IMPERIAL DEATH TROOPER

STAR WARS: RETRO COLLECTION (HASBRO)

“Elite soldiers, death troopers are encased in specialized stormtrooper armor with a dark, ominous gleam. They serve as bodyguards and enforcers for figureheads like Moff Gideon”

Introduced in Rogue One as Director Krennic’s personal elite squad, the Imperial Death Troopers wound up repurposed a couple of times, first as Thrawn’s guards, and once more, in a post-Original Trilogy set as the forces of The Mandalorian‘s big bad Moff Gideon, at least until he got his own specially-tailored set of troops in the form of the Dark Troopers.  With an increased visibility from a handful of additional live-action appearances, they’re also getting more toy coverage, including in the form of a retro-style figure, which I’ll be taking a look at today.

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Imperial Death Trooper is part of the six-figure second Mando-themed series of Star Wars: Retro Collection.  The figure stands just over 3 3/4 inches tall and he has 4 points of articulation.  Like the vintage Stormtroopers, the Death Trooper lacks a neck joint.  It’s not great from a posing standpoint, but it’s great from an accuracy standpoint, since that’s how they would have done in the early days, especially if you go by the Death Trooper being from a pre-ANH spot in the timeline, and, thereby being an easy re-pack for The Mandalorian, much like the Stormtrooper figures were during both ESB and ROTJ.  Very meta.  In that sense, the figure’s sculpt is a little more rudimentary than some of the others in the set.  It’s quite stiff and a bit more geometric, which all feels very appropriate for the style.  The figure’s paint is pretty simple.  He’s largely just molded in black, but with some green for the helmet, and silver on the belt.  Again, it follows the style, mimicking how Vader’s paint was handled by Kenner.  The Death Trooper was packed with his own unique blaster rifle.  He can only hold it one-handed, of course, but it’s at least a good piece.

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

The Death Trooper isn’t really an essential part of any collection for me, and was probably the lowest on the list for this particular set of figures.  That said, I was already picking up the rest of the set, and didn’t see much point passing on just the one.  He’s still not my favorite, or anything, but I do quite like him.  I dig them really tying him into the vintage Stormtrooper stylings.  And, he gives me hope that we might also see some Shoretroopers in this style at some point, which would make me quite happy.

Thanks to my sponsors at All Time Toys for setting me up with this figure for review.  If you’re looking for toys both old and new, please check out their website.