A-77 Captain Fordo (Alpha-class ARC Trooper) Phase I Armor

Alpha-77, known as ARC-77 and more commonly known as Fordo, was an Alpha-class ARC trooper captain in the Grand Army of the Republic who led his squad, later known as the "Muunilinst 10", into combat at the Battle of Muunilinst during the Clone Wars. Although he was an excellent tactician, Fordo preferred solving problems through heavy weapon use, as opposed to complex tactics. Fordo and his squad were instrumental in the attack on Muunilinst, infiltrating the city and disabling a massive artillery cannon, even after their LAAT/i was shot down. As the bulk of the Republic forces took advantage of this to breach the city, he aided Jedi General Obi-Wan Kenobi in a surgical strike on the enemy headquarters, leading to the capture and surrender of key members of the InterGalactic Banking Clan leadership, including Chairman San Hill. Shortly thereafter, Fordo helped defeat the formidable bounty hunter Durge, despite being injured in the fight. In response to a distress signal received from Jedi Master Daakman Barrek after the end of the Battle of Muunilinst, Kenobi sent Captain Fordo and a unit of ARC troopers to Hypori to rescue a doomed Jedi task force on the planet from the clutches of the dreaded Supreme Commander of the Droid Armies, General Grievous. Despite taking casualties, he and his men held their ground and succeeded in driving the fearsome droid commander away with a hail of heavy weapon fire. Their efforts undoubtedly saved the lives of three of the four surviving Jedi - Ki-Adi-Mundi, Aayla Secura, and Shaak Ti - while the fourth, K'Kruhk, was left for dead, although he survived his serious wounds through a healing trance.

Parts: Head (Captain Fordo), Torso (Captain Fordo), Arms (Captain Fordo), Legs (Captain Fordo), Blaster Pistols (custom-made), Kama (Captain Fordo).

Supplies: X-acto knife, brushes, Testors paints and Testors Dull-Cote.

Reference: This figure depicts Captain Fordo as he appeared at the Battle of Muunilinst, during the first season of the Clone Wars animated microseries.

This was more of an improvement of the existing figure than a true custom. Overall, I was pretty happy with the Captain Fordo figure. He got a new paint job using a brighter red, and some of the details that were missed at the factory got painted (such as the webbing for his holsters, buckles on the kama straps, etc). He also got a new pair of pistols. Although the original ones were probably more accurate for the realistic sculpt, I really liked the longer barreled pistols he was seen twirling (something he seems to have inherited from Jango) in the Clone Wars animated microseries. The new pistols were made by cutting the stock and part of the receiver group from a standard DC-17 rifle. The barrel and pistol grip assembly were super glued together and the barrels were hollowed out with the Dremel. A light coat of Testors Dull-Cote was applied to seal the paint and reduce the shine.