In this article we introduce the Target company, the 91st clone clone legion, which was a specialized clone battalion used for reconnaissance and patrolling by the Grand Army of the Republic during the Clone Wars, who wore this clone armor, what can be seen on the Target exclusive clone figure, who is the topic of today's column.
Target Corporation (simply known as Target) is an American retailing company that was founded in Minneapolis, Minnesota in 1902 as the Dayton Dry Goods Company. In 1962, the company opened its first Target store in nearby Roseville.
Target grew and eventually became the largest division of Dayton Hudson Corporation, culminating in the company changing its name to Target Corporation in 2000. As of May 2010 the company has opened stores in every state except Vermont, operating as Target or SuperTarget. Target is the second largest discount retailer in the United States, behind Walmart. The company licenses its bullseye trademark.
The bullseye is originated from the center of this archery or darts target, but also similar to the eye of the bloody eyes of an angry bull. These symbols can be seen on the plastic bags of the company, too. One of my buddies from the US has sent me some Target bags, which for a Hungarian SW fan, like us, is a great Star Wars relic, indeed.
The Target exclusive Clone Trooper figure was created especially for Target to celebrate the release of the final episode in the Star Wars saga, Revenge of the Sith. The figure was released in 2005, as the exclusive piece of the Revenge of the Sith wave. The figure got a good articulated torso, the same super-articulated body that was first seen on the Clone Wars Clone Trooper, with a new helmet, and a different paint job. The figure is not authentic however, since no 91st clone trooper had this Phase II helmet. They have a special clone helmet very similar to those of clone assassins that gave them a more sinister look. The figure has footholes, you can fix them on a basic stand in a very spectacular pose, if you want to. The figure comes with a blaster rifle and a blaster pistol, and packed in a great clamshell packaging. It has a nice backdrop, a clone trooper is running on a lava surface. While early releases were found with a Sith logo in the top corners of the case (the same as the ones from the Lava Reflection Darth Vader), the new version includes the Neyo logo to match the symbol on the armor. The UK version of this figure was available at Toys "R" Us stores. The card has stickers over the Target symbol on the front and the description on the back, and did not include a clamshell. When the figure has been released first, it was expensive, so I decided to handmake it for myself. Some Hungarian vendors sold these figures around 6000-7000 HUF, but recently the figure is available around 3500, which is the price of a basic figure. In the US, its price is approx 13 USD recently.
The red sign on the helmet, the chest armor, and on the right arm is the identifying mark of the
91st clone legion. It is a small red circle with a white sword pointing upside down running across them. Many Australian Star Wars fans however have nicknamed the 91st Reconnaissance Corps clones as the "Australia Post troopers" due to the strong similarity between the design and color of their armor markings and the logo of the national postal service of Australia (where Revenge of the Sith was filmed). It is possible indeed, that this postal logo was changed a bit, and was applied as the identifier of the 91st.
The 91st Reconnaissance Corps were part of the multi-division task force of the Grand Army of the Republic during the Clone Wars mostly used for reconnaissance and patrolling, also to defend captured locations. Their clone marshal commander was CC 8826. This gentleman is better known by the fans as Commander Neyo. Neyo was a graduate of ARC trooper Alpha-17's elite clone commander training program on the water world of Kamino. Soon he got higher on the rank, because of his exceptional talents and leading abilities. Given the rank of clone marshal commander, Neyo and the 91st served in the five-month long siege of the Separatist planet Saleucami. Led by Jedi General Oppo Rancisis, later by Stass Allie on Saleucami they had to scout the Outer Rim planets, especially Saleucami. After the Republic finally captured Saleucami, Neyo and his Reconnaissance Corps - under the command of Jedi General Stass Allie - remained planetside after the main Republic forces left, tasked with destroying the last pockets of Separatist resistance. The mission was still dangerous, so to protect their commander, 91st's lieutenants wore, like Neyo, the same specialized helmet very similar to their leader, to give them a more similar look. Even the shoulder armor plate and the chest band looked like Neyo's, so it was not easy to aim for Neyo, since all of his men looked like himself.
While
patrolling Saleucami's swamps and plains with General Allie and trooper CT-3423 on speeder bikes, Neyo received the call from Supreme Chancellor Palpatine to execute Order 66, a Republic contingency directive that mandated the destruction of the Jedi Order. Although Stass Allie was their comrade, their friend, and a true person ten minutes ago, they believed that the Jedi became an enemy of the state, and has to be killed. Following Palpatine's orders to the letter, Neyo motioned for CT-3423 and himself to fall behind Allie's speeder bike. With their former commanding officer directly in front of them, Neyo and his wingman opened fire on Allie with their speeder bikes' laser cannons, detonating its reactor and sending Allie's speeder spinning and crashing into the ground, killing Stass Allie in the resulting explosion, finally falling into the swamp. Any of these three would be enough to kill Allie, so after being detonated, being hit to the ground, and sunk in the swamp, she had no chance to survive the attack.
Well before the release of the
Target exclusive clone I decided to make a custom clone figure from Neyo's squad for me, based on a reference photo, and a picture of the Star Wars encyclopaedia. We noticed the difference between the helmet designs, but since Hasbro released its figure in a Phase 2 helmet, I also had to leave its original head on the torso. We made my clone to look like the original Target exclusive clone, so we used an original ep3 clone torso. In the meantime this figure was officially released, and a really good set was also released in which Neyo and CT 3423 are sitting on their speeder bikes, but when we hand made my figure, there was NO other 91st clones available, so my custom figure was on my shelf before the original release.
Custom
target exclusive clone figure front
Custom
target exclusive clone figure
Custom
target exclusive clone figure close up
Thanks for your attention, come back soon, there are and will be some more other interesting things here, waiting for you!
written and translated by: Norbert Rostas 2011. 01. 18.
