This is one of the most calm ways this issue has been expressed and it gives the necessary context to understand the issue. I feel like most (newer) fans, who often dismiss this "issue", don't know what the standard was earlier and what one could ask from Lego. This video points this out perfectly. Thanks for that

I cannot express enough how much I think someone that works at Lego needs to see this video. It’s so well reasoned and perfectly explains why fans are upset. This was great video!

Lego needs to do a minifiguers run, adding cool unique clones that may never get to be in sets like Fives, Echo etc.

i think the best course of action would be to put the holes where they’re supposed to be and reinvent the visor. would’ve been so much better

As a lego star wars fan I can say you covered everything and explained it verry wel. Bravo!

This video nails 99% of the issues I have with the clones. One thing that wasn’t mentioned is the inaccuracy of the prints. Back in the day, Lego would have 2 separate prints for P1 and P2 armors (since, y’know, they’re different). Nowadays, Lego uses one print for both that combines elements of them for a strange mishmash of designs that doesn’t look *bad* per se, but isn’t as accurate as it should be.

My first complaint, I'm totally fine with the holes on the helmet as long as they're used. Either by macrobinoculars or a visor. However, when you add rangefinders and flashlights to the helmets it looks out of place because the attachments are way too high up. Not only that, the entire shape of the Phase 2 helmet is completely botched just by adding those 2 small holes. It's also affecting prints on the forehead of the helmets. The 212th and 332nd Clone prints look worse than the original ones Lego made a few years ago and custom markets has "fixed" the 212th helmet print from the ATTE. My second complaint with the new Clones is of course the kama. Kids aren't dumb. When we had a Darth Vader or Emperor Palpatine minifigure it would be common sense to remove their capes so they don't get damaged while in a tight spot or sitting down. Todays kids can do that with the Clones as well. You have to add the kama on before you put the torso and legs together so it would be painfully obvious that in order to make your Clones sit down, you'd remove the torso and legs, remove the kama and reattach the legs and torso, it's that simple. My third and final complaint is the accuracy of the Clones themselves. Commander Fox and Captain Vaughn in the upcoming summer sets look terrible. Fox is missing red on his chest and his kneeguards aren't even red like they are in the 2008 Clone Wars show. Not only that, Lego is making his visor gray when it's supposed to be black and the printed kama on the figure is also gray, again it should be black and red. As for Captain Vaughn from the seventh season of the 2008 Clone Wars show, he is basically Commander Cody but blue. Lego has kind of replicated him by giving him the same torso as the Phase 2 Commander Cody released in 2022, however the prints are very, very wrong. Vaughn's abdomen and the 2 pouches on his belt are supposed to be gray but in the upcoming battlepack they are both white. Another problem with the Captain Vaughn figure is that his helmet isn't a regular 332nd helmet with a visor. If you watched the episode closely, he actually has dark red markings below the "eyes" and "mouth" of the visor, neither of those details are present on his 2023 minifigure. It sucks because I've been collecting Lego Star Wars for over a decade and it hurts me see how bad Lego is, especially when it comes to details and small errors, that when fixed, take the figure from a 20 to a 90 easily. I just really hope that Lego gets their head in the game and makes better Clone figures in the future.

I think another reason why this is such a controversial issue is because the fans of the Clone Wars show in 2008 have grown up and are looking for that same quality they got from sets in 2008-2013. LSW went from being a toy, to a hobby for many adult fans (like myself). Here we are 15 years later, and LEGO has been releasing clone wars sets again for a few years. They have a massive range in market, ranging from kids to adults. Things have changed a lot since 2008-2013 era of LSW though, and they have to meet the standards. Older fans that have grown up want quality, and sadly LEGO isn't producing it like they used to. Whether they like it or not, younger/new fans will never understand the nostalgia of being a LSW fan in 2007-2013, when life was fun and easy for us. These little details may not be a big deal to them if they were born before or in that era of the Clone Wars, but they are important and LEGO should fix them. If they did, I believe young/new fans wouldn't even notice anyways, but older fans would. Even speaking from a marketing perspective, fixing these helmets and kama issues would be a huge W for LEGO.

"We're are just toy figures, sir. We're meant to be badly made" "Not to me"

The new clone figures to me aren’t as great as 2014 and even 2008 or 2005. I’m very passionate about the designs of the previous clone minifigures before the design changes. The holes is just a new thing that seems to set the new figures apart from previous years, unless the holes are just a fad but I’m sure they’re still gonna be around. People take criticism of some of the downgrades as complaining but our voices need to heard to make things right and mend the quality of future clone trooper minifigures.

6:05 it’s neither. It’s simply marketing. Everyone can claim things about their products to sell said product Also about the printed kamas and helmet holes: these things don’t/didn’t happen because the designers don’t need to care. There wasn’t a new helmet mold because lego knew people would buy it anyways. Same with the kamas. They wanted to make the 332nd bp 27€ for godsake. Because people would buy them anyways. Don’t like it, don’t buy it. That’s the only way you can make change happen

I think you made the most reasonable way of describing these issues and criticisms, whereas a lot of other people have been going on a rampage about it. While I mostly disagree about the new helmet, as I actually think it works completely, the kama is something I can totally agree with. I would propose that we keep the front printed ones, but add a new cloth shape for the waist, like the one on Mime Joker in the UCS Batwing. The old kama going around the front corners cause an articulation issue in my opinion. I'm also thankful that you brought up how there will always be some level artistic license with minifigure proportions and lego's general artstyle, because that's what I find appealing about lego. A lot of the hyperdetailed custom figures just look ugly to me, as they cram so much detail on a form that's not meant for it. Personally, I think the new clones mostly are the best they have ever looked, a good blend of the clone wars and live action designs.

The worst part is that they couldn’t be bothered to update the printing machine to take into account the new helmet shape which means all the helmet prints are distorted and look horrible

I do want to point out that the helmet with the holes IS a new mold. They didn't just mod the old one. If you look at the back of the helmets in particular there's a lot of different details. Thank you for pointing out the rangefinder position on the 501st pack!

I think the biggest issue really comes down to that these are premium products at a premium price. Lego is far and away, one of the popular most toy ever and the top dog in their field, no question. It feels like they kind of just realized that people will just buy it regardless. (Self admittedly i am a part of the problem.)

Should we expect a response from lego? I think at this point that’s the question we should be asking, I remember when solid brick studios got an interview with the lead designers and I think the lead concept artist and he asked a few similar questions about quality of product and they were like fishes outta water, they acted like they’ve never heard of these problems.

The 2014 212th troops look far superior to the 2022 version. I’m very glad that I stocked up on the 2014 troopers back in 2014

This is a very good way of explaining the current state of clone troopers and the criticism most fans have against how they look now. The waist cape thing honestly bothers me more than helmet holes since it feels like something is missing when looking at figure from behind or sideways.

This was the best video I've yet seen on LEGO's slipping quality control. More people need to be discussing this important topic and holding LEGO accountable. As you mentioned, LEGO does listen to the fan community (such as they started putting some transparent clear windshield pieces in separate bags to prevent them from getting scratched up). The other major issue that comes to mind is the noticeable differences in coloration of dark red pieces. Some dark red pieces are clearly a different shade than other dark red pieces, when they should be consistent.

Since the helmet holes are where they are because of Cody’s visor, I think if visor helmets just got there own dual molded piece and normal helmets got holes in the correct spot that may fix that issue. I don’t care too much but I know to others it’s a big deal.

Great video! I really liked the way you approached this subject!

That was the best and most professional video on lego stuff ive seen in a good while, good job! One last thing (that i dont think you mentioned?...) is the fact that lego costs alot. Some of these figures come in really expensive sets. This is a premium product with a premium price...

I loved this video. I found myself agreeing with almost of what you had to say. I too like that we’re getting so many clones, but wish they could be they best they can be. I hope you make more videos like this one in the future!

just got back into collecting lego clones again, honestly im fine with them having holes.

While the clone trooper design these days has some cons to it, I’m hoping this is a learning/experimental phase for LEGO, seeing the feedback in regards to things like the helmets, waistcapes and helmet holes, what is working and not working. Some decisions LEGO makes like how they executed Captain Vaughn I have questions about. I’m not a LEGO designer and in their shoes, so I don’t know what their limitations are but I wonder why they skip out on some details or where they pull their source material from sometimes.

Good video, and very calmly explained without lots of shouting, clickbait and calling Lego "lazy"

with the orientation of the nobs where the accessories should be, it does fall short but looking at captain rex, the position lines up with where it should be on the helmet. essentially the latest phase 2 mold without the holes was still bad because of the positioning. but since there were no holes before it didn't really matter. I understand recycling/re-using things to a point but also as said in the video, you'd think they'd have the budget to make the new mold with holes in the right place and the positioning proper. good video honestly. I'm glad someone takes the time to explain such things for people on the outside. as a massive lego star wars collector I appreciate this

I’ve asked people on the Lego Star Wars subreddit to please explain what they’re angry about and have just gotten snarky comments and downvotes. Thanks for actually explaining it.

Great video to explain everything. Well written and thought out.

Me personally I don’t want a new helmet mold, cuz then all the armies of p2 troopers have built would look weird if diffident helmets would suddenly appear so yeah and I think the helmet holes are not THAT bad, I mean it ads more customisation opportunities which I like

I feel like just redesigning the visors and moving the holes to the correct spot would look good

Especially for the price of some of these sets, we definitely deserve to be getting actual quality minifigs.

I still can't believe they've fallen this far :/ great video.

I appreciate your open-minded view on these different controversial LEGO topics. It’s very educational and has served as inspiration for some of my videos. Thanks for your insight!

2:25 Is the antenna on the leftmost clone trooper fixed in the wrong place?

I like adding visors to lots of clones and other attachments and I prefer the holes so I can add accessories to any clones

remove the unsightly shadow printing on the cheeks, sort the unsightly helmet holes out and fix the poorly printed markings. Give us fabric kamas again. If clones need dual moulded legs, give them dual moulded legs.

Just thinking out loud, but could one solution to helmet holes be that lego included small little white plastic plugs that simply pop into the holes to cover them up? Pull em out of you need to put a range finder on for exampme.

Best summary and opinion on the clone trooper issue so far on KZfaq that I have seen.

Great video👍🏻 im from Denmark and have never seen the danish sign for “Only the best is good enough” - but a real translation would be “The-best-is-not-too-good” Hope this helps😅

Lego is the biggest toy company on the planet and their sets are extremely fucking expensive (even more nowadays) - and because of this there is absolutely nothing wrong with demanding premium quality for the premium^2 price they are demanding.

I like the holes, I can make my own clones of each class in each color

The problem for me is LEGO set a standard of quality for Clone Troopers in the 2010s. The last cloth kama included with a Clone was in 2020 with the 212th Airborne Trooper; afterwards, that standard LEGO set for themselves dropped unceremoniously when the cloth was stripped away and the kama printed on. If I wasn't already familiar with Star Wars, I wouldn't be able to tell what the two vertical lines printed on the Clones' legs were supposed to be. I asked a friend recently if he could tell, and then showed him a Clone with the cloth kama for comparison, and he was shocked at the difference!

Great job summarizing this issue! Hopefully Lego will improve on the product. I am happy that we are getting so many variations of clones, but I think everyone would be even more happy if these issues were taken care of. A few minor fixes and things would be just about perfect! As much as it may not be enjoyable, Lego should receive the feedback from the community and act on it, whether they like the delivery of the feedback or not. It can definitely be harsh at times, but I think their lack of communication around this makes things worse. Any brand that really listens to fans and addresses their frustration/betters their products ends up doing much more business in the long run.

Most of the people who make a sound on the helmet hole are those resellers who intend to sell old minifigures. I think a Battlepack like this is more worth the money than buying old minifigures from a reseller.

I really like the way you addressed this issue so many fans are whining and slating Lego and it comes across as so entitled, smug and immature however you have calmly explained the issue and have changed my mind on the issue.

Awesome explanation, thanks for that.

That's the gist, although you did miss the part about colored arms on 501st and other Legion minifigs. Great vid.

Honestly considering the clone wars drought we were in for such a long time with the sequel trilogy sets I'm happy to finally get some decent customization options with the new stuff

My take on this issue is that LEGO is a high-end quality toy manufacturer. The prices have always been high, and they always will be. With recent price hikes which have left fans feeling like LEGO is more expensive than ever, (although accounting for inflation, that is only marginally true) with LEGO prioritizing budget on other factors as well as minifigures, (more new parts, sustainable packaging, their Adults Welcome Icons line…) it makes people feel like the quality is going away, whereas, LEGO is using their budget on advancing areas many fans would not have prioritized. These criticisms are valid, because as customers who pay a high price for these toys/collectables, it is understandable to be alarmed when certain aspects aren’t up to our expectations, however, despite that, I do not partake in vilifying The LEGO Group, as understanding the nuance of the situation, (such as that hardcore AFOLs and TFOLs aren’t LEGO’s key focus) is of far more interest to me in order to better find the flaws with which LEGO is more realistically suited to mend.

As a former kid. I had the brainpower to understand that I can take off the waste cape

I’m happy that they’re making clone troopers

The imperial logo on the laat too

Succinct, to the point, and a simple listing of the issues that present themselves over time. Great video, especially for non-Lego or non-Star Wars customers/fans. Another issue is that the new holes only look fine with the visor pieces as they help cover the side areas, but the rangefinder attachments are very poor. They require force to push into the holes and they cannot be moved without falling out. Even the Phase 1 troopers of recent months didn't have that problem. I feel like the issue with the kamas/waist-capes can be easily handled if Lego provided a pick-a-brick style purchase option for either online or in-store shopping. Just buy a number of cloth pieces (be it capes, waist capes, etc.) for a set price and BAM, fans and older collectors could just buy the missing pieces, Lego can make more money, and any concern dealing with younger kids is mitigated.

Wish we could get a phase 1 battle pack

Dude, I agree with almost all of these takes. I also really appreciate explaining everything in the video, which I did not quite understand previously.

yesssss more clones!!! also... more droid sets!! and lego needs to watch this video!

Lego "Only the best is good enough" It would be nice if they took that more seriously. They have been very lazy at times or cheap.

I understand why LEGO put the hole there, rather than make a new visor mold/attachments, and its so all the attachments will have compatibility across the mandalorian and clone helmets. That being said, LEGO is perfectly fine making one-off molds and new pieces all the time, so it would not be a huge stretch for them to just continue making two helmet molds, one with holes for commanders or special troopers, and one without for the rank and file clones. Between that issue, the false advertising on their boxes, and incorrect/misprinting (notably on the 212th) it gives the impression that LEGO knows they could do better, but just doesn't for whatever reason, most people assume for money.

I agree with what you said I just don't understand why people the helmet holes so much

The missing quality in stark contrast to their mission statement has often confused me, but never as much as in the last two years. I’m glad that a few different factors have come into play to reduce the amount of lego that i buy, which is a boon to my wallet

Personally the only major problem I have is the advertising for the minifig helmets. The T-visor is different on the box than whata in the box. I'm not sure why they make the visor wider in the ads qhen they aren't very big in production.

To be fair some of the clones can be inaccurate but for me I never had many clones as a kid so I’m am just super happy to see them in common now

When the AT-TE set with the 212th getting Holes in their Helmets, Now a days I don’t care about the Helmet Holes on my Phase 2 Clones.

This is the best video explaining the situation. Hopefully those people who shill for Lego and constantly defend these obvious bad design/marketing decisions can get it through there thick skull that the fans “complaining” have valid reason too and only want the figures to be the best they can be like we once had.

Great mini documentary

great video!!

BrUH I just got back into Lego after a ~10 year break, last really good set I got was the play scale star destroyer that came out in the 2010s

Now we just need the stormtrooper helmets to revert back to the better ones

I think another issue is that with the more expensive sets that are targeted to adults there is a quality drop, such as the upcoming Rex in the 650 dollar venator being completely inaccurate. There is the argument that Lego is for kids, but sets such as these are targeted to adults and they do cost a lot of money. So the inaccuracy of the clones suck even more especially since it is a legacy character such as Rex in a ver anticipated set such as the venator.

the UCS gunship was also a slap when they decided to put out a poll of who people wanted in the set and then disregarded it.

Great video, and incredibly well said. Showing my gf this one 😂

I like how you presented the issues in video. I would just move up the little things on the sides. while it would be less accurate it would at least look better

I didn't even notice

i also dont understand why these days there are only battlepacks of clones but none with battledroids, generally no seperatist sets for some reason

Bros got that Metroid Dread music in the background

I’m a clone fan, but if I hear one more person complain about helmet holes I’m drilling a hole into my head.

It’s because the designers are salty OT fans who hate the prequels😂

When it comes to the printed kamas vs the fabric ones, to me that reeks of there being no official style guide for designers to reference when designing these sets and minifigures. That, or designers are regularly rotated off certain IPs, leading to different design approaches from different creative teams (meaning that any unofficial style guides aren't carried over from project to project).

at 2:32 there is a picture of a clone using a rangefinder, but its not even in the Hole!

I like the new helmet visor prints more than to old ones which looked off in my opinion but the helmet holes just look dumb

tbh im just glad you pointed out which are storm trooper and what are clone troopers xD

Small theory, but what if the rangefinder on the officer in the battle pack was a prototype that had 2 holes. One for a visor and one for a rangefinder

This is why I replaced my Lego 2020 style helmets with good quality custom ones that have the helmet holes in the right place!

So it could be possible to file a lawsuit against Lego for false advertising, after all you don't get what are you paying for

My main issue is that they don’t really make plain standard clones anymore. An army doesn’t look as impressive when every uniform looks different. In the rare occasion I decide to buy minifigures or sets now, I would much rather just purchase older minifigures/sets off eBay rather than buying a new set. Clone wars era sets (when the tv show was airing) and earlier are the only ones that interest me now as I feel the designs just look better (though that may just be nostalgia speaking)

I agree with the issue on the helmet holes. They should have placed it where the circle part is and should have designed the new microbinoculars around that. The 'OG' commander visor is too big anyway so they should have used the opportunity to make a completely new mold to also accommodate the position. Sadly it's kind of too late as they've released so many now with it, it would hurt if they completely remade the helmet. But might be best if they did a minor change with the hole position and new attachments to fit it.. Making kamas printed is definitely a downgrade by miles... I think it's a cost cutting thing which doesn't make sense when they're making peak profits. So it's got to be 'greed' which goes against their motto with quality.

This was a very well written and delivered video but I still do not get the rabid dislike for helmet holes, or even more than minor dislike personally. I think the P2 helmets look the best they have ever looked and I am just super happy that all helmets support customization considering we get 4 visors and 4 range finders in every set that even has 1 clone with them. I can barely see the issue with my eyes and its only really evident in macro pictures of the helmets. Even in a world that had 2 or 3 separate helmets with 1 hole for a range finder right on the round bit where the range finder is supposed to go and helmets with dual holes for visors, possibly a helmet with no holes we would still have the problem of not having the right helmet when you wanted it. In this world we would have to also people complaining about how much a clone trooper costs because to have 3 different helmets when you could realistically have just 1 means a ~3x price increase of each helmet because each of them would probably require a different mold. Certainly 2 different molds, 1 for plain and range finders, and 1 for visors. I agree completely with the rest of the video especially about kamas, I really wish they'd do more sets with cloth ones, possibly redesigned if necessary.

My one complaint that I’ve had, the freaking waist capes and pauldrons, just give us cloth

I haven’t bought any clone trooper set in a while, and the decals for me are why, the 2013-2018 Decals with the AOTC/ROTS accurate printing was so good and was honestly the perfect design that shouldn’t have been changed and they made the Clone Wars animated designed mini-figs alongside a separate entity, so when they showed the 501st set with the new decals back in 2020, I was disappointed, they made this weird amalgamation of the Clone Wars animated design with live action, and imo it just doesn’t work, its weird that the clones ended up this way, because even with the new Stormtrooper helmet mold, they still did their best to make them movie accurate and didn’t make this weird Rebels Animated live-action hybrid trooper, The printed waist capes are bad, they cut corners when they didn’t need too, and what I also don’t like is lego has been doing this particular process for awhile where they make a specific number of legions for the clones and then they move on to a new artstyle, so as an example my disappointment for the 501st minifigs in 2020 is partly because we didn’t see the 501st in the 2013-2014 Decals (not counting the clone wars minifig that came with the AT-RT and Z-95 sets) I wish lego would just make a list of all the movie legions and just make sets about everyone of them before moving on to a new minifig artstyle etc.

My issue with the clones is that Lego obsesses over making remake after remake, different moulds and prints of clones - but the droids have been using the same peices since the start - even going back on using printed peices on some of the droids like the Commander Droid and Security Droid - not even mentioning the sheer ridicuolsness of the Magna Guard being made in 2 sets and selling for around £30 over here. Plus, the quality of the legs on B2s and Commando droids is abysmal, constantly snapping and requiring replacements to be bought. Oh! And also the X-20 Tactical Droid thats only been sold in 1 set, which now sells for something like £60 on the low end. Idk, seems like some attention could be diverted from all this clone stuff - because like you said its upsetting when Lego messes up things we care about

I don’t mind the holes but the visor looks different from the box art

We need to get lego to see this video

I think the helmet holes are fine, they allow more customizability! We only had that for 3rd party phase 2 troopers, and to have it on standard lego clones is a great thing

The thing is lego knows they look bad they are falsely advertising the printing on the helmets and where the helmet holes are on their box art

I also hate the new design of the printing of the phase 2 helmet as well as them using clone wars styled torsos instead of live-action styled ones

Is it just me. Or do colored arms look cooler than white arms,unless thereis printing

Im a huge lego star wars fan. Ive spent thousands on it but i feel like people are over reacting a bit. "The 332nd troopers triangle doesn't come to a point. Its complete garbage."

Lego has a problem with pauldrons too!

I think you forgot the part to mention that Lego should totally give me free clones