Sideshow Commander Bly

Another Clone Commander to add to my Sideshow Clone Commander's collection. This time round is Commander Bly. 
Clone commander 5052, also known as Bly, was the leader of the Star Corps of clone troopers assigned to Jedi General Aayla Secura. He served with her on the exotic world of Felucia when he received Order 66. The executive command, originating from the Supreme Chancellor on Coruscant, identified Secura as a traitorous enemy of the state. Demonstrating his unerring loyalty to the Republic, Bly and his troopers raised their rifles and opened fire on their commanding officer, coldly killing the unsuspecting Jedi.

Bly was one of the first generation of clone commanders to be trained by the ARC trooper Alpha. The ARC troopers were a specially bred type of clone, more independent and with less docility tampering than the standard trooper of the line. Alpha's training program emphasized independence and outside-the-manual thinking.

The packaging is the same throughout Sideshow's Star Wars line.

The box flips open and is held together by magnets. The figures and accessories are held nicely in plastic trays. 

On all 4 sides of the box there is a picture of Bly in a different pose. At the back of the box there are additional movie screen shots.

I like this kind of packaging as you do not have to destroy the packaging to get the figure out.

I guess Sideshow stuck to the "If it ain't broke don't fix it" mentality.

I love it when Sideshow throws in the extra head attachments. 

He comes with the human clone head inspired by The Clone Wars television show, the phase I helmet also from the television show and lastly the phase II helmet from Star Wars Episode III: Revenge Of The Sith.

Sideshow has perfected the act of sculpting the helmets after doing so many clone figures. This time round they continue to nail it as both Phase I and Phase II are beautifully done.

Sideshow has never convinced me that they are good at sculpting human heads and it shows in this figure...and actually in most of their Star Wars and GI Joe line.

The head sculpt lacks detail and looks cartoonie.

However, given that the human clone head is inspired by The Clone Wars television show, I give them the benefit of the doubt.

The accessories are roughly the same as what you will expect from other Clone figures.

You get 6 interchangeable left hands, 5 interchangeable right hands and interchangeable kneeling left & right boot.

As for his weapons, you get 1 DC-15 blaster rifle, 1  DC-15 blaster and 2 DC-17 blaster pistols which you can slot into his two holster at his hip.

As usual the joints are a bit loose, so it is good to display him with the stand or else he would most likely fall over every other day.

Commander Bly is a cool figure to have in your clone collection. I am not sure why I took so long to get him and when I did, I only got him because he was on sale.

Bly in Phase I helmet

An additional note. I am not sure why Sideshow is so bad at weathering the kama command skirt. 

Just like Bacara, Bly's weathered skirt looks like he sat on something wet.

Phase II helmet

Bly with his helmet off

Frank Kozik's Goon Squad

Frank Kozik is an American graphic artist who has worked with Nirvana, Pearl Jam, Stone Temple Pilots, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, Melvins, The Offspring and Butthole Surfers. Kozik has been described as "one of the rock world's top poster artists".
Besides creating the famous Labbit, he also created many parody busts of famous leaders.
Given that those creations are simply brilliant, they do come with a pretty big price tag which is typically not within a common person's spending range.
However with the help of Kidrobot, you can now own a pocket size bust of your fav dictator.
Known as the "Goon Squad" (for obvious reasons), the series is make up of 4" tall solid vinyl busts of:
1) Kim Jong-Il dressed as Elvis (The Pyong Yang Player)
2) Ayatollah Khomeini as DJ (DJ Aya-Holla)
3) Vladimir Lenin having a party (Lil Ilych)
4) Fidel Castro having beer (The Havana Slammer)
5) Ronald Reagan as the (The Gripper)

While you can select which of the figures you desire, the color you receive is random within the blind box: blue, pink, yellow, black and white.
Of course, there are shops that open the boxes so you can the color of your choice.
I picked up a Black Kim Jong-Il & pink Lenin.
These are sure conversation starters and they look damn cool.
May try to get a Ronald Reagan too!

The Pyong Yang Player...looking cool!

Lenin with his communist "PARTY"

The 80s was Power Xtreme!

Back again with more 80's vintage goodness are Centurions: Power Xtreme!
The Centurions are a team of men dressed in specially created exo-frames that allow them (upon shouting "Power Xtreme") to fuse with 'incredible' assault weapon systems, becoming what the show calls man and machine, Power Xtreme! The end result is a weapons platform somewhere between a hard-suit and a mecha.
The Centurions are based on an orbiting space station called Sky Vault where Crystal Kane uses a transporter to send the Centurions, and the requested weapon systems, to where they are needed. Crystal is always in the company of either Jake Rockwell's dog Shadow or Lucy the orang utan, or in most cases both.
The Centurions battled the cyborg Doc Terror, who seeked to conquer the Earth. He was assisted by Hacker, the cyborg sidekick and an army of Doom Drones.

The Centurions were another beloved cartoon and toys series in my childhood.The figures were far larger as compared to the smaller 3.75 inch figures from Star Wars and GI Joes and the 6 inch figures from He-Man. They came in almost at 9 inches and had more more gadgets.

Centurions was a toy line I loved but did not really collect when I was a child.
So fast forward to present, it is now time to make things right again.

Let us start with the baddies.

Doc Terror was the baddy in the cartoon.
He was a member of the group of scientists, who was expelled because of his intentions to replace all humans with machines. He fused half his body to a powerful computer system which he developed.
That was so 80's!

Hacker was the cyborg sidekick of Dr Terror.
He was a criminal who was running away from the police, after evading the cops, Hacker met Doc Terror who offered him money and power if he worked on his side, Hacker agreed and became the Doc's experiment of turning a human into a robot.

Now to the Centurions!
Originally there were three Centurions but later two other Centurions were added.
The 3 original centurions were specialised in Land, Sea and Air operations.

Max Ray was the Sea Operations Commander: The calm and collected de facto leader of the team, dons a green power suit. His weapon systems are best suited for underwater missions.
Max had 4 weapon systems,Cruiser, Tidal Blast, Sea Bat & Depth Charger.
Cruiser was the basic weapon system and came with the figure.

The Cruiser system is composed of a an underwater breathing apparatus and a means of propulsion in the form of two Hydro Thrusters capable of operating both in and out of water.
The system is armed with two repulsar weapons and a Hydro Missile

Ace McCloud is a member of The Centurions, and serves as the team's daring Air Operations Expert.
He wears the blue power suit and his weapon system are best suited for air operations.
Interestingly in the cartoon, he was a womanizer!
His weapon systems were Sky Knight, Orbital Interceptor & Skybolt

Sky Knight came with the figure.

Sky Knight is a light Assault Weapon System.
The system consists of a variable-winged backpack, two powerful thrusters, and a rotating, chest-mounted Laser Cannon Pod. Additional ordinance comes by way of two Stincel Missiles, and a Laser-Guided Bomb directed by a Duel Laser apparatus.
Unfortunately, my Sky Knight was missing the dual laser.

Jake Rockwell was the Land Operations Specialist:
Donning a yellow power suit, he has a short fuse.
His weapon systems have the most firepower and are best suited for land missions, except for a helicopter-themed system he uses in air combat, usually assisted by Ace.

His weapon systems were Fireforce, Wild Weasel, Hornet, Swingshot & Detonator.
Fireforce was the light Assault Weapon System and came with the figure.

Jake was my favourite Centurions as he was the only one I owned.
He was a gift from my sister. He also had the most weapon systems!

 



















Fireforce composed primarily of a backpack with mounted sensor, and an extremely large Plasma Accelerator weapon capable of delivering destructive Plasma Shells over great range. Secondary armament comes in the form of a chest-mounted rotating Plasma Repulsar weapon, and a forearm-mounted twin Laser Cannon set.

Just like M.A.S.K, Centurions is another toyline I would love to recollect.
I have decided to get back all of Jack's weapon systems!