"You believe that, or is that what you were engineered to think?."
The Star Wars Black Series are slowly working their way through some of the key Clone Trooper characters, with a particular focus on the 501st legion and the latest two releases for 2023 are those of Clone Commander Jesse and ARC Trooper Fives. Fives is an exclusive release, sold via Walmart in the US with a wider Fan Channel release in the UK and elsewhere. The figure comes in a windowless box and sits under The Clone Wars suite of the Galaxy Collection. Fives is number 16 in that collection and uses the yellow accent colour assigned to The Clone Wars.
The ARC Trooper figure has been around since 2021 having been first released as Echo and then used for the Phase 1 Clone Trooper, the Umbra Trooper, Jesse and now Fives. The body is that of the newer Clone Trooper which uses a modular construction to limit painting and to give a cleaner transition from the white of the armour to the black undersuit. The figure also features the ARC Trooper dual pauldron and the Kama shirt with integrated dual-blaster pistol holsters. The 501st blue markings are the bulk of the paint application with blue panels down the arms and legs as well as some grey on the gauntlets and shin armour inclusive of a neat set of yellow, green and red controls on the left glove. The suit is completed with a backpack fitted to the reverse, cast in grey and with gunmetal silver details.
The helmet is removable and painted in the same way as the armour and aligned to the markings we see Fives use in the show with a crescent pattern above the visor sitting above a red dot. The helmet also features gloss black paint on the visor and vents, and a moveable range finder. A fully sculpted head of Fives is included under the helmet utilising the existing Temura Morrison head sculpt with a flat top of hair and the ‘Fives’ tattoo to the side of the right temple. Facial print technology is utilised as is now standard to enhance the likeness and realism of the head, particularly around the eyes. Fives beard does lack a bit of detail compared to the face and is quite glossy and angular.
Fives is armed solely with a pair of DC-17 blaster pistols which are the existing sculpt, cast in black plastic and with limited detailing. They can be stowed in the holsters on the belt, or handheld. The right-hand does feature a trigger finger for the most suitable grip, but the left hand is still missing that trigger finger so the grip doesn’t look quite right - although there seems to be some movement in this for future figures with the more recent Commander Appo finally featuring a blaster grip left hand.
Articulation is fully pinless and 21 points in total including some newer additions like the dual joint neck and butterfly shoulder joints. The kama and pauldrons do limit some of the movement, but all in all, Fives can hit a number of poses including more dynamic stances with his blasters. As with all the other figures using this Clone Trooper body to date, the knee and elbow pads can look strange when the legs and arms are posed as they are fixed in position and don’t move with the joint.
The release of Fives expands our 501st Clone Wars characters even further and while the figure offers nothing new as such, the paint decor and head sculpts ensure the right level of variation between these characters while the armour design and colour still provide the uniformity of a military organisation. Like most of these Clone Characters, Fives would benefit greatly from an updated left hand - and we can be partly thankful that this appears to now be coming as seen on Appo. Other than that there is little to fault other than the exclusivity of the item, the slightly inflated RRP vs. a standard release, and the availability with demand appearing to outstrip supply - although restocks do now appear to be happening.
Keep Track of all the Star Wars Black Series figures from Hasbro at our comprehensive
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About Me : As a child of the 70's and 80's I grew up in a golden age for action figures and in my youth bought and sold myself through collections of Star Wars, G.I. Joe (Action Force) and M.A.S.K. while also dabbling in He-Man, Transformers and Ghostbusters. Roll forward and I am now reliving that Youth with the action figures of today and am a collector and fan of the larger 6-8 inch figures from my favourite movie and TV licences - including the ones mentioned above, but also the Marvel Cinematic Universe, Doctor Who and the Aliens. I launched The Mephitsu Archives in 2015 with a view of creating a UK focused site or these figures where fans can pick up the latest action figure news, read reviews and get information on where to buy their figures and what is currently on store shelves. I hope I am delivering that to you guys...
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