is fine by me.

Packaging--4/5
I'm really digging the ROTS packaging. I love the color palettes that Lucasfilm's marketing department chose, and I think that the orange Star Wars logo is a nice change of pace from the silver and gold iterations of the past. The shape of the cards also takes a dramatic step away from the rectangular cards we've gotten in the past. A large Vader helmet looms at the top of the card, looking down at the raging lava below. In the dome of Vader's helmet you can see an image of Obi-Wan and Anakin dueling it out and crossing lightsabers. The bubble covers most of the card and goes right up to the bottom edges of the card. The sides of the bubble are taped to the back of the card which makes it slightly hard to get the figure out of the package in a hurry, but MOC'ers will have nothing to worry about. After opening a couple of figures, I was beginning to miss the old packages that I could just tear into without having to worry about sticky tape. There's also a nice layered effect with the use of two cardboard inserts within the bubble featuring the Star Wars logo and a photo of the character. The cardbacks are likewise well designed with perhaps the best cardback layout design I've seen in years. There a nice photo of the character from the movie, a short description of the character, a photo of the actual toy, and nice cross-sell imagery to get you excited for the other toys in the line. Considering how much less space there is on these cards makes the design all the more successful.

Overall--3.5/5
This is a good action figure that is capable of a decent amount of poses and comes with some decent accessories. I don't have an ARC yet, but this figure fits in the Gunship's cockpit very well so I can only assume it fits in the ARC. I do have some sculpting and paint issues with this figure, but if you just need a pilot for your ships then this figure fills that role perfectly.

--Photos and review by Garett Yoshimura
garett@carrotnetwork.com