Toybox REVIEW: Star Wars Black Series Clone Commander Bly

Release Date: March 2020

RRP: $20/£20

2020 truly is the year of the Clone Trooper. The final season of Star Wars: The Clone Wars has come and gone, finally giving closure to the story George Lucas and Dave Filoni started all the way back in 2008. On top of that, 2020 also marks the 15th anniversary of Star Wars Episode III: Revenge of the Sith, where Darth Sidious finally made his move and activated Order 66 - commanding the clones to turn against their Jedi generals. Amongst the clones loyal to the Republic was Clone Commander Bly, who finally arrives in Hasbro's Black Series as part of its latest wave. Appearing in both The Clone Wars and Revenge of the Sith, Bly is most notable for his appearance in the latter - where he gunned down Jedi Master Aalya Secura on the planet Felucia.

How exactly a bit parter like Bly got a numbered, mass release figure whilst some of the more prominent clones were store exclusives I don’t know, but maybe that’s one of the perks of successfully being able to kill a Jedi. Either way Bly comes in standard Star Wars Black Series packaging, with this release numbered 104 in the third “red label” assortment of figures. The front of the box features some fantastic artwork of the Clone Commander, which is then repeated on the back alongside a short character bio. Despite all the Black Series artwork being black and white, I really appreciate that the clone pieces have all been distinct enough to immediately identify who it is. Open it up and you’ll find the figure and accessories housed on the usual moulded clear plastic tray.

Clone Commander Bly is another clone trooper whose unique armour additions make him stand out of the rest of the Republic Army, and in his case the additions are pretty great all around. Even with the base clone armour underneath it all, detached from the Clone Wars setting Bly's armour almost looks like it could work as a bounty hunter or something. The helmet features a built-in scope that can pull down over the visor, while the body armour sports unique shoulder pauldrons, an ammo pouch sash and soft goods kama. These are all brand new pieces unique to this figure, even the kama which is a completely different shape the ones included on Rex, Wolffe and Fox. The colour scheme adds in sections of mustard yellow and brown, with the latter's finish looking almost leathery. The paint application is extremely crisp, adding a variety of different textures to the figure on top of that shiny white plastic. Bly is easily one of, if not the, most impressive clones Hasbro have put out so far. Sadly there's no unmasked head underneath, but it's an easy sacrifice to make for the better proportioned head and all the other unique additions we have here.

It's also important to note that the initial run of this figure (including the one pictured here) have a paint error that makes them slightly inaccurate to the onscreen version. The brown strip that surrounds the visor is supposed to run down into the nose section, but here the bottom of the helmet is just a solid yellow. This is being revised in further runs, so if you're a stickler for accuracy it's probably better to hunt for this figure in stores rather than rely on online. Personally it doesn't bother me as the helmet looks great regardless, but some are less easily pleased.

Despite all the new bells and whistles it's still the same basic clone body under there, which has its limits but still exceptionally good for a mould that's been around for about three years now and used several times. The body features a ball hinge neck joint, ball jointed waist, swivel hinge shoulders, double hinge elbows and knees, bicep and thigh swivels and then finally swivel hinge wrists and ankles. A fairly impressive selection that's held up well over the years, with only a bit of irritation coming from the shoulder region. Those shoulder pads still aren't great, but since Bly also has his pauldrons on top of that it's not like there was going to be all that much more movement anyway. While you can't get much of a wide-legged stance out of the figure because of the armour it can still pull of a great array of poses, with each joint holding in place exactly as it should. The only other thing worth mentioning is that posing does inevitably lead to the sash piece unplugging at the belt, but it easily slots back in afterward.

Bly's accessories are a veritable greatest hits of clone trooper goodies, as everything included here has also been packaged with one or more past release. Firstly in his holsters are the twin blaster pistols included with both Rex and Wolffe, and then on the plastic tray you'll also find the DC-15A long range rifle that came with Cody, Fox and Gree. It might seem a little disappointing that so many clones come with the same weapons, but when you consider that it's all standard issue in makes a lot of sense they would. The pieces aren't all necessarily the same colour across every figure either, and in Bly's all three guns are solid black plastic - no paint, but the moulding detail does the job. As is the norm for the clone body Bly has one moulded trigger hand and one standard grip hand so holding a blaster in the left isn't quite as good as it could be, but it's good enough. That said having a standard grip left hand makes more sense on the clones that have larger weapons, even if the grip needs to be widened considerably in order to hold the barrel of the rifle properly. All in all it's a solid little selection, despite being nothing we haven't seen before.

Of all the clone trooper out there, I have to say Black Series Clone Commander Bly was not the one I was expecting to be so enamoured with. While fiction-wise he may not be quite as notable as some of the ones with more fleshed our characters, the toy itself is by far the best of the ones Hasbro have put out so far - seemingly combining all the best elements of previous releases and adding a new touches as well. The newly sculpted pieces look fantastic, the colour scheme is sharp and the helmet gimmick is lots of fun. Sure it may be a years old mould with weapons that have been recoloured and re-released a dozen times already, but it just goes to show that there’s still plenty of potential in that clone body. If you’re in the need of a clone commander and aren’t so hung up on personality, then Bly is the man for you.