Clone Commander Cody

My son has been a massive fan of the now removed Hero Factory Lego. We have crates full of body-parts and weapons. The building is straight forward for a Hero-Factory expert (no instructions required!), and the result is a fine looking soldier. Having been built, this version of the Commander Cody has already been modified with some serious fire-power and battled new alien enemies. The play potential is awesome. I was hoping to keep it maybe as a display piece, perhaps I'll have to buy one for myself. Here's hoping it's just not a one-off. Looking forwards to Storm Troopers, Droids and plenty of Sith! more less

The figures can be used to recreate scenes from their movies, especially the Luke set, which has the handcuffs from his capture scene in Return of the Jedi. The high level of articulation also makes them very posable so they will look great on display. more less

My biggest problem is the back. One of the weaknesses of this system is that it tends to leave parts of the armature exposed and that is particularly jarring with the back of Cody's legs. I have already seen AFOLs customizing these kits to address flaws like this. more less

It's tough to recommend Cody. On one hand, I love the character, the color scheme, and clones in general. On the other hand, there really isn't a lot to this figure- he has basic armoring, a backpack which really doesn't add a whole lot to the figure, and a rifle as his sole accessories that can't even be stowed anywhere on his backpack (which would have added to it's utility.) As far as ratings go, I would place him with Luke among my least favorites of the wave, but just silghtly higher than Luke only because I like the character and colors. In terms of build and accessories, he does actually fall behind Luke slightly. Similar to jango where I would prefer a Boba, I think I would have preferred Rex over Cody- he's more visually interesting of a character. more less

My only significant criticism of the figure is that there is an unsightly gap between the torso and backpack, but the price point restricts the number of pieces included of course, so I think this is a reasonable compromise. Otherwise I am pleased with this figure on the whole and certainly recommend it, just perhaps not quite as highly as some of the others, particularly the largest two which are truly must-haves! more less

If you're a Star Wars fan of the prequel generation, Clone Commander Cody will probably appeal to you. He looks great from the front, and I don't think the playability issues he has are going to be any better on the other Star Wars sets. He's not a bad constraction figure, but not my personal favorite from the Star Wars line or this year as a whole. more less