Sandtrooper Sergeant/Crimson Stormtrooper/Lieutenant Oxixo/R2-Q5 - TBS [P3] - Six Inch Figures (Exclusive)

Sandtrooper Sergeant: Imperial sandtroopers carry out the will of the Emperor in the harsh, arid environments of the galaxy's desert worlds.

Crimson Stormtrooper: Specially trained for operations in the extreme termperatures of volcanic areas, these crimson-clad Stormtroopers stay cool in the heat of battle.

Lieutenant Oxixo: Lt. Oxixo piloted one of the four TIE Fighters shot down while pursuing the Millennium Falcon during its escape from the Death Star before the Battle of Yavin.

R2-Q5: Entrusted with the secrets of the Emperor himself, this Imperial R2 unit once thwarted a plot to turn every droid aboard the second Death Star against the Empire.

It seems that there has been a lack of vision prevailing upon the modern Star Wars line. It’s been so strong that it now appears to effect how things are named. Of course our jibe is meant to be humorous, but what is up with all the untitled exclusive multipacks lately? No longer using descriptive or even quirkily themed titles, multipacks are now described by the characters that make them up. Weird, isn’t it? Thankfully, Entertainment Earth steps up to the plate and has worked with Hasbro to cobble together a motley crew of loosely related Imperial characters to make up what they’re calling an “Imperial Forces” four-pack of goodness from the 6” The Black Series [Phase III] line. In short, the multipack works and brings exclusive specific characters in addition to some long-awaited army builders. As you know, most exclusives now contain little to any new content at all. But with a little bit of vision and clever execution, Hasbro has the ability to make “old” stuff “new” again with brilliant paint operations and maybe not going with the next most natural instinct. Enter the Sandtrooper Sergeant/Crimson Stormtrooper/Lieutenant Oxixo/R2-Q5 Entertainment Earth exclusive. This four-pack brings collectors of The Black Series [Phase III] line four never produced to date characters, one of which has never been brought to the Hasbro line in any way at all (the Crimson Stormtrooper). Some may find some of this set’s contents passable, but since none of the characters have been made available until now, we don’t know what action figures are going to be that easy to dismiss.... unless you just don’t like them. With the addition of only the second astromech droid produced for The Black Series 6” range to date, this set is refreshing and exciting and brings newness to a line that seems to go stale so easily.

The standout figure of the set is the Crimson Stormtrooper. Admittedly, he looks like a chunk of red-dyed white chocolate that you see around Christmastime, but if you know the history of this figure, then it has great meaning and nostalgia for longtime collectors. Their history dates back to 1995 when Star Wars Galaxy Magazine released a roleplaying supplement which featured a sketch of the famous Marvel Comics’ character Lumiya with a backdrop of Crimson Stormtroopers behind her. This was the first appearance of the Crimson Stormtrooper. Later on they were also referred to as Magma Stormtroopers. They’ve been described as stormtroopers that were a specialized division and responsible for crushing revolts and other actions on volcanic mining planets such as Mustafar And Sullust. The armor was able to withstand extremely high temperatures, including some direct contact with volcanic magma. Additionally, Magma troopers were also equipped with SS-Mobile-tech flamethrowers. We’re not so sure that this Crimson Stormtrooper is meant to reflect a Magma Trooper, but it is still cool nonetheless. Based on 2013’s TBS [P1] Stormtrooper (#09) figure, it has now been cast in a fluorescent red color to mimic the characters we saw in the Lumiya sketch. It’s amazing that they’ve garnered enough popularity from this drawing to warrant an action figure from The Black Series line, exclusive or not. We believe the only other time this character was attempted in collectible format was as a Gentle Giant Ltd. statue. Admittedly, it’s a neat type of Stormtrooper. Now we want one in 3.75” scale.

Perhaps you may find him redundant, but we finally finish off the Sandtrooper family with the Sandtrooper Sergeant. This also means that we received one Sandtrooper figure in each of The Black Series’ three phases thus far. That’s pretty impressive spacing for a repainted figure. Looking a whole lot like 2013’s TBS [P1] Sandtrooper (#03) and 2014’s TBS [P2] Sandtrooper (#01), the Sandtrooper Sergeant wears a white pauldron to differentiate himself from the rest. The paint operations on the rest of the figure don’t differ all that much from previous versions, but we have to say that important details, like the line encircling the top of his visor, have been applied rather sloppily. He is loaded with accessories and is well outfitted for various desert missions. The other figure from Star Wars Episode IV: A New Hope is Lieutenant Oxixo. (You have to love his palindrome name!) Always believed to be from deleted scenes from the Battle of Yavin, Lieutenant Oxixo can clearly be seen piloting a TIE fighter as the Millennium Falcon makes its escape from the Death Star after Han Solo and Luke Skywalker rescue Princess Leia Organa from certain death. Originally offered by Hasbro in the awesome and currently elusive 2011 SW [SOTDS] Battle Over Endor (1 of 2) Toys R Us exclusive (in the 3.75” scaled line), he is now available in 6” scale. Sadly, Hasbro messed up his paint operations in the most important place possible: his helmet. If you look at stills from A New Hope, you can almost read “O-X-I-X-O” on the helmet (whether it is English or Aurebesh we don’t know). What we DO KNOW is that his helmet DOES NOT read “00000” like this figure’s helmet does. Even the 3.75” version of Lt/ Oxixo does a better job at trying to mimic what is really portrayed on his helmet. Needless to say, it’s a bit of a disappointment.

R2-Q5 is a bittersweet figure in this set. Don’t get us wrong. We’re thrilled to see Hasbro make another astromech droid in The Black Series line. The issue is that the figure isn’t properly scaled. What makes this a little bit more forgivable however is that the paint operations have been executed beautifully. Last offered as a 3.75” basic figure as 2001’s POTF R2-Q5 (Imperial Astromech Droid) (not including the RC version), R2-Q5 comes in approximate 6” scale without the cool Death Star II hologram thingy and without any of the utility tools that came with 2013’s TBS [P1] R2-D2 (#04) figure. Interestingly, Hasbro opted to not glue down the three removable dome panels which we suppose gives you more play value, but also more stress about losing one or all of these three tiny pieces. We’re actually surprised that they didn’t take the time to adhere them to R2-Q5. We have to face the fact that R2-Q5 looks great. And we’re certainly fonder of this R2-series astroemch droid after seeing it clearly in the deleted scenes from Star Wars Episode VI: Return Of The Jedi. The black plastic is gorgeous and shiny. And the paint operations for the most part are relatively clean. We don’t think there is much room to complain about this figure, save for the issue that isn’t going to go away anytime soon: its too small stature. When all is said and done, the Sandtrooper Sergeant/Crimson Stormtrooper/Lieutenant Oxixo/R2-Q5 Entertainment Earth exclusive is quite an exhilarating Star Wars exclusive in recent memory. The “troop building” sets are always wonderful, but we find it much more pleasurable to receive specific characters from the Star Wars universe, even though this set has a couple of generic ones. We hope that Hasbro keeps these types of multipacks in the mix for the foreseeable future.

This sample has been provided to us by Entertainment Earth.