STORMTROOPER

STAR WARS: REBELS

While Star Wars toys expand to the new exciting world of the 6 inch scale with Star Wars: The Black Series, the main 3 ¾ inch scale line of figures seem to be returning to their roots, more or less. Slightly simpler sculpts, less articulation, and just a general retro feel. What’s interesting is that this approach is actually being used on the more current material, specifically the characters from Star Wars: Rebels, the current SW cartoon. Hasbro’s offering several of the show’s regular characters, as well as a few Star Wars mainstays who have also appeared. So far, the only figure I’ve picked up is the basic Stormtrooper. Let’s see how he turned out!

THE FIGURE ITSELF

The Stormtrooper was released in the Star Wars: Rebels line two different ways: by himself, or packed with Garazeb Zeb Orrelios, one of the show’s original characters. Since I haven’t yet seen the show, I went for the solo version of the trooper. The Stormtrooper is about 3 ¾ inches tall, with 5, count ‘em 5, points of articulation. Given the limited articulation, the figure is really only good for one position. In this case, it’s just a basic standing pose. It’s very reminiscent of the vintage Star Wars figures in that respect. The Stormtrooper is based on his design from Star Wars: Rebels, which is, of course, just a slightly tweaked version of the traditional Stormtrooper. Most of the changes are on the helmet, which has been made a little more elongated and streamlined. In addition, the figure has a lankier animation-styled body. It’s a nice twist on a well-established design. The sculpt itself isn’t bad. It’s certainly simpler than a lot of figures, but the details are all properly placed and all the detail lines are nice and fairly sharp. The figure’s paintwork is kind of basic, though it does have some work I wasn’t expecting. The helmet gets the best detailing, with a whole three colors and some actual detail work beyond basic color placement. Everything there is clean and even, and the details are sharp, so that’s good. The rest of the body’s alright, but far from perfect. The legs have some really uneven coverage at the hips, and the arms have the same issue at the shoulders. Speaking of shoulders, the shoulders on the torso miss out on the proper black paint entirely; they just got left white. Given that the sculpt pretty clearly differentiates between the armor and the body, it’s pretty noticeable. The neck has paint on it, so it’s not like the torso just didn’t get paint. The Stormtrooper includes a standard blaster rifle. Since the figure’s limited to just a straight standing pose, the blaster has to be held in either one hand or the other (though, according to Super Awesome Girlfriend, the left hand is “wrong.” She’s such a handist.)

THE ME HALF OF THE EQUATION

I can’t really say why, but the Rebels Stormtrooper has just called to me ever since it was released. Of course, I was only able to find it in the two-pack with Garazeb, who I didn’t really feel the need to own, so I just put off buying the trooper. While stopping at a Toys R Us with Super Awesome Girlfriend (on the same trip where I found Gypsy and Romeo Blue) I saw that they had one individual Stormtrooper left. I decided against getting it, seeing as I was already buying two other figures. However, Super Awesome Girlfriend, being the horrible influence that she is, decided that I should have the figure anyway and bought it for me. This figure certainly isn’t on the same level as something like the Black Series version, but he just really resonates with me. I think it’s at least partly connected with the fact that the vintage Stormtrooper was the only version I owned growing up, and this figure definitely hits a lot of the same points. In many ways, this feels like a straight update on that figure. And I’m really okay with that.