Sculpt�3.5/5
More clone troopers are a good thing in my book, and this guy's not too shabby even though we'll probably never see an AT-TE Tank vehicle for this guy to go in. Sculpting is pretty much what you'd expect for another clone figure with decently accurate armor details and proportions that aren't too far off from the real thing. However, what took me by surprise is the type of plastic Hasbro chose to make this guy with. The plastic is totally cheap and soft, almost like vinyl. And what's worse is that they used this cheap plastic for his entire body (expect perhaps his head)! Usually the torso is made of a hard plastic, and the limbs are made of a softer plastic, but that's not the case here. The softer than usual plastic they've used on this figure has in turn made the details look soft and less defined. It almost looks like this guy was carved out of soap! Bad choice of plastic on Hasbro's part; I really don't know what they were thinking.

The removable helmet is slightly larger than other clone helmets, but it's not too far off. The indentations at the cheek don't go in as much because of the space needed inside the helmet to fit over the figure's head. Also included is a helmet cover that goes on top of the clone helmet. This piece fits snugly on top of the helmet and looks pretty accurate as far as I can tell. This clone's headsculpt looks like a combination of Temuera Morrison and Bodie Taylor's (the two actors who portrayed clone troopers in Attack of the Clones) likenesses. I own two AT-TE Gunner figures and one has a headsculpt that has more softer details (pictured here) and the other has sharper and more defined details. I am not sure which one is the normal one, but either way, they both look decent. His mouth is open slightly which is perhaps the only detail I'm not quite happy about, but I guess it could work if you pretend he is breathing heavily or talking to someone.

The pose of this figure is the only other thing I have issues with--more specifically, it's his arms that bug me. They are bent at an angle and cannot be straightened out, thanks to the lack of ball jointed elbows. The right arm is angled at about 45 degrees at the shoulder so that the arm points away from the body. The preposed arms work well for certain poses like having him hold his helmet or using both hands to hold a rifle, but for the most part there's not much you can do with them.

Articulation--3.5/5
The AT-TE Tank Gunner has 13 points of articulation: ball-jointed neck, angle-cut right shoulder, standard left shoulder, elbow cuts on both arms, wrists, ball-jointed hips, ball-jointed legs, and ball-jointed ankles. There's good and bad here, but lets start with what I like best: the ball-jointed hips! The ball-jointed hips on VOTC Luke Skywalker were terrible, but Hasbro got it right on this figure and they are wonderful. With the ball-jointed hips you can make wide or narrow stances which is great for making action poses or plain, neutral poses. The hips are also not overly obvious and work well with the armor. The articulation on the legs of this figure are perfect, perfect, perfect! On the other hand, the arms are a disappointment. Cut shoulders? Cut elbows? What was Hasbro thinking here? For cryin' out loud, just reuse the arms from Clone #6, Clone #41, or the original Super Articulated Clone! Anything less is just going backwards. The arms also pop off at the elbow very easily; try to put the gun in his hand and chances are you'll take off his forearm in the process. On the plus side, it's easy to remove his whole arm from the shoulder which makes it easier to remove the separately molded armor. He also looks pretty spiffy manning a tripod cannon or riding a speeder bike.

Features--NA/5
This is a collection 2 figure, so no goofy action features here. However, he does have a removable helmet...

Accessories--5/5
You get a removable clone trooper helmet, tank gunner's helmet cover, removable left shoulder pad, blaster, pistol, and a Mygeeto/Kashyyyk/Felucia display base. I suppose you can also count the separately molded armor thing as well. Getting off the armor is not as easy as it sounds and you will have to remove one of the arms to make it easy on your self. Once it's off you can put it on clone #6 or #41 with good results (to get it onto these figures, your best bet is to slide it up from the legs). You can also put the tank gunner's helmet cover onto clone #6 or #41's helmet though the fit will be a bit looser. Like Clone #6, this figure has a removable left shoulder pad, but instead of having a second shoulder pad with an Imperial symbol on it, this one just reveals the Imperial symbol underneath. The blaster seems to be slightly different than any of the ones we've seen yet. It is just as detailed as the one that came with the clone pilot, but is also slightly bigger. The blaster pistol is the same one that came with the POTJ Scout Trooper, too bad there's no place to store this tiny accessory. I still think the detailing on this display base is nice and this one has a slightly different paint scheme than the others. It is similar to the one that came with Ki-Adi-Mundi, but the greens here are much brighter and more intense. These bases can connect to other bases. The AT-TE tank gunner also has a full peg hole in his foot, perfect for the footpeg found on the display base.

Paint--2/5
I'm disappointed in this area. Perhaps my biggest gripe is that they neglected to paint parts of his black body glove which show at his shoulders and crotch on the body section. This is especially obvious at the right shoulder and it looks kind of strange because of it. My second major gripe is the eyes. Mine are oh so close to being cross-eyed, and for some reason both of my figures are both looking upwards. One of my figures has a very poorly painted helmet cover, with totally misaligned gray lines that are so far off the mark it's not even funny. And although it's not technically a paint issue, what's up with the use of black plastic for the ankle joints?? They should've used white plastic like they usually do. The cheap white plastic used for the figure is also an issue. By himself he may look fine, but put him next to a brand new clone #6 or #41 and you'll notice that the tank gunner looks slightly yellow. Chalk it up to the cheap plastic, folks! Some good things about the paint job? They painted some of the details on the back of the armor which they usually leave plain white. The tan shoe soles also seem to be pretty accurate.

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 tough one to call. Some people will love it for its removable helmet and ball-jointed hips, others will hate it for its cheap plastic and lack of ball-joints on the arms. Me? I like this figure, and I really dig the hip articulation which I hope they will be able to incorporate into more figures. At the same time, I'm disappointed in the cheap plastic used, and the fact that this could have been a perfect figure if they gave him better arm articulation and better plastics. In the end, I still really like this figure even though it has a lot of faults. If you want some variation in your clone army then don't hesitate to buy him when you seem him. And even if you don't like the figure you can at least put his gear on Clone #41 which, in my opinion, looks great.

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